Hate crimes targeting Muslims in US up by 67 percent in 2015, says FBI report

Anti-Muslim hate crimes have increased in 2015 by 67 percent, the highest level since the aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, according to the statistics released by the FBI on Monday.

The Hate Crime Statistics report has revealed that there were 257 reported incidents of crimes directed specifically against Muslims in 2015 compared with 154 incidents in 2014.

"That is the highest number since 2001, when the al Qaeda attacks on New York and elsewhere drove the number to its highest ever level, 481 hate crimes," Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) told CNN.

There was also a rise in hate crimes against other minorities, according to the report. Hate crimes against Jews increased by nine percent while those against blacks rose up by almost eight percent. Hate crimes against Latinos remained the same but there was almost a five percent increase in hate crimes targeting members of the LGBT community.

The report came just after the U.S. presidential election which fueled the racial and religious tensions in the country. President-elect Donald Trump has been accused of inciting Islamophobia and xenophobia during the campaign period.

In his interview with Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes," Trump told his supporters to stop committing violence against minorities.

"I am so saddened to hear that," the president-elect said when Stahl mentioned that minorities are being harassed.

"And I say, 'Stop it.' If it—if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: 'Stop it,'" he urged.

According to a report from USA Today, the SPLC has recorded more than 200 complaints of hate crimes since the election. SPLC president Richard Cohen says that it is much higher than the usual number of complaints the organization receives each day.

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fears that hate crimes against Muslims will get worse under Trump's administration.

"We witnessed a spark in the number of hate crimes against Muslims in late 2015, and this number increased further during Donald Trump's election campaign. We expect the situation to get worse in the future, based on the fact that Donald Trump had mainstreamed Islamophobia," Hooper told Al Jazeera.