Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Down in California, Report Finds

Yesterday, the California Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released its annual hate crime report, “The Status of Muslim Civil Rights, California 2009.” Despite the name, the report actually deals with incidents from the previous year, which are as follows:

*A total of 480 hate crime incidents were reported statewide, which is a 13 percent decrease from 2007, when 553 reports were received.

*California and a handful of other states, as well as Washington DC, were responsible for 79 percent of the 2,728 hate crime reports received nationwide, a number that shows an overall  increase in hate crime incidents nationwide.

Here in Orange County, CAIR documented a total of 16 hate crime attacks or incidents in 2008, says Munira Syeda, CAIR-Southern California's communications manager, who added that the Orange County Human Relations Commission documented another five hate crimes. Syeda provided details on the two most serious incidents.

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A phone call was made to the office of Irvine resident, attorney and
Muslim convert Todd Gallinger who was running for Irvine City Council.
The perpetrator had read a newspaper article that day which labeled
Gallinger a “born again Muslim” and said “Todd should have his head cut
off like all the other Muslims.”

The other incident involved a
Buena Park man who was dropping off his wife at work when a n impatient
driver behind him yelled “Fucking Arabs!” The perpetrator then got out
of his car, called the victim an “Arab cunt, piece of shit, terrorist,”
demanded he exit his vehicle and  when he did so, he knocked him
unconscious.

You can read the entire report here.