Hawzah News Agency-The issue of hate crimes, particularly against Muslims, is getting increased attention due to the presidential campaign between Republican President-elect Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In December 2015, Trump called for temporarily banning Muslims from entering the U.S. due to concerns about terrorism after a shooting in San Bernardino, California, of 14 people by two Muslim terrorists. During the course of the campaign, there have been reports of bullying and harassment of Muslims from around the country.

The FBI statistics are from 2015, before the campaign heated up. They indicate that hate crimes against Muslims did increase in 2015.

According to the statistics, law enforcement reported 1,354 hate crimes motivated by religious bias. Of those, 22.2 percent, or 257 incidents, were anti-Islamic. That is an increase from 154 incidents, or 16.1 percent of total incidents, in 2014.

Asked why he thinks there was such a large increase in anti-Muslim crime, an expert said, "Part of it is a whole atmosphere within the country. We've seen increasingly a mainstreaming of hate speech, and people feeling more and more empowered to publicly speak out on their hatred toward particular groups and religions. And some people are acting out on it."

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