Federal officials sound alarm on anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hate crimes

Federal security agencies are sounding the alarm about alleged hate crimes targeting Muslim Americans and communities perceived to be Muslim, according to a new report obtained by ABC News.

The new joint intelligence bulletin (JIB) – published a week after the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel that precipitated the ongoing Israel-Hamas war – notes that "these communities are more likely to be attacked during periods of heightened sociopolitical tensions and increased anti-immigrant sentiment," and are "more likely when perceived as retribution after acts of international terrorism in the United States and abroad."

The report from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center, comes nearly a year to the day after the Oct. 14, 2023 murder of Wadea Al-Fayoume. The 6-year-old Palestinian boy was fatally stabbed in Plainfield Township, Illinois, in an alleged hate crime linked to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. His 71-year-old landlord, Joseph Czuba, has been criminally charged for allegedly stabbing Wadea 26 times, and his mother a dozen times. Czuba has pleaded not guilty.

Czuba allegedly yelled “you Muslims must die!” during the attack, according to the JIB.

The JIB also cites a woman's alleged attempt last month in Texas to drown a 3-year-old Palestinian American child at a community pool, a middle school teacher in Georgia allegedly threatening last December to slit a seventh-grade Muslim student’s throat, and the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in November 2023 while they were walking in Vermont, leaving one paralyzed from the waist down.

Amid ongoing news and debate concerning the Israel-Hamas war, the Jewish community has also seen a rise in hate crimes, as well as other bias incidents, according to reports.

A recent Anti-Defamation League analysis of FBI data found that reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crime incidents increased 63% in 2023 to 1,832, compared to the year before – the highest number ever recorded by the FBI since it began collecting data on such incidents in 1991.

"Bias incidents surged after the 7 October HAMAS attack on Israel and have since decreased to levels consistent with reporting prior to the conflict, a trend previously observed with other international conflicts or events," the JIB further noted.