The Federal Bureau of Investigation today issued statistics for Crime in the United States 2004. One section deals with hate crimes concerning religion and the breakdown looks like this:
Bias motivation Incidents Offenses Victims Known offenders Anti-Jewish 954 1,003 1,076 330 Anti-Catholic 57 57 68 37 Anti-Protestant 38 43 48 28 Anti-Islamic 156 193 201 124 Anti-Other Religion 128 140 147 68 Anti-Multiple Religions, Group 35 37 39 14 Anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc. 6 7 7 3 Total religion: 1,374 1,480 1,586 604
Looking at the "incidents" category and pulling out my calculator, it turns out that 69 percent of the hate crimes are directed against Jews, 11 percent against Muslims, and 7 percent against Christians.
Comments: (1) Assuming there are twice as many Jews as Muslims in the United States, there are three times per-capita more hate crimes versus Jews than versus Muslims. (2) For all the high-profile Islamist acts of aggression, antisemitism remains a deeper and more powerful source of hostility than anti-Islamic sentiments. (October 17, 2005)
