Both the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the New York–based international Jewish non-governmental organization and advocacy group, and the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the U.S.’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, have pointed to alarming increases in hate crimes in recent years.
The ADA recently reported that anti-semitic incidents in the past 10 years have grown exponentially from about 750 in 2013 to almost 9000 in 2023. CAIR reported that over the past decade, anti-Muslim incidents have increased three-foid, from about 2500 in 2013 to 7500 in 2023.
The recent events in the Middle East have stoked a cauldron of hate in the United States that always was there, but which for the most part bubbled beneath the surface. Today however, that cauldron has reached the boiling point, leaving American Jews and Muslims fearful of displaying their identity in public, lest some hate-monger with evil intent be in the vicinity.
We would note that the vast majority of the recent spike in hate crimes is not being committed byJewish or Muslim Americans, but rather by white Americans, who are using the Middle East as a convenient pretext for their malevolent acts.
It is at times such as these that we think back to the simple, but profound, words of Rodney King after the white police officers who savagely beat him were found not guilty at their criminal trial and Los Angeles erupted in massive riots:
“I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?” King implored. “Can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids?”
