Muslim-American community advocates recorded a surge in reports of Islamophobic incidents this year amid what some say is the government’s sanctioning of xenophobia directed at their community. Despite this uptick in bigotry, there’s been an unprecedented number of Muslim Americans running for office in the upcoming mid-term elections—a sign, some say, of a so-called blue wave.
Self-reported instances among Muslim Americans of experiencing bias skyrocketed by 83 percent from the first to the second quarter of the year, according to a reportreleased late last week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national advocacy group. Hate crimes were up 21 percent. The organization received a total 431 reports of incidents involving an identifiable anti-Muslim bias from April to June; in the first three months of the year, there were 235 such reports…..