Tuesday's UN resolution, blanketly condemning religion-based violence, lumped anti-Semitism together with “Islamophobia and Christianophobia.” A report released by the FBI just one day earlier, though, illustrates the fact thatJews and Jewish institutions are the most-favored targets for hate crimes in the United States.
The FBI’s Hate Crimes Statistics 2003 report, released on Monday, documents 927 anti-Jewish crimes last year - more than 12% of the total hate crimes reported in the United States that year.
The Anti-Defamation League, in a statement, emphasized that though there is a perception that Muslims have been overwhelmingly victimized since the 9/11 attacks, Jews have in fact borne the brunt of religious violence. “There’s a feeling that there’s a lot of Islamophobia out there,” said Abe Foxman, Director of the ADL. “While [this is true], anti-Jewish hate crimes predominate.”
The report outlined more than 1,300 religion-based hate incidents in 2003, with anti-Muslim incidents comprising only 149 of those. The stats clearly show that Jews are the most frequently targeted group in America.
“In the total number of crimes under the religion category, the anti-Jewish crimes are higher than all the others - and have been each year,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The FBI has been documenting hate crimes since 1990 under the mandate of the congressional Hate Crimes Statistics Act. A total of 11,909 U.S. law enforcement agencies contributed data to the 2003 survey, though more than 5,000 U.S. police departments did not participate at all, including some in large cities. This leads the ADL to suggest that the statistics do not represent a complete picture. "The report is really only a picture of those who cared enough, bothered enough, to report,” said Foxman.
Minister Natan Sharansky criticized the U.N. resolution, accusing the organization of downplaying the sharp rise in attacks targeting Jews worldwide. "In order for the U.N. to discuss the blazing global hatred [of anti-Semitism]," he said, "it needed to group it with broad generalizations and condemnations of Islamophobia and hatred of Christians."
The FBI’s Hate Crimes Statistics 2003 report, released on Monday, documents 927 anti-Jewish crimes last year - more than 12% of the total hate crimes reported in the United States that year.
The Anti-Defamation League, in a statement, emphasized that though there is a perception that Muslims have been overwhelmingly victimized since the 9/11 attacks, Jews have in fact borne the brunt of religious violence. “There’s a feeling that there’s a lot of Islamophobia out there,” said Abe Foxman, Director of the ADL. “While [this is true], anti-Jewish hate crimes predominate.”
The report outlined more than 1,300 religion-based hate incidents in 2003, with anti-Muslim incidents comprising only 149 of those. The stats clearly show that Jews are the most frequently targeted group in America.
“In the total number of crimes under the religion category, the anti-Jewish crimes are higher than all the others - and have been each year,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The FBI has been documenting hate crimes since 1990 under the mandate of the congressional Hate Crimes Statistics Act. A total of 11,909 U.S. law enforcement agencies contributed data to the 2003 survey, though more than 5,000 U.S. police departments did not participate at all, including some in large cities. This leads the ADL to suggest that the statistics do not represent a complete picture. "The report is really only a picture of those who cared enough, bothered enough, to report,” said Foxman.
Minister Natan Sharansky criticized the U.N. resolution, accusing the organization of downplaying the sharp rise in attacks targeting Jews worldwide. "In order for the U.N. to discuss the blazing global hatred [of anti-Semitism]," he said, "it needed to group it with broad generalizations and condemnations of Islamophobia and hatred of Christians."