London - The US has witnessed more than 700 incidents of hateful harassment since Donald Trump’s election amid fears that anti-Muslim hate crimes are reaching post-9/11 levels.
There have reportedly been at least 701 examples of hate crime, including one woman being told: “I’ll spit on you, you dirty bitch. I can smell the Africa on you”, since 9 November. Meanwhile, there were 257 anti-Islamic-motivated crimes reported in 2015, compared to 296 in 2001, according to FBI data.
“We’ve seen how words from public figures like Donald Trump translate into violence,” said terrorism expert Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC). The SPLC, which is tracking and collating these hate crime reports, claims 65 percent of the 701 incidents were recorded in the three days following Trump’s triumph.
Nearly 40 percent of all incidents allegedly occurred in educational settings including junior schools.
The reports include 206 of an anti-immigrant nature, 151 anti-black, 80 anti-LGBT, 60 swastika vandalisms, 51 anti-Muslim and 36 anti-women. Since its last count, on Friday last week, it had collected 27 “anti-Trump” incidents. Examples include a child, of Asian-Hispanic heritage, being told by “some white kids” that he will soon be getting a “ticket off the US”.
Another, in Boston, wrote: “As I walked home tonight a man on the street decided he didn’t like my face. ‘You think that’s funny, dirty bitch? I’ll spit on you, you dirty bitch. I can smell the Africa on you’.”
The latest FBI data shows there were 3 310 incidents of crimes motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry, in 2015.
Similarly, there were 1 244 incidents motivated by religion, 1 053 by sexual orientation, 74 by disability, 23 by gender and 114 by gender identity.
The Independent