The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Islamic civil liberties group in the US, released a report on Wednesday detailing a sharp increase in law enforcement discrimination against American Muslims in 2004.

The report, called “Unequal Protection,” compiled and tabulated complaints by year, type of offense, and place of occurrence. In addition to the statistical evidence, the report discusses the role of former Attorney General John Ashcroft after the 9/11 attacks in enforcing the Patriot Act, especially the mass round-ups of Muslim and Arab men.

CAIR tracks Muslim civil rights violations in its 31 regional offices nationwide and in Canada. The group released the report in a news conference at the National Press Club.

CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar, who authored the report, said, “By far the greatest increase over last year, in both real and proportional terms, occurred in the areas of unreasonable arrests, detentions, searches/seizures, and interrogations. In 2003, complaints concerning law enforcement agencies accounted for only seven percent of all reported incidents. In 2004, however, these reports rose to almost 26 percent of all cases.”

Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director of CAIR, explained the reason for this change as probably due to the increase of “Islamophobia,” as he called it. The latter is encouraged by the growing use of anti-Muslim rhetoric by some “local and national opinion leaders,” and unwise federal legislation and policy which infringe on civil rights and continue to be passed.

“We call on President Bush, whose statements after the 9/11 attacks were so important in helping to protect the well-being of the American Muslim community, to once again speak out against Islamophobic attitudes,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad, who called on Congress to hold hearings on the findings of CAIR's report.

The main conclusions of the report were that in 2004 the reported cases to CAIR of harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment increased nearly 50% from 2003 to1,522 incidents. Also disturbing was the finding that incidents of anti-Muslim physical violence had grown by 52%, from 93 in 2003 to 141 in 2004. Why the big spike of 1,522 cases?

Also, why don’t the results agree with a recent FBI report? These questions were raised at the news conference. Hooper explained that it was like comparing apples and oranges. The FBI report was limited to hate crimes whereas CAIR’s includes a wide assortment of classes of crimes such as Arab men and women being subjected to harassment, or having a license to build a mosque in Atlanta rejected because of the fear of terrorism. Hooper also noted that increases in the number of reports at the local Muslim community level are more likely to be reported to CAIR due to their new regional offices.

The report describes the “dragnets” conducted by the Justice Department two months after 9/11 where at least 1,200 men from predominantly Muslim and Arab countries were detained for long periods by law enforcement officials without charge, denied access to bond release and sometimes legal counsel, and placed in harsh conditions of confinement. The report also mentioned the ‘voluntary’ interviews conducted by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies following 9/11 and again in March 2002 under the direction of the Justice Department. The agencies forced thousands of Muslim and Arab young men who were “lawfully residing in the US” to submit to questioning during these times.

Even more intimidating was the institution of the National Security Entry Exit Registration System (SNEERS) which requires all male nationals (over 14 years of age) to register with the government and submit to fingerprinting. The countries on the special registration bulletins are all Muslin or Arab, with the exception of North Korea. Many of those who registered were afterwards arrested and/or placed into deportation hearings. Of the deportations, “not a single one of the individuals was ever charged with a terrorism crime,” according to the report.

The report also described incidents occurring on a local level. On April 6, 2004, a Muslim woman working in Maryland was fired for wearing hijab, the clothing that Muslim women wear in public. In another incident in Texas, Muslim children saw two white males place a homemade bomb outside of a local mosque just before it exploded. And mall security guards in New York City called for police in July 2004 because a group of Muslims were performing their daily prayers in the parking lot.

Three states, California, New York, and Arizona accounted for 40% of all incidents reported to CAIR in 2004. The next three, Virginia, Texas and Florida, accounted for another 20% of reported incidents.