More Americans say Jews, Muslims face "a lot" of discrimination: Poll
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A majority of Jews and Muslims in the U.S. have felt an increase in discrimination against their respective groups since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, new data from the Pew Research Center reveals.
The big picture: The report comes as antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents in the U.S. have surged since the start of the war in Gaza.
By the numbers: The Anti-Defamation League recorded over 3,200 U.S. antisemitic incidents between Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and early January — a 361% increase from reported incidents in that same time period the year prior.
- The Council on American-Islamic Relations received 8,061 total complaints nationwide last year — the highest number ever received in its three decades of existence.
- Nearly half of those complaints were reported in the last three months of 2023, per CAIR.
Zoom in: A rising number of Americans say both Jews and Muslims in the U.S. face "a lot" of discrimination in American society today, according to Pew.
- 40% say there is "a lot" of discrimination against Jews, a figure that's doubled since 2021.
A similar share, at 44%, say Muslims face "a lot" of discrimination, a slight increase from 2021, when that figure stood at 39%.
- A majority of Jews (74%) and Muslims (60%) in the U.S. felt offended by "something they saw on the news or social media about the war," per Pew.
The bottom line: Most of the U.S.' 10 largest cities witnessed major surges in hate crimes last year, marking the third straight year of spikes in the big cities' overall average number of hate crimes, per data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
Go deeper: Largest US cities saw record hate crimes surge in 2023
Methodology: The poll surveyed 12,693 U.S. adults Feb. 13-25, 2024, and had a margin of sampling error of ±1.5 percentage points.
