Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

Latest FBI data on hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims ‘incomplete and unreliable’

Latest FBI data on hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims ‘incomplete and unreliable’

A recently introduced FBI system designed to improve the monitoring and recording of hate crimes is “not complete” and is still evolving, officials from the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee told Arab News on Tuesday. As a result, they said, the latest statistics collected from it are “unreliable.”
The FBI has been collecting data from states and documenting incidents of hate crimes since 1991. In 2021 it introduced the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which it said would make it easier to consistently log hate crimes and provide a clearer and more accurate view of the problem across the country, said Chris Habiby, the ADC’s director of government affairs and advocacy.

However, law enforcement authorities in several major jurisdictions in states with large Arab American populations have yet to start using NIBRS, and an estimated 56 percent of hate crimes are not reported to authorities at all, he added, which calls into question the latest FBI statistics.

“This year’s hate crime statistics report is incomplete and unreliable and we must not compare it to previous years,” said Habiby.

“Our collective focus must be on standing with every community targeted by hate violence and working to ensure full and accurate reporting in the years ahead. We must also work toward making hate-crime reporting by law enforcement agencies across the country mandatory.”

According to the FBI report, 7,303 hate crime incidents were reported in 2021. Of those, the greatest number of incidents based on race, ethnicity or ancestry (2,233) were against Black people. There were 324 anti-Jewish incidents, which was the largest number based on religion.

The report includes 75 incidents of anti-Arab hate and 96 incidents targeting Muslims but Habiby said these figures are far below the actual numbers.

“The problem right now is that there are a significant amount of agencies that are not NIBRS-compliant yet so their data was not included in the report that was released,” he explained.

“There are more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the country and a third of them did not report anything (to the new system).

“We are talking about almost, essentially, the entire states of Florida and California had no data reported. New York City, Chicago and Phoenix had zero data reported and we know there are a significant amount of hate crimes that occur in those jurisdictions.

“They haven’t transferred their data into NIBRS and, to remain uniform, the FBI did not include their data in the report that was released … It speaks to the unreliability of the report this year.”

The problem is compounded by a general underreporting of hate crimes to law enforcement in the first place, Habiby added.

“We have to factor in that the Department of Justice estimates that 56 percent of all hate crimes are not reported, so the number that we see is already going to be lower than what the reality is,” he said.

According to the Arab American Institute, nearly two-thirds of Arabs in the US live in just 10 states: California, Michigan, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Despite the issues surrounding the delays among law enforcement agencies in integrating with the new FBI system, Habiby said the ADC believes that when all states and jurisdictions update their procedures and start entering all their data into NIBRS it will provide a more accurate picture of the extent of hate crimes not only against Arabs and Muslims in the US, but all communities.

Meanwhile, he added, the ADC is working to compile its own figures and encourages Arab and Muslim Americans to report any incidents of hate crimes to the organization in addition to reporting them to the police.

ADC National Executive Director Abed Ayoub said: “The Arab and Muslim communities continue to be targeted by those who hold anti-Arab, racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic views. ADC has begun work to strengthen and expand the nationwide community infrastructure to accurately capture and report anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes and incidents nationwide.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
Explosions Rock Doha as Iranian Missiles Target Qatar
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
×