a report out this week shows a significant increase in discrimination cases in 2022 against Muslims in New Jersey compared to the previous year the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American Islamic relations published its annual civil rights report revealing a 46 spike in discrimination incidents now the bulk of complaints came from the workplace and schools unlike previous years FBI and law enforcement surveillance complaints decreased that's an important piece of the data according to the organization which says it shows the face of anti-muslim bigotry is evolving to get a deeper look at what's inside the report and examples of common discrimination being experienced here I'm joined by Dina Sayedahmed the communications manager for care NJ Dina you know we look to these reports every year to give us a sense of what's happening within the community what can you tell us about some of the major findings so something that was very interesting in this report this year is that we found a 46 increase in the number of cases that we've received so in 2021 we received 104 cases this past year in 2022 that number jumped to 152 cases and were they across the board in terms of all hate uh bias incidents um I mean did they run the gamut talk to me about that so I've seen a different few different categories we've seen some cases within law enforcement FBI we've seen cases with schools which tripled from the year before we've seen a lot of employment tripled from just nine cases in 2021 to 27 in 2020 and that's just what's been reported and that's just what's been reported these numbers uh caveat that we often add is that these cases are often or the numbers that we have are deflated it because students parents employees employers they often don't report cases because they're afraid of retaliation which is it's a valid fear so all these numbers that we have are deflated and we suspect that the reality is much much higher and I mean I'm curious to know how these incidents are playing out because in years past and particularly during the pandemic it was threats right because everyone wasn't together are there turning to violence physical verbal threats how are they actually playing out so it's a mix of you know violent threats as a mix of variable threats you see some retaliation in workplaces in one of the cases that we have uh in this report a employee an employee was physically assaulted by his employer but then you also have other cases where students are forbidden from establishing an MSA for example and then going back to just the violent cases you also had two girls two teenage girls in a Clifton nail salon that were also physically assaulted so it's a it's a mix of verbal assaults physical assaults stopping students or employees from practicing their religious Faith what does it tell us about bias or anti-muslim bias is it on the rise is it about where it's been over the last several years so it's hard to say that it's on the rise this could there could there could be a few different factors that are at play over here we did expand our staff capacity over the past year so we are Fielding a lot more case cases simply because we have a larger capacity but it is possible that anti-muslim bigotrys on their eyes we wouldn't be able to say that just based on this report we'd have to wait a few years to be able to make that judgment or to be able to make any judgment call on the rise or decline of anti-muslim hate as an advocacy group I know you all make recommendations for policy makers what's the key takeaway for what actions can be done for policy makers we do advise that they speak with Muslims that they have Muslims on their councils for example to you know get an idea of what it is that Muslims in New Jersey need and what they're experiencing for ordinary citizens we often encourage people to take a look at this report to use the resources at Care New Jersey and Care National provide to better understand your Muslim employees employers your classmates your neighbor your friends even just to get a better idea of what their needs are and how you can be an ally to them Dina Sayedahmed with Care New Jersey thank you so much thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]