Bias incidents against Muslims in New Jersey

By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer

May 3, 2004, 2:15 PM EDT


NEWARK, N.J. -- Bias incidents against Muslims in New Jersey more than tripled last year, according to a national Islamic group.

While nationwide most bias complaints were lodged against government agencies, most of the problems in New Jersey came from private employers, according to the report from the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In New Jersey, the number of bias incidents reported directly to CAIR by individual complainants rose from 12 in 2002 to 40 in 2003. Nationwide, bias complaints to the group rose from 602 in 2002 to 1,019 last year.

"There are a number of factors, including government policies targeting Muslims, and pro-war rhetoric in the beginning of 2003, that we believe led to this disturbing increase in Muslim civil rights complaints," said Mohamed Nimer, the group's national research director.

New Jersey law enforcement officials did not have statistics on anti-Muslim bias incidents reported to police in 2003, but John Hagerty, a spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice, acknowledged such reports have increased in recent years.

Just last month, a mosque site under construction in Toms River was vandalized and defaced with Nazi graffiti. It was the seventh reported incident of vandalism at the site since construction began in 2000. Three teens who reportedly told police they acted out of boredom were charged with the latest attack.

Cases cited as examples in the New Jersey report included a corrections officer trainee who claimed he was fired for keeping his religiously mandated beard too long, a middle school student denied a place to pray after eating lunch and a woman fired from an office after converting to Islam.

The report, titled "Unpatriotic Acts," found that while reports of passenger profiling and wrongful arrests, searches and seizures declined, reports of overall discrimination against Muslims increased dramatically, both in New Jersey and nationwide.

The group called for a public inquiry into the nation's post-9-11 policies regarding Muslims, and legislative action to curb the use of profiling by law enforcement and "end abuses associated with the USA Patriot Act."