Muslim racism in U.S. grew 25% in 2006: CAIR

A leading U.S. advocacy and civil rights group said anti-Muslim discrimination in the United States rose 25 percent from 2005 to 2006, citing a significant increase in cases involving government agencies.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) cited 2,467 complaints in 2006, up from 1,972 complaints in 2005, primarily about delays in citizenship and naturalization requests.

Many Muslims who have taken citizenship exams, CAIR said, have to wait far longer than the 120 days mandated by federal law for their naturalization background checks.

"Instead of 120 days, it's taking five years," Nihad Awad, CAIR's executive director, told reporters. “If the government has to take five years for security measures, that's a major blow for our people."

Awad was citing the example of an unnamed Muslim waiting five years after passing the citizenship test in 2002 before finally being granted citizenship in recent weeks -- just before a lawsuit CAIR filed on the person's behalf was to go to court this week.

CAIR released the report on Thursday. It records 2,467 incidents and cases of anti-Muslim violence, bias and harassment last year.

CAIR also said it counted 167 reports of anti-Muslim hate crimes, a rise of 9.2 percent over 2005.

"Like the history of other minority groups in America, the experience of the American Muslim community after the tragedy of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is seen by many as the next chapter in American civil rights history," Arsalan Iftikhar, CAIR's legal director and author of the bias study, told AFP.

"Their findings in this report should serve as a reminder that discrimination is still a major issue in our nation."

Following the al-Qaeda attacks in the United States in September 2001, the Muslim community in the country has been facing different kinds of racial profiling, according to reports from civil rights groups.

U.S. Muslims have filed hundreds of lawsuits against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), claiming the agency is unnecessarily delaying completion of their background checks.

Most of the 62,000 names sent to the FBI each week -- half of which are for citizenship requests -- do not trigger alarms. Of those that do, the FBI must cross-check the names against additional databases, a process that can take years, according to the Washington Times.

In February, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit in California against the federal government, saying "its practice of indefinitely delaying citizen applications" violated due process rights.