Jews and Sikhs most targeted faith groups for hate crimes in US

Jews and Sikhs were the two most targeted religious groups in the hate-motivated crime in the US in 2021, according to the annual compilation of nationwide incidents by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A total of 1,005 hate crimes related to religion were reported in 2021, the FBI said.

The largest categories of religion-based crime included anti-Jewish incidents at 31.9 per cent followed by anti-Sikh incidents at 21.3 per cent. Anti-Muslims accounted for 9.5 per cent of religion-based hate crimes. Anti-Catholic incidents accounted for 6.1 per cent and anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other) for 6.5 per cent.

Overall, law enforcement agencies reported 7,262 total incidents and 9,024 victims, demonstrating that hate crimes remain a concern for communities across the country, the FBI said.

The overall number of agencies reporting decreased to 11,834, from 15,138 in 2021, so data cannot reliably be compared across years, it said.

According to the FBI data for the year 2021, 64.8 per cent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ bias towards race/ethnicity/ancestry, which continues to be the largest bias motivation category.

Anti-Black or African American hate crimes continue to be the largest bias incident category, with 63.2 per cent of all single-bias incidents in 2021. Additionally, anti-Asian incidents represented 4.3 per cent of incidents reported in 2021.

The other largest categories of hate crimes include anti-Hispanic or Latino incidents, with 6.1 per cent of incidents, and anti-White incidents, with 13.4 per cent of incidents.