I have been writing about the trajectory of hate crimes in America since 2021, focusing particularly on religion-based hate crimes. The Federal Bureau of Investivation recently released its Hate Crime Statistics for 2023, so it’s once again time for me to take a deeper dive into what the numbers may mean to different communities.
A watershed year
Total hate crimes across the US went up from 12,186 in 2022 to 12,355 in 2023, and religion-based hate crimes went up from 2,237 to 2,882. California experienced a small drop in hate crimes, but religion-based hate crimes rose significantly from 311 to 418 (+34%).
To put these numbers in perspective, the Bureau’s data is based on national coverage of over 90%, with near-100% coverage in California.
Anti-Jewish hate crimes jumped from 1,257 to 1,951 (+55%), making it the second highest among 34 communities covered by the data, Anti-Islam incidents went up from 176 to 266 (+51%), ranking 10th. A detailed look at the data suggests that the growing West Asia conflict since October 2023 may have triggered a major surge in hate crimes against Jewish and Muslim communities.
Anti-Hindu hate incidents went up from 25 to 31 (+24%), not as alarming as the spurt in anti-Jewish and anti-Islam incidents. It ranked at 26 of 34 communities. However, in recent months, there have been spate of vandalisms at Hindu temples, putting the community on edge.
In my previous reports, I had drawn attention to the large number of hate incidents in the US faced by Sikhs, year after year. Thankfully, there was a downward trend from 183 to 159 in 2023, but the numbers are still disproportionately high for a small community.
Sikhs in the US were anxious about the alleged assassination attempt against a Sikh American activist and an apparent assassination attempt against a colleague of the Canadian Sikh activist murdered in June 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement doubling down on his government’s preference for assassinations to silence dissidents abroad has only added to the community’s fears.
Turning to California
The data of the Federal Bureau of Investigation also shows a surge in religion-based hate crimes in California from 2022 to 2023: anti-Jewish + 60%; anti-Muslim + 66%; and anti-Hindu, from two incidents to eight.
In a major new development, the California Civil Rights Department issued its first Fact Sheet on acts of hate in the state for the period June 2023 to May 2024. The data is based on calls received and processed by its anonymous hotline “CA vs Hate”.
The primary mission of the hotline is to provide an opportunity for people to anonymously report acts of hate and/or seek counseling in a safe environment. But how useful is the department’s aggregated annual data in its Fact Sheet?
The answer becomes obvious when you compare the Federal Bureau of Investigation dataset for California with the California Civil Rights Department’s numbers: the hotline was able to capture only a fraction of the hate crimes registered by the Bureau: for example, the Bureau reported 194 anti-Jewish hate crimes in the second half of 2023, but only 38 cases were reported by the California Civil Rights Department for all of 2023. Clearly, not everyone who has reported a hate crime to the police or the Bureau has a reason to also call the California Civil Rights Department hotline for help.
In contrast to other groups, many more anti-Hindu acts of hate were reported to the California Civil Rights Department (24) than to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (eight). Perhaps a more expansive definition of acts of hate by the California Civil Rights Department, which includes “Hate Incidents” in addition to “Hate Crimes” and proactive community education on how to report hate crimes may have motivated more Hindus in California to call the hotline.
Whatever the reason, it would seem that “CA vs Hate” has a very different, action-oriented mission than the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and its aggregate data in its current form may never be truly comparable to Bureau’s hate statistics. Also, there will be ups and downs in the number of calls to the hotline from different communities, which would render any inter-community comparisons invalid.
False alarms
However, the California Civil Rights Department attempted to do exactly such a comparison in its Fact Sheet: for example, “anti-Jewish (36.9%), anti-Hindu (23.3%) and anti-Muslim (14.6%) were the most cited reasons for reports related to religious targeting”.
That statement implied that there were many more anti-Hindu acts of hate in California than anti-Islam acts of hate, which is simply not true. This led to a spate of sensational headlines in the media, declaring that there was a major surge in anti-Hindu hate crimes in California: for example, “Anti-Hindu hate crimes beat Islamophobia cases in California”, “Anti-Hindu hate incidents second-highest among religious communities in California”, and so on. These were quickly followed by numerous expressions of alarm by the Hindu community and by lawmakers.
Had they looked closer at the California Civil Rights Department data, they would have noticed that anti-religious acts of hate were based on a sample size of a mere 103, which was further highly skewed by the massive under-utilisation of the hotline by Jewish and Muslim communities.
The reality is that anti-Hindu hate incidents ranked well below anti-Jewish and anti-Islam incidents in Bureau’s data both 2022 and 2023. In fact, they even ranked below Christian communities (all denominations included). The department’s attempt to rank anti-religious hate in California by community may have resulted in avoidable panic among Hindus.
Of course, all hate crimes against places of worship must be condemned and the perpetrators punished. But anti-Hindu hate crimes did not “beat Islamophobia cases in California,” as widely reported.
The future of CRD data
“CA vs Hate” initiative was born out of complaints that the Bureau data do not cover day to day biases and bigotry encountered by minorities, much of which may not rise to the level of a hate crime.
The California Civil Rights Department’s hotline attempts to address this information gap by creating a category called “Hate Incidents”, which it defines as: “A hate incident is a more expansive definition, including acts that may not be criminal in nature, but are motivated by bias against another person’s actual or perceived identity(ies), characteristics, and/or because that person is a part of a protected group.”
This broad definition, while well-intentioned, opens up the door for misuse of the system merely to artificially boost the numbers. One way to mitigate this possibility would be to separately aggregate “Hate Crimes” vs “Hate Incidents,” the former being more comparable to the Bureau’s data. It would also help if “CA vs Hate” were to change its reporting cycle to calendar year, to match the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Competing victimhood
It is clear that the tumultuous events in West Asia and in South Asia are having a direct negative impact on inter- and intra-community relations in America. It is highly unlikely that the remainder of 2024 and 2025 will see better times:
The genocide in Gaza, triggered by the October 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas, has not only divided the Jewish community as never before, but has resulted in a surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia. The current all-out attacks by Israel on multiple countries, which is resulting in thousands of civilian deaths, is bound to make matters worse.
The Sikh community is on edge, fearing action by the Indian government, including potential assassinations. The community has reacted strongly to certain Hindu groups attributing temple vandalisms to the Sikh community.
The Hindu community, especially in California, is in shock over the series of vandalisms at Hindu temples and is looking to law enforcement for answers.
All these disturbing trends are harbingers of more acts of hate in America in 2025. Unfortunately for our communities, governments are equipped only to report acts of hate, not to find enduring solutions, which are in the hands of affected communities.
Are we ready to set aside our ideological differences for a moment and get together urgently to form a united front against all acts of hate?
Raju Rajagopal is a Co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights, which opposes Hindu supremacy and caste discrimination and speaks up for minority rights.
