WASHINGTON (JTA) — Anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States is "significant," according to the Anti-Defamation League.
"A significant level of anti-Muslim bigotry has surfaced in a variety of public forums over the past year," said an ADL statement accompanying a letter and background information the ADL submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose civil rights committee was considering anti-Muslim activity on Tuesday.
"Much of it has focused on various plans to build or expand mosques around the country," the statement said. "Many of those debates have been characterized by unfair stereotyping and prejudice that have singled out the Muslim American community for special scrutiny and suspicion."
The ADL set out gauges of anti-Muslim prejudice: "Reported hate crimes, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints, efforts to prevent mosques from being built in communities, and unwarranted legislative efforts to target a phantom ‘threat’ — the infiltration of Sharia law into America’s judicial system."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called the hearing in part to counter a recent U.S. House of Representatives hearing on radicalism among U.S. Muslims.
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