8 in 10 WA Muslims experienced discrimination in past year, report says

SEATTLE – More than 8 in 10 Muslim Washingtonians over 13 years old reported experiencing Islamophobic discrimination or bias in the past year, an issue nearly 40% of survey respondents said has become worse since the Israel-Hamas conflict began last October, according to a new report by Muslim civil rights organization CAIR-WA.

Respondents to a survey this spring by the state’s branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations showed some Muslims living in Washington often don’t feel safe due to their personal characteristics (34.4%) or around law enforcement (15.3%), and also face discrimination at work or school or in public places (69.2%) and when seeking medical care (28.3%), according to a report on the survey released in late September.

The results, while grim, did not surprise CAIR-WA Executive Director Imraan Siddiqi, who said they confirmed what many Muslims in Washington describe facing on a day-to-day basis – especially in the past year.

“Anecdotally, we know this to be the experience of our community,” Siddiqi said in a phone call Tuesday. “But it’s obviously eye-opening to see that distributed amongst such a broad sample size.”

More than 540 people completed the 44-question online survey between April 2 and May 1. The survey asked about respondents’ demographic information, experiences with discrimination and political engagement. The survey was advertised in emails, flyers and at Muslim community events, and it was launched during Ramadan to take advantage of greater traffic in mosques, according to the report.

Nearly 92% of respondents reported experiencing Islamophobic discrimination or bias in their lifetime, with slightly fewer – 82.5% – reporting experiencing either in the last year.

Younger and less-educated Muslims reported enduring more discrimination. Muslim women and people who wore traditional religious or cultural attire, such as a hijab, niqab or kufi, were more likely to report feeling unsafe, according to the report.

For some, the discrimination was chronic and pervasive, with 22% reporting being targeted by anti-Muslim remarks at least a few times per month.

About 25% of people said “yes” when asked if people act as if they’re afraid of them, and about 30% reported receiving worse service than other people at restaurants and stores, the report states.

The discrimination also interfered at work and home, with 24% saying they had been unfairly fired from a job and nearly 18% saying a landlord or real estate agent refused to rent or sell them a space, according to the report.

And more than a quarter of respondents reported being treated differently than other people during interactions with law enforcement officers, or being unfairly stopped, searched or questioned, the report found.

“It’s surprising and also not surprising at the same time,” said Basima Sisemore, a senior researcher for the Othering & Belonging Institute at University of California, Berkeley, who focuses on Islamophobia and human rights. “A lot of it is unfortunate and reaffirms the reality of discrimination and Islamophobia that Muslim-Americans face, specifically within Washington state.”

Across the U.S., the Council on American-Islamic Relations received 4,951 bias complaints from January to June, a 69% increase from the 2,937 it recorded in the same period in 2023, according to a July news release. And CAIR’s 2024 civil rights report showed it had received 8,061 complaints in 2023, the highest number of complaints in the organization’s 30-year history.

Nearly half of the complaints in 2023 were reported in the final three months of the year, coinciding with a fierce increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war almost one year ago, the organization said in an April news release.

Reports of discrimination against Jewish Americans also rose in the wake of the conflict.

A similar report by the Anti-Defamation League documented roughly 8,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. last year, a 140% increase from 2022. Washington saw the 15th-highest number of incidents in the nation.

People and organizations in Washington and the U.S. can take steps to combat the increasing anti-Muslim discrimination, Siddiqi said. He pointed to the state’s passage of Senate Bill 5427 this year, establishing a nonpolice hotline to assist people who have been targeted with a hate crime or bias incident. The hotline is expected to be operating by July , according to the state Office of the Attorney General.

Elected officials, Siddiqi said, should be willing to speak out more strongly against Islamophobia and “more on the pulse” of the difficulties Muslim-Americans face.

Better data about the experiences of U.S. Muslims is key to fighting discrimination, according to Sisemore.

“All of this can be used in advocacy efforts to challenge policy that impacts Muslims (and) shift the narrative around Muslims,” she said. “And it can be a blueprint for other states and organizations to replicate.”