A 60-page report released by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) details more than 280 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim stereotyping, bias, harrassment and violence.
The Council, which was established in 1994, says that although there was a 60 percent increase in discrimination cases, there was an an overall decrease in acts of violence against American Muslims. The drop is attributed to the absence of such events as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 or the downing of TWA flight 800 in 1996 - both of which triggered anti-Muslim violence in the United States.
''The trends documented in the report indicate that discrimination is now part of daily life for American Muslims,'' says Mohamer Nimer, director of the CAIR's Research Centre and author of the report. ''This troubling phenomenon is no longer limited just to times of crisis.''
The anti-Muslim incidents, he says, includes vandalism of an Islamic display on the White House Ellipse, termination of Muslim women employees who wished to wear a religiously-mandated head scarf and problems encountered by Muslims who must offer their prayers during work of school hours.
Currently, the total U.S. population of 270 million includes six millions Muslims. Islam, which has about 1.2 billion adherents worldwide, is one of the fastest growing religions both in the United States and in other regions of the world.
Eighty percent of the incidents in the United States took place in 15 states where the Muslim population is concentrated: California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, District of Columbia, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Georgia.
In December last year, a swastika was spray-painted on a star and crescent display at the White House Ellipse in Washington DC. The incident took place one day after the display was set up - for the first time ever - to mark the end of the month of Ramadan.
In Falls Church, Virigina early this year, a supervisor told a Muslim employee: ''If you weren't fasting here, you'd be in Algeria blowing up people.''
In Chicago, a law firm immediately replaced a Muslim employee after she refused to take off her head scarf. An investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found the company in violation of the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act.
Nimer told IPS that every single case was ''verifiable and well- documented.'' The incidents documented in the report, he said, took place between March 1997 and March 1998.
''We want to raise the standards of discourse on minority rights in this country,'' he says.
Nimer says the dissemination of accurate information about Islam, coupled with increased social and political activism on the part of American Muslims, is the only solution to the problem.
The report, titled ''Patterns of Discrimination,'' points out that many of the anti-Muslim incidents were due to ignorance of Islam, a general bias against religious sentiment or outdated corporate policies that do not reflect increased religious diversity in the workplace.
The study also criticises the use of secret evidence in deporation cases. Muslims have alleged that such evidence violates constitutional protections and targets both Arabs and Muslim in the United States.
Nimer says that information contained in the report was obtained through investigation by CAIR staff and verified from third parties. Some 300 cases were excluded due to insufficient eviddence of discrimination, he says.
The report is the third in a series published annually by CAIR which began documenting anti-Muslim incidents following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The bombing set off several anti-Muslim incidents because of rumors that it was the handiwork of ''Arab and Muslim terrorists.''
The bombing was eventually attributed to individuals with ties to right wing U.S. militia groups - with no links to either Muslims or Islam.
