The FBI has released new statistics illustrating a nearly 5 percent rise in hate crimes for the second consecutive year in 2016, especially against Muslims.
In incidents where the criminals were identified, the FBI found that about 58% of crimes were motivated by the victims’ race, ethnicity or ancestry.
Meanwhile, 21 percent of crimes were motivated by religion and nearly 18 percent by a victim’s sexual orientation.
About half the 1,273 incidents involving religion were against Jews while Muslims were targeted in 307 religion-based crimes.
Reported anti-Muslim hate crimes rose by nearly 20 percent, anti-white by 17 percent, anti-Latino by 15 percent, and anti-Jewish by 3 percent. The number of anti-black crimes remained nearly flat from 2015 to 2016.
Of the 5,770 known offenders, 46 percent were white and 26…