Most of the harassment occurred after the horrible terrorist attacks in Paris, committed by Daesh, also known as the Islamic State, in the Arab world.
A recent study revealed that there were 37-38 crimes taking place in the month following the Paris attacks, which is about three times the average number that experts witnessed over the last five years, California State University San Bernardino college professor Brian Levin said in an exclusive interview with Radio Sputnik.
Levin argued that Muslims living in the West regularly face discrimination from the local population. For instance, a recent poll found out that to some extent 43% of Americans have prejudices against those practicing Islam.
“That’s actually in some ways more important that these horrible crimes that are taking place. And the reason I say this is that there is a small [group] of people who are trying to exclude Muslims from the civil society,” Levin said.
This can be a result of the trend to label the whole community of law-abiding people in a negative light, only because a bunch of extremists, claiming to adhere to the same religion, is discrediting Muslims with its aggressive and unlawful actions, the expert said.
