Dearborn: Proud Hometown of Myth USA!

Jonah Goldberg had some helpful things to say this past week on one of our favorite subjects, the anti-Muslim backlash. According to Goldberg, “the much-ballyhooed anti-Muslim backlash is mostly a myth.” (“Islamophobia? Not Really”).

Goldberg:

Let's start with some data.

According to the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims increased by a staggering 1,600 percent in 2001. That sounds serious! But wait, the increase is a math mirage. There were 28 anti-Islamic incidents in 2000. That number climbed to 481 the year a bunch of Muslim terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans in the name of Islam on Sept. 11.

Now, that was a hate crime.

Regardless, 2001 was the zenith or, looked at through the prism of our national shame, the nadir of the much-discussed anti-Muslim backlash in the United States -- and civil libertarians and Muslim activists insisted it was 1930s Germany all over again. The following year, the number of anti-Islamic hate-crime incidents (overwhelmingly, nonviolent vandalism and nasty words) dropped to 155. In 2003, there were 149 such incidents. And the number has hovered around the mid-100s or lower ever since.

Sure, even one hate crime is too many. But does that sound like an anti-Muslim backlash to you?

Now that you mention it, no, it doesn’t.

Read more of what Goldberg has to say here.