But community leaders said the post-September 11 backlash against Arab and Muslim Americans has given way to more subtle forms of discrimination, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Tuesday, November 26.

There were 481 recorded anti-Islamic crimes up from a 28 the year before, said an FBI report.

Activists said the FBI statistics were a conservative measure of the problems faced by Muslims.

"We have to congratulate U.S. authorities for their vigorous prosecution of the hate crimes that were reported," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR).

But he added that the statistics released Monday were probably on the low side because "a lot of people were reluctant to report cases to the authorities."

A year after a spate of headline-making cases in which dozens of Arabs and Muslims were attacked and numerous mosques were vandalized, many ordinary Muslims continue to be harassed at work or discriminated against in the housing market, activists said.

In spite of a huge effort by Arab and Muslim community leaders after the attacks on New York and Washington, which has fostered stronger ties, in many cases between the Islamic community and local law enforcement agencies, pockets of suspicion and intolerance remain.

"A lot of people say their co-workers are very hostile, they're still being smeared as 'terrorists', they're harassed because of their dress, their prayer routine or their need to fast (during Ramadan)," said Hooper.

On a more positive note, though, polls show that most Americans do differentiate between the war on terror and the U.S. Arab and Muslim community, said James Zogby, director of the Arab American Institute in Washington.

"There isn't a sense that people are at risk or in any physical danger like they were after September 11," said Zogby, who was included in the FBI statistics after receiving a death threat on September 12, 2001.

A man who threatened to slit Zogby's throat and murder his children in a voicemail left at his office was subsequently sentenced to two months in jail and fined 5,000 dollars.

In spite of the chilling experience, Zogby said he was heartened by the swift and decisive way the FBI dealt with the incident and others like it.

It demonstrated a clear commitment on the part of U.S. authorities to take the matter seriously -- a marked difference from the way they handled a similar backlash against the Arab and Muslim American community following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing when Middle Eastern people were initially thought to have carried out the attack.

"My case was the first time that anyone was convicted of making threats against an Arab American leader," he pointed out.