"It is this guilt by association that has created a sense of siege in the American Muslim community," said Nimer

WASHINGTON, July 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Anti-Muslim violence, harassment and discrimination have surged by 15 percent in the United States over the past year in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a report made public Tuesday, July 15.

The council's eighth annual report said its office alone received 602 reports of discrimination against Muslims in 2002.

It outlined the impacts of the U.S. administration’s policies on the civil liberties of the Muslim community in the post-9/11 era and highlighted the rise in Islamophobic rhetoric in the American society.

CAIR’s "Guilt by Association" report said that following the 9-11 attacks "a number of government policies have singled out Muslim individuals and organizations."

CAIR Research Director Dr. Mohamed Nimer said: "It is this guilt by association that has created a sense of siege in the American Muslim community.

"Along with an increase in the number of bias-related incidents and experiences, we have also witnessed the negative results produced by government policies that target ordinary Americans based on religion, ethnicity or national origin," he stressed.

The report also cited FBI hate crime statistics and said the agency's 2002 annual report indicated that attacks on Islamic institutions and businesses increased from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001.

CAIR report detailed "police profile incidents" where Muslims were questioned while doing daily activities such as walking on public roads or shopping in malls.

Citing examples, it said three Muslim charities had effectively been shut down since December 2001 and were now locked in legal battles against the U.S. administration.

Last month, a number of American Muslim charities, including the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), as well as individuals filed an $80 million defamation suit against the CBS television for allegedly accusing them of links to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

The Washington-based Islamic civil rights group began documenting anti-Muslim incidents following the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.