The Impact of the Terrorist Attacks of 9/11 on Anti-Islamic Hate Crime

Abstract

Using existing data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, time series analyses were conducted on hate crime data from 2001 around the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. A statistically significant increase in anti-Islamic hate crime occurred after 9/11, and anti-Islamic hate crime leveled off within 8 weeks of the occurrence. News stories reporting anti-Islamic hate crimes, stories reporting fear of such bias crime, and public calls for calm, tolerance, and/or reaction to anti-Islamic bias crime followed a similar pattern found within the official data. A city-by-city analysis found that UCR reported anti-Islamic hate crime was essentially non-existent in New York City and Washington, DC. It is suggested that public calls for calm and tolerance and in-group/out-group dynamics may have impacted anti-Islamic hate crime frequency, thus accounting for rises and reductions in this form of bias crime over time.

The affinity between online and offline anti-Muslim hate crime: Dynamics and impacts

“…Hanes and Machin, 2014;Poynting and Mason, 2006). According to Byers and Jones (2007) terrorist attacks such as 9/11 have a significant impact on the rise of anti-Muslim hate crime. For them, they act as 'trigger' events that culminate in the increase of actual changes in social behaviour.…”

“…Anti-Muslim hate crime has increased significantly following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the US and 7/7 in the UK (Byers and Jones, 2007;Hanes and Machin, 2014;Poynting and Noble, 2004;Poynting and Mason, 2006). More recently, the murder of British Army soldier Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich in May 2013 has fuelled the growth of antiMuslim hostility on social media as well as in the streets of Britain.…”

‘I will Blow your face off’—Virtual and Physical World Anti-Muslim Hate Crime

“…Such 'trigger' attacks include the terror attack that hit London in July 2005 and the terror attack that hit the United States in September 2001 (Hanes and Machin, 2014;Poynting and Mason, 2006). According to Byers and Jones (2007), terrorist attacks have a significant impact on the rise of anti-Muslim hate crime. We therefore argue that 'trigger' events such as the terrorist attacks in Paris and Tunisia can also lead to antiMuslim hostility and indeed wider impacts on Muslim communities.…”

The Breakdown of Anti-Racist Norms: A Natural Experiment on Normative Uncertainty after Terrorist Attacks

“…2 In the aftermath of the events, media coverage focused on the dangers of opening borders, broadening a public debate on these policies. 3 After terrorist attacks, hate crimes often follow suit (King and Sutton, 2013;Disha et al, 2011;Byers and Jones, 2007). The effect is particularly noticeable when the attacker is characterized as a member of a social or religious minority, as exemplified by the wave of anti-Muslim hate crimes that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks (Disha et al, 2011;Byers and Jones, 2007;Hanes and Machin, 2014), the increase in violence against refugees linked to Islamist attacks in Germany (Jäckle and König, 2018), or the escalation of racial and religious hate speech on Twitter after a murder committed by Islamist extremists in the United Kingdom (Williams and Burnap, 2015).…”