SPLC: Anti-Muslim Hate Groups Have Nearly Tripled

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said the number of anti-Muslim hate groups has nearly tripled over the past two years, topping a three-digit figure last year, according to the organization's annual census of hate and extremist organizations released Wednesday.

The SPLC is a Montgomery, Alabama-based nonprofit organization that monitors the activities of hate groups and other extremists across the country, according to The Associated Press. The center defines hate groups as those that vilify entire groups of people based on immutable characteristics such as race or ethnicity.

The center's study revealed that anti-Muslim hate groups increased from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year.

The total number of all hate groups also increased for the second year in a row to 917, the center said, noting that the candidacy of President Donald Trump appeared to have "energized" the radical right.

The center also charged that Trump's campaign rhetoric about Muslims on the campaign trail and his one-time pledge to ban those practicing the religion from entering the United States were used as triggers for the anti-Muslim group increase.

"2016 was an unprecedented year for hate," Mark Potok, senior fellow and editor of SPLC's Intelligence Report, said in a statement. "The country saw a resurgence of white nationalism that imperils the racial progress we've made, along with the rise of a president whose policies reflect the values of white nationalists. In Steve Bannon, these extremists think they finally have an ally who has the president's ear."

Some pushed back against the report on social media, criticizing what the center identified as anti-Muslim hate groups.

@jaketapper SPLC has lost all credibility after labelling liberal reformer @MaajidNawaz and liberal atheist @Ayaan as antiMuslim exteremist.

— ZamZam (@zamzammer) February 15, 2017

@amyharvard_, are you okay with the SPLC classifying @Ayaan Hirsi Ali and @MaajidNawaz as anti-Muslim bigots? Is this not counterproductive?

— Aaron Laflin (@aaronlaflin5) February 16, 2017

We can't even measure the actual level of anti-Muslim bogotry, because the SPLC is spouting crap

— newsreview (@nesrev1917) February 16, 2017

The SPLC said the 917 hate groups it identified are 101 shy of the all-time record set in 2011, but still high by historic standards. The number of anti-government "patriot" groups, which tend to grow under Democratic administrations, experienced a 38 percent decline from 998 in 2015 to 623 last year, the center noted.

The number of black separatist groups in 2015 (193) topped the number of Ku Klux Klan group in 2016 (130), according to the study. But the number of white nationalist groups stood at 100.

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