The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) recently sent a letter to the Orange County Grand Jury in response to its 2024–2025 report. In the letter, CAIR-LA outlined its concerns about the exclusion of Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian communities in the report, despite a documented national and local rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate. CAIR-LA also offered recommendations to ensure county efforts to combat hate are inclusive and community-informed.
SEE: CAIR-LA Letter to OC Grand Jury
Titled “Hate: What is Orange County Doing About It?”, the Grand Jury’s report aims to document the increase in hate crimes and incidents in the county, evaluate the effectiveness of local efforts to fight hate, and hold public agencies accountable for protecting vulnerable communities.
Since October 2023, Muslim and Arab communities across the country have experienced an alarming increase in targeted violence, intimidation, doxing, and employment retaliation—especially against individuals standing in support of Palestinian human rights. In 2024, CAIR offices nationwide received a total of 8,658 complaints, the highest number ever recorded in the organization’s 30-year history, marking a 7.4% increase from the previous year.
In March, CAIR’s National office released its 2025 Civil Rights Report, which revealed Islamophobia continues to be at an all-time high nationwide, with its California offices receiving the highest number of anti-Muslim discrimination complaints. The report also emphasized that viewpoint discrimination against those speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide and apartheid was a key factor in many of these cases.
Although the report acknowledged that many incidents of hate go unreported, by failing to work with Arab- and Muslim-serving organizations, the Grand Jury neglected to collect crucial data on the aforementioned communities. In OC alone, CAIR-LA recorded 57 hate incidents in 2023 and 88 hate incidents in 2024—neither of which were reflected in the report.
SEE ALSO: CAIR-CA Says State Hate Crime Report Fails to Capture Scope of Anti-Muslim, Anti-Palestinian Hate
In a statement, CAIR-LA Policy Manager Basha Jamil said:
“Hate is not experienced uniformly across communities, and any efforts to confront it must reflect that reality. When vulnerable groups, including Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians, are excluded from the conversation, these reports ignore the very real violence and discrimination our communities face and risk producing a misleading account of the way hate manifests in Orange County.
“We know that hate incidents and hate crimes are chronically underreported, especially among Muslim and immigrant communities, whether it’s from systemic gaps in data collection, cultural stigma, concerns about immigration status, distrust of law enforcement, or fear of retaliation. The Grand Jury’s heavy reliance on law enforcement data and organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, which routinely conflates legitimate speech and protest with hate incidents, risks overlooking the perspectives and experiences of already marginalized communities.
“If the county is serious about confronting hate, it must actively work with groups and community partners who are on the front lines of documenting and responding to the rise in Islamophobia and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism and prioritize centering a broad, diverse range of community voices.”
In the letter, CAIR-LA urged the Grand Jury and the OC Board of Supervisors to:
- Acknowledge the rise in anti-Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian hate, both locally and nationally, and include this analysis in future reports.
- Consult directly with trusted community-based organizations, such as CAIR-LA and other groups serving Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian communities, especially those historically distrustful of law enforcement.
- Advocate for the inclusion and reporting of hate incidents in county tracking systems, even when they do not rise to the level of prosecutable hate crimes.
- Include a more robust and diverse set of organizations in reporting on the status of hate in OC.
To report any bias incidents, contact CAIR-LA’s Civil Rights Department at (714) 776-1177 (ext. 2) or click here to file a report.
CAIR-LA is Southern California’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice and empower American Muslims.
– END –
CONTACT: CAIR-LA Communications Manager Enjy El-Kadi, (714) 851-4851 or eelkadi@cair.com; CAIR-LA Senior Communications Coordinator Madi Hameed, mmorse-hameed@cair.com