CAIR-Chicago reports rise in anti-Muslim discrimination cases

The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says the number of reported anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination complaints is on the rise.

CAIR works to defend Arabs and Muslims who have experienced hate crimes and discrimination. The Chicago office has been handling civil rights cases for more than 20 years, and found that between September of last year and August of this year, its team handled 845 cases.

That figure is similar to 2025, when the total was slightly higher at 876. But it was up hundreds more, or about 40%, compared with 2024, when the total was 518.

The cases span employment, housing, airports, government, the FBI, and schools.

"The type of cases we're looking at have employment — there's been a rise in employment cases — public accommodation, which means people are at a gym or at a grocery shop and how they're treated. Sometimes their hijab is pulled off. Sometimes they're called certain things or pushed or battered. We have a lot of airport and travel cases, as well as a lot of immigration and asylum cases as well," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago. "The cause is, in my opinion, this is not an organic reaction. You know, Muslims live in this country. They belong. They contribute. They're highly educated. They're well-off. They're integrated."

Rehab said the hostility to Muslims is "engineered and curated" in order to "pummel through the agenda of a special interest."

"Which is to say, 'Hey Americans, you need to pay your tax dollars to support this genocide or support wars abroad,' that's something Americans wouldn't want to do unless they think they can then tell them: 'Look, these guys are scary. You need to do this,'" he said.

The top categories for discrimination cases handled by CAIR-Chicago are travel (233), immigration (187), employment (83), asylum (54), and defamation and doxing (43).

Rehab explained how CAIR-Chicago takes action when someone files a complaint.

"We try to resolve the cases, either through mediation — if that doesn't work, then through litigation if necessary. We have four attorneys and about 50 or 60 interns per year that work in these 800 cases," he said. "We saw an increase of about 14% in the first quarter of this year, even versus last year."

Rehab attributed the rise in complaints to reaction to the war in Gaza.

"But even that, vis-à-vis this year and last year, the first quarter, [complaints were up] 14% — 189 cases versus 166," said Rehab.

CAIR-Chicago also works to educate the public and talk to elected officials "in order to have them you know, change the discourse and the rhetoric."

"A lot of this is coming from elected officials, you know, on the Republican side — a little bit o the Democratic side. But, you know, people like Randy Fine in Florida, people like Nancy Mace and others who are talking about Islam and Muslims as if they're the public enemy. The anti-Sharia Law caucus, that is basically an anti-Muslim caucus in Congress with 50-plus members who are dishing out anti-Muslim hate at the highest level every single day," Rehab said. "It's open season against Muslims."

Rehab added that such prejudice and hostility are tolerated with little pushback.

In 2024, CAIR-Chicago started tracking doxing cases. In the past year, the organization took on 43 such cases.

"Doxing is a bullying technique that calls out your address, or where you work, when you publicly comment on a matter in order to silence and censor and chill your freedom of speech to shame you into silence," said Rehab. "We track that because it's been on the rise again since people have spoken out against the genocide in Gaza. They've been called Hamas-linked. They've been called terrorists. They've been called anti-American and other things, and they've been doxed. Those who dox have attempted to get them fired from their jobs, you know, pushed out of their housing, and otherwise defamed online."

Rehab noted that Illinois has a law against doxing.

The information that CAIR-Chicago gathers after receiving complaints goes to various governmental agencies, as well as organizations such as human rights and civil rights commissions.

The goal is to help inform "how public policy can be shaped, and how the public conversation about racism and bigotry — as it pertains to Muslims, amongst many other groups — ought to move forward," Rehab said.

Rehab added that much of the harassment and hostility toward Muslims happens online, and the Center of the Study of [Organized] Hate recorded a 14% increase in anti-Muslim online hate for the first three months of this year compared with the same time period last year.

"I can tell you, if you go online and if you're a Muslim, and you're looking at these Facebook posts, Twitter posts, Instagram posts, it is dizzying. It is frightening," said Rehab. "It is open season. Very, very, very troubling."

Rehab said the issue of prejudice against Muslims is not being addressed sufficiently at the national level or the state level.