Religion in brief WASHINGTON: ANTI-MUSLIM INCIDENTS UP

A national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group earlier this week released a report that showed a nearly 30 percent increase from 2004 to 2005 in the number of anti-Muslim incidents reported in the United States. The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ study outlined 1,972 incidents of violence, discrimination and harassment against Muslims in 2005. That was a 29.6 percent jump over the preceding year’s total of 1,522 cases. Factors that contributed to the sharp increase, the report said, included the lingering impact of post-Sept. 11, 2001, fears, an increased awareness of civil rights issues in the Muslim community and a general increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society. Individual statistics for Maine were not available. Visit www.cair-net.org.