By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY

Reported hate crimes against Muslims rose in 2015 to their highest levels since those seen in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to FBI statistics released Monday.

Civil rights groups had been raising concerns about an anti-Muslim backlash in the U.S. even before the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, late in the year. The reporting period covers calendar year 2015, with the announcement made at a time of heightened tensions after last week’s presidential election.

There have been reports of racist and anti-religious incidents since Tuesday that have sparked outrage, including students at one school who chanted “White power” and a videotaped assault in Chicago that showed black men beating a white man as onlookers screamed, “You voted Trump!” In 2008, after Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first black president, there were also suspected cases of alleged hate crimes tied to the election.

In 2015 there were 257 incidents of anti-Muslim bias, compared with 154 incidents the prior year, an increase of 67 percent. The total is second only to the surge in hate crimes after the 9/11 attacks, when 481 incidents against Muslims were reported in 2001.

The increase could be due in part to increased reporting by victims as well as better reporting and tracking by law enforcement agencies, although the number of law enforcement agencies sending data to the FBI decreased about 3 percent from 2014 to 2015.

Overall, the number of reported hate crimes increased from 5,479 in 2014 to 5,850 last year, and religious-based hate crimes increased by 23 percent. Jews and Jewish institutions remain the most frequent target of religious-based hate crimes, accounting for 53 percent of those reported. Crimes against Jews increased about 9 percent.

Source: AP