The number of hate crimes against American Muslims has risen 78 percent during 2015, according to research from California State University, San Bernardino, the New York Times reports.

While the recent terrorist attacks at home and abroad are partially to blame for the increase in violence against members of the Muslim the community, scholars also blame Republican candidate Donald Trump's rhetoric. Trump used to advocate for a ban on all Muslims entering the country, although he says he has since "softened" his stance.

"We're seeing these stereotypes and derogative statements become part of the political discourse. The bottom line is we're talking about a significant increase in these types of hate crimes," Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino told the Times.

Levin noted that rates of violence against Muslims even seemed to spike in the immediate aftermath of some of Trump's worst comments.

"There is a lot of negative rhetoric," Levin added. "The negative rhetoric is causing the hate, and in turn the hate is causing the violent acts."

Not only has the incidence of hate crimes increased against Muslim people, it has also increased against people who are perceived to be Arab or of Arab descent. In fact, crimes against those perceived as Arab rose even more steeply that crimes against Muslims.

"We see criminal threats against mosques; harassment in schools; and reports of violence targeting Muslim-Americans, Sikhs, people of Arab or South-Asian descent and people perceived to be members of these groups," a Justice Department official, Vanita Gupta, told the Times.

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