Attacks against religious institutions in the U.S. have surged recently, FBI crime reports reviewed by CBS News show. Justice correspondent Scott MacFarlane has more details.

Washington

FBI crime reports reviewed by CBS News indicate that attacks against religious institutions in the United States have doubled in recent years. These incidents, which include assaults and large-scale plots against churches, synagogues, and temples, have drawn significant concern from federal law enforcement agencies.

The U.S. Department of Justice, including the Civil Rights Division, is treating these attacks as forms of terrorism due to their intent to intimidate worshippers and disrupt religious gatherings. Officials report that addressing this trend has become an increasing priority for federal authorities.

FBI: Attacks against religious institutions have surged in U.S.

All right, moving now to the Midwest, where Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were laid to rest this weekend. They were killed in what investigators called an attack motivated by politics. CBS News has learned the number of attacks on religious institutions in the United States has effectively doubled in recent years. I want to bring in CBS News Justice Correspondent Scott McFarlane to talk more about this. So Scott, break down this new reporting for us. Hey, Vlad. We had to look at these numbers twice to make sure we were seeing them straight. That's how striking this change is. Between 2021 and 2023, the number of assaults in houses of worship, churches, synagogues, temples has doubled. That's a remarkable increase in such a short period of time. It's one that the U.S. Department of Justice is going to have to wrestle with how to get their hands around it. We have seen all these high-profile cases recently, including the tragic shootings of the Israeli embassy officials in Washington, D.C., the targeting of churches. We think back to 2018 and the Tree of Life synagogue and the church shooting in Charleston. But these are happening with a frequency that has gotten the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice. And according to our latest reporting, the recent cases include large-scale attacks plotted at churches in Arizona, in Virginia, in the Midwest. And, Vlad, this is an ongoing, if not increasing, concern of federal law enforcement. All right. Scott, so you spoke also with the newly appointed assistant attorney general for civil rights about this uptick. What did they tell you? Now, Harmeet Dhillon is the new assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. She told me by phone from her office she has this stack of cases on her desk as she goes through just the most recent iterations of these violent attempts against churches, synagogues, houses of worship. And one of the striking quotes she gave us was that she's viewing these, and the Department of Justice is viewing these cases as some form of terrorism, that a hate crime and a targeted crime against a religious institution is a form of terrorism, because it attacks not just the churches, but those, the people who go there. It's meant to deter people from going to worship, and it makes everyone feel unsafe, an enormous priority. And, Vlad, according to our latest reporting, a clearly growing priority of the U.S. Justice Department. All right, Scott McFarlane for us. Scott, thank you.

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