Some $7.5 million in grant funding will be awarded to nonprofits and faith-based organizations in Michigan from the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) in the days ahead, to help these organizations secure their facilities.
In recent years, the number of hate crimes have trended upward. The most recent year on record was 2021, when hate crimes leapt 11.6 percent over 2020. Anti-religious crimes that year clocked in at more than 1,590 incidents, rising up from 13.3 percent of total hate crimes in 2020 to 14.1 percent in 2021.
The effort was guided in part by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, who helped lead reauthorization of the program last Congress and helped secure funding increases for it in recent years. The Anti-Defamation League and Center for Strategic and International Studies also found that white supremacist and anti-government domestic violent extremists now represent the greatest threat to Americans – as experienced in attacks at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, among others.
“Houses of worship in Michigan and across the country continue to face threats and attacks that are inspired by hate based on religion, like antisemitism and Islamophobia,” Peters said. “While this funding will be critical to helping communities feel safer, I will continue pushing the federal government to do more to combat the continued threat of domestic terrorism, including white supremacist violence.”
Funding from the NGSP, as in the $305 million provided via last year’s funding bill, can be utilized by religious and other non-profit institutions for building security, personnel training and other activities to help protect against violent attacks.