WASHINGTON, 1 May — Muslims living in the United States are facing greater discrimination in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a report released yesterday by a US Islamic group.

"Data gathered for this report demonstrate that Muslims in the United States are more apprehensive than ever about discrimination and intolerance," the authors wrote in the report, entitled "Stereotypes and Civil Liberties."

The number of "anti-Muslim incidents" nearly tripled during the 12-month period ending in March 2002, which had 1,125 reports, compared with 366 during the previous 12 months, according to the 50-page study by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The report stressed that the individual freedoms of nearly 60,000 US Muslims were "negatively impacted by government policies" instituted after the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people in New York, in Pennsylvania and outside Washington.

The figure includes some 1,200 Muslims who were detained by immigration officials and "treated as if they were terrorists," and 5,000 legal visa holders who were asked to submit to "voluntary interrogations." It also includes 50,000 other people who donated money to Muslim relief organizations that were declared illegal and shut down by the US government after Sept. 11.

Some 1,516 incidents of threats, discrimination, harassment and even physical attacks were cited, while some 2,200 people were "targeted because of actual or perceived religion and ethnicity."

The most serious incidents occurred immediately after the terror attacks on US landmarks, according to the study, which covers the period from March 2001 to March 2002. The report was the seventh of its kind produced by CAIR since 1995.

Some seven million Muslims live in the United States, according to official estimates.

Meanwhile, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted Robert Muller, director of the FBI, as saying US officials have not yet gathered any evidence on how the terrorists carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, despite the massive investigations carried out by the FBI.

"The hijackers did not leave any written evidence. We have not found even a single paper related to the Sept. 11 attacks during our investigations either in the United States or in Afghanistan," he said.

In another development, US officials in Chicago arrested the head of a Muslim charity here yesterday on perjury charges, and accused him of having links with Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network stretching back 10 years.

Enaam Arnauot, the 39-year-old executive director of Benevolence International Foundation, was arrested at his home in suburban Chicago early yesterday by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Syrian-born US citizen sometimes known as "Abu Mahmoud" and "Abdel Samia," appeared in US district court later yesterday on charges that he lied in federal court documents about links to "international terrorism", the local states attorney’s office said in a statement.

He did not answer the charges and was ordered held until his May 7 detention hearing and preliminary examination because government prosecutors consider him a flight risk.