By Jaweed Kaleem
The LA Times

Amid a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes since the presidential election, U.S. Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch plans to make her first visit to a mosque while in office.

Lynch is scheduled to address an interfaith gathering of Muslims and Christians on Monday morning at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, a prominent Islamic center outside Washington, D.C.

Last month the FBI reported a 67% increase in hate crimes against Muslims in 2015 compared with the previous year. Since the election, civil rights groups have documented hundreds of incidents around the country that targeted Muslims, blacks, Jews, Latinos, immigrants and LGBT people.

In a video she released Nov. 18, Lynch called the rise in anti-Muslim crime “alarming” and offered her support to Muslims and other minority groups. She will follow the same theme Monday, according to the Justice Department. The next day, she will hold a roundtable with LGBT youth at a New York high school and visit the Stonewall National Monument to LGBT civil rights.

Some of the recent anti-Muslim incidents involve attackers who have invoked President-elect Donald Trump‘s name, such as in New York City, where police said three men approached an 18-year-old woman on a subway car yelling Trump’s name before attempting to snatch the hijab from her head.

In California, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and several other states, mosques have received letters informing them that Trump is the “new sheriff in town” who will “cleanse America and make it shine again” by doing to Muslims as Hitler did to the Jews.

A man was charged with a hate crime for an incident last week in Brooklyn in which a Muslim police officer was accosted by a man who told her to “go back to your country” and threatened to cut her throat.

Dozens of American mosques have held emergency meetings of their congregations since the election to grapple with the incidents. Muslim clergy and community leaders have said Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail — including his comments that Islam “hates” Americans and suggestions that he will create a Muslim registry — have emboldened attackers.

This week, nearly 300 Muslim leaders released an open letter to Trump expressing their “serious concerns” about his policy proposals and calling on him to protect their communities.

“During and immediately following this year’s presidential election cycle, American Muslim organizations received more reports of anti-Muslim hate crimes than any other period of time since 9/11,” the letter said. “Your recent denunciation of such behavior on ’60 Minutes’ was a positive first step, and we urge you to clearly and strongly condemn bigotry, hate crimes and bias-based school bullying directed at any American, including American Muslims. We call on you to make mutual respect and acceptance a hallmark of your presidency.”