Oh, really?????
There has apparently been a noticeable increase in violence against anyone who looks like they might be from the Middle East - don't know if shaving off one's beard would help that much however.
The letter though does sound rather overblown - there are a lot of people in this country who have Middle Eastern ancestry or origins; one would expect a certain amount of violence as one would with any large group of people. I don't get the impression that the actual numbers we're talking about are all that large. Most of it would be of the same routine criminal activity to which anyone living in a big city would be at risk.
In other words I don't think violence against people purely because of their ethnic origin being from the Middle East has risen to large numbers of incidents compared to total incidents of violence - just that there been a big increase from a tiny number to a somewhat less tiny number.
I agree with your post.
The thing that struck me about the letter that Donna posted was that it was dated Sept. 20th, 2001. I highly doubt that between 9/11/01 and 9/20/01 that Middle Easterners were being "killed on a daily basis". It does sound quite overblown.