Daily Times

Muslims in England were the victims of almost fifty percent of targeted religious hate crimes during 2019-20, the Home Office data reveals. According to the figures, 6487 religious related crimes were record by the Police forces in England and Wales, out of which 3089 offences were committed against Muslims.

The data released by the Home Office contains statistics about hate crime offences recorded by the police in England and Wales and estimated by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). Out of all 6,822 religious hate crimes recorded by the police in 2019/20, information on the targeted religion was provided in 6,203 of the offences (91%). Muslims are followed by Jewish UK in who faced 1205 incidents of hate crimes during the same period.

According to the stats, in 2019/20, there were 105,090 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, excluding Greater Manchester police, an increase of 8 per cent compared with 2018/19 (97,446 offences). With Just over half (56%) of hate crime offences are recorded as one of these racially or religiously aggravated offences

Home Office analysis shows that 76070 incidents were related to race, 15835 offences to sexual orientation, 6822 religion, 8469 to disability and 2540 toward transgender. Home Office officials believe that Improvements in police recording have been noted as a driver in the increase seen in hate crime offences recorded by the police in recent years. The EU Referendum in UK and the terrorist attacks in 2017 believed to be the main contributing factors for the spikes in hate crime, Home Office pointed out.

According to the finding, in previous years, the majority of hate crimes were race hate crimes, accounting for around three-quarters of offences (72%; 76,070 offences). These increased by six per cent between 2018/19 and 2019/20. However, Religious hate crimes fell by five per cent (to 6,822 offences), down from a peak of 7,203 in the previous year. This was the first fall in religious hate crimes since 2012/13.Violent crimes and criminal damage offences accounted for the majority of hate crime incidents in the CSEW, with 45 per cent of hate crime incidents being violence, and a fifth (20%) being criminal damage.

MP for Manchester Gorton Afzal Khan has expressed concerns over the highest numbers of recorded hate crime offences against Muslims. He believes this has been a consistent trend in the last few years. Home Secretary Priti Patel could outline steps she has taken to address Islamophobia, Khan questioned.