Hate Crimes against Muslims doubled in UK in 2017
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LONDON: Violence, intimidation, assaults and other hate crimes targeting mosques and Muslims have doubled in Britain during the current year, according to police records.
The police recorded 110 hate crimes from March to July 2017 in Britain compared to 47 in 2016.
Crimes include racist abuse, threats to bomb mosques, attacks on mosques and worshipers.
Shadow Home Secretary Diana Abbott strongly condemned the rise in hate crimes and said that it is totally unacceptable.
In a report obtained by local media, under the freedom of information(FOI), suggests that a comprehensive law was needed in the country to stop the hate crimes, “major incidents of hate crimes took place in London and Manchester”.
The report also says that racist abuse and threats to "bomb the mosque" feature heavily among the reported hate crime as do incidents of offenders smashing windows of buildings and parked cars.
Other crimes include offensive graffiti sprayed onto buildings, violent assaults on worshippers, two cases of arson and two cases of individuals leaving bacon on door handles of mosques.
“The figures, based on 42 responses from 45 forces, also show 25 forces saw a year-on-year increase in hate crimes directed at mosques, with the biggest rise reported by Greater Manchester Police (nine crimes, up from zero) and London's Metropolitan Police (17 crimes, up from eight).
Threats, harassment or other intimidating behavior more than tripled, from 14 incidents in 2016 to 49 in 2017.
Violent crime against individuals also more than doubled, from five recorded crimes against worshippers at mosques in 2016 to 11 crimes in 2017.
Crimes recorded as vandalism or criminal damage increased from 12 in 2016 to 15 in 2017.
Due to differences in how police forces record their statistics and the fact that not all forces are included in the figures, the true number of hate crimes directed at mosques are likely to be higher.
Britain endured several terror attacks claimed by Daesh over the period in which the crimes were recorded, at London Bridge, Westminster and Manchester.
The figures came to light within weeks of separate incidents in which an imam and a surgeon who treated Manchester bombing victims were stabbed outside a mosque in Cheshire and a 14-year-old boy was stabbed multiple times in the face and neck outside a mosque in Birmingham.
Other high-profile cases of hate crime at mosques this year include the Finsbury Park terror attack in June, a Manchester mosque gutted by fire in an arson attack in July and the sending of white powder and bomb threats to three mosques across London in July.
