Home Office figures revealed that religious hate crimes across England and Wales rose by 25 per cent in the year ending March 2024 – driven by the disproportionate targeting of Muslim and Jewish communities.
The Home Office briefing, drawing on data from 31 police forces, cited that the “increase was driven by a rise in hate crimes against Jewish people and to a lesser extent Muslims and has occurred since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict,” adding that this was “the highest annual count in these offences since the hate crime collection began in the year ending March 2012.”
In the year ending March 2024, religiously aggravated hate crime figures stood at 10,484 offences, with 8,370 offences recorded by forces the previous year.
Recorded hate crimes towards Muslim communities rose 13 per cent, with 3,866 offences compared to the previous figure of 3,400 offences. Almost two in 5 of those targeted in religious hate crimes were Muslims, and the targeting of Jewish communities more than doubled in the recorded data from the previous year, accounting for more than one-third of religious hate crimes (33 per cent).
Offences towards Muslim communities across England and Wales rose by 67.5 per cent between September and October last year, rising from 194 offences to 325 offences and rising by a further 11.38 per cent the following month.
Credit: Home Office
The figures for December dropped slightly from the previous month but remained higher than offences recorded in September, August and July 2023. This pattern followed into 2024, with 332 offences against Muslims recorded by forces in March this year.
Several days ago, Tell MAMA revealed how it recorded almost 5,000 anti-Muslim and Islamophobic cases towards Muslim communities across the UK a year after the deadly Hamas terror attacks on 7 October 2023.
As our article mentioned, our service recorded cases of “violence, abuse, and discrimination – Muslims targeted for displaying pro-Palestine views, hostility in the workplace, or even losing out on employment or job opportunities based on their social media posts about Palestine or the war. Individuals described harassment or abuse when speaking Arabic in public areas.”
Our Director, Iman Atta, made clear that anti-Muslim hatred and discrimination harms the social mobility of Muslims, harms their careers or studies, and undermines their fundamental rights. Adding that “It falls on politicians, the media and other public bodies to do more to help Muslim communities, but also challenge stereotypes and falsehoods and undo the normalisation of tropes that link communities to violence and criminality or as cultural threats. The challenge is collective: we must not lose sight of what brings communities together.”
Tell MAMA has also produced updated safety advice for communities, including an Arabic translation.
Other safety tips and security advice for mosques appear on our Resources.