Anti-Muslim incidents soar amid an 'explosion of hate' in the UK

'Explosion in hate': Then number of anti-Muslim incidents has soared
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Hannah Al-Othman29 June 2016
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Anti-Muslim incidents have jumped sharply amid an "explosion of hate" in the UK, a new report has warned.

The study has indicated that women are being disproportionately targeted, with more than three in five victims female.

Monitoring group Tell Mama recorded 437 anti-Muslim crimes or incidents in 2015 which were classified as "offline"- meaning they happened in person between a victim, or property, and a perpetrator.

This compared to 146 in the previous reporting period, the 12 months to March last year.

Tell Mama also catalogued 364 anti-Muslim "online" crimes or incidents which occurred on social media or other internet-based platforms.

Of the offline incidents last year, 219 related to verbal abuse, while 74 involved assault, and instances of vandalism, discrimination and hate speech were also reported.

Of the 468 victims of the incidents, 61 per cent were female.

Almost three-quarters of all female victims were described as "visibly Muslim", according to the study.

The report said the three most common places where attacks occur are public areas such as the pavement on a street or a park - where 111 incidents, or 26 per cent of the total.

A fifth of incidents - 89 in total - occured on the transport network . while 53 - or 12 per cent - took place in businesses.

The report comes amid mounting concern over hate abuse around the country following the EU referendum.

Shahid Malik, chairman of Tell Mama, said: "The statistics paint a profoundly bleak picture of the explosion of anti-Muslim hate both online and on our streets with visible Muslim women being disproportionately targeted by cowardly hatemongers.

"This exponential growth is testament to the fact that despite great efforts to fight anti-Muslim hatred, as a society we are still failing far too many of our citizens.

"With the backdrop of the Brexit vote and the spike in racist incidents that seems to be emerging, the Government should be under no illusions: things could quickly become extremely unpleasant for Britain's minorities."

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