Police forces report sharp rise in religious hate crimes across UK
Police forces report sharp rise in religious hate crimes across UK
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Data shows spikes in antisemitic and Islamophobic offences after outbreak of Middle East conflict and Southport attack. Some of the UK’s largest police forces have reported increases in religious hate crimes in the past 18 months, figures reveal, with the number of incidents rising after the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in autumn 2023 and again after the Southport attacks in England this summer.
Forces including Greater Manchester, West Midlands and the Metropolitan police recorded sharp increases in antisemitic offences in the weeks after the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East in October last year. The same forces then saw an increase in Islamophobic offences after the knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in July that left three young girls dead and several more injured, and led to violent disorder in towns and cities across the country.
The figures, obtained by the PA Media news agency using freedom of information requests, show that Greater Manchester police recorded an average of 13 antisemitic offences a month from January to September 2023, rising to 85 in October and 68 in November before falling back over the following months.
The same force recorded an average of 39 Islamophobic offences a month from January to July 2024 before a sharp jump to 85 in August, with numbers dropping again in September. Similarly, antisemitic offences recorded by West Yorkshire police averaged six a month in earlier 2023, rising to 44 in October before falling again. Islamophobic offences averaged 39 a month in 2024 before rising to 94 in August and then dropping to 73 in September.
