Police report UK spike in Islamophobic and antisemitic hate crimes

Some of the UK's largest police forces have reported a spike in religious hate crimes in the past 18 months, figures reveal, with the number of incidents increasing after the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in autumn 2023, and again following the Southport attack in England this year.

- Hannah Al-Othman

Forces including Greater Manchester, West Midlands, and the Metropolitan police recorded a sharp increase in antisemitic offences in the weeks after the outbreak of war in the Middle East in October last year.

The same forces then noted an increase in Islamophobic offences after the knife attack at a dance class in Southport in July this year that left three children dead and led to violent disorder in towns and cities across the country after a torrent of misinformation was spread on social media by rightwing accounts.

The figures, obtained by the PA Media news agency using freedom of information requests, showed 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, falling back over the following months.