Islamaphobic Hate Crimes Soar in the UK

[Guy]

Hate crimes against Muslims have soared in the UK this year, figures show.

Hundreds of anti-Muslim offences were carried out across the country in 2013, with Britain's biggest force, the Metropolitan police, recording 500 Islamophobic crimes.

Many forces reported a surge in the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes after the murder of soldier Lee Rigby by two Islamic extremists in Woolwich, south-east London, in May.

But the figures could be much higher as nearly half of the 43 forces in England and Wales did not reveal how many hate crimes had targeted Muslims. Some forces admitted they did not always record the faith of a religious hate-crime victim.

Freedom of Information requests were sent by the Press Association to every police force in England and Wales. Of the 43 forces, 24 provided figures on the number of anti-Muslim crimes and incidents recorded.

Tell Mama, a group which monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said it had dealt with 840 cases since April, with the number expected to rise to more than 1,000 by the end of March. This compared with 582 anti-Muslim cases it dealt with from March 2012 to March 2013.

Fiyaz Mujhal, director of Faith Matters, which runs the Tell Mama project, said the reaction to the murder of Rigby had caused the number of Islamophobic crimes to jump significantly.

"The far right groups, particularly the EDL [English Defence League], perniciously use the internet and social media to promote vast amounts of online hate," he said.

Mujhal said tougher sentencing was needed to tackle Islamophobic crime and that guidelines by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to monitor social media were not fit for purpose.

"They raised the bar of prosecution significantly. Now, unless there is a direct threat to somebody on Twitter or Facebook, the CPS will not prosecute. The CPS is just plainly out of sync with reality.

"We also need more robust sentencing. In one case, a pig's head was left outside a mosque and the perpetrator came away with a community sentence. When you target a mosque, you are targeting the whole community."

Tell Mama has called for police forces to improve monitoring of Islamophobic crimes.

"There are three problems we come across," Mujhal said. "Firstly, there is a lack of understanding of the language of Islamophobia thrown at victims in any incidents. Secondly, there is very little training on how to ask relevant questions to pull out anti-Muslim cases.

"Thirdly, recording processes are not in line with each other. One force will allow an officer to flag an incident as anti-Muslim, another force will flag it as religious hate crime. There is no uniformity.

"There must be guidelines for all forces so we can know the level of the problem."

A CPS spokeswoman said: "Online communication can be offensive, shocking or in bad taste.

"However, as set out in CPS guidelines on prosecuting cases involving communications sent via social media, content has to be more than simply offensive to be contrary to the criminal law.

"In order to preserve the right to free speech the threshold for prosecution must be high and only communications that are grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or false are prohibited by the legislation."

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has previously said 71 incidents were reported to its national community tension team over five days after Rigby's murder on 22 May.

Superintendent Paul Giannasi, Acpo's spokesman on hate crime, said: "The police service is committed to reducing the harm caused by hate crime and it is vital that we encourage more victims who suffer crimes to report them to the police or through third party reporting facilities such as Tell Mama.

"Acpo has played a key role in improving reporting mechanisms, including through the development of our True Vision website. This provides information to victims and allows people to report online.

"We would obviously want overall crime levels to reduce and to see fewer victims, but we welcome increases in reported hate crime, as long as they are a sign of increased confidence of victims to report.

"We are working with local police forces, to help improve the way we respond to hate crime and to provide robust and transparent hate crime data."

A justice ministry spokesman said: "These are despicable crimes that devastate lives and communities.

"The courts already hand out tougher punishments where race or religion are found to be aggravating factors. The number of people receiving a custodial sentence for these appalling crimes is higher than ever before."

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...te-crime-soars

A similar story has also been published by the Independent:

Islamophobic hate crimes across Britain have risen dramatically this year, new figures have revealed.

Hundreds of offences were perpetrated against the country's Muslim population in 2013, with the Metropolitan police alone - Britain's largest force - recording 500 Islamophobic crimes, compared with 336 incidents in 2012 and 318 in 2011.

A large number of forces across the country reported a particular surge in the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby by two Islamic extremists in Woolwich, south-east London.

In May, the month in which Fusilier Rigby was killed, Scotland Yard recorded 104 anti-Muslim hate crimes, followed by a further 108 in June.

The figures were obtained by the Press Association which sent Freedom of Information requests to every police force in England and Wales.

However of the 43 forces, just 24 provided figures on the number of anti-Muslim crimes and incidents recorded - with some forces admitting they do not always record the faith of a religious hate crime victim.

It is therefore likely that the actual numbers of incidents of hate crimes against Muslims perpetrated in 2013 was much higher.

Article cut down to size

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...s-9026873.html

I truly believe the media is now fuelling this war of hatred against Muslims. Race riots already helped destroy communities in the North of England in 2001 (Bradford, Oldham, etc.). Perhaps the UK will see a return of such events if the right-wing and racist individuals organise themselves properly. Perhaps, as many of them claim on Facebook pages, their "civil war" is coming.

The most sickening of these attacks though for me is this one: Teenager jailed for racist attack on pensioner, 79, heading to pray at mosque. Absolutely disgusting. This story however didn't receive the ongoing coverage like that of Lee Rigby. It's revolting to see this mindless soldier/anti-Muslim worship continue similar to the new poppy fascism which is growing in the country.

Yet these idiots will happily buy a kebab at the weekend. The beautiful hypocrisy of this damned nation.

God help this land of idiots - me included.

[Heathen Hammer]

A lot of people do not like Islam because it is in itself hateful and backwards, just like all the other abrahamic religions. Doesn't justify physical, assaults thou.
As for the "hate crime" - it is a rather ridiculous term. Attacking someone for their wallet is in no way lesser crime then attacking someone for color of their skin or clothes they wear.
Also there is a lot of mass media pressure against almost anyone who speaks out against Islam in Europe. Everyone can talk about Christianity as negative as they want, and it is entirely acceptable (just like it should be), but anything against Islam is almost instantly labeled as "racism".

[Roma_Victrix]

Calling these assaults as "hate crimes" - so long as they don't involve impersonal muggings and such - would be fine and dandy if the term wasn't hypocritically applied in a one-sided manner. The killers of Lee Rigby clearly hated him for being a soldier; his killers had also assumed he was not a Muslim. They were thus targeting people because of their ethnic and religious affiliations. That is THE DEFINITION of a hate crime, which is oddly not applied to assaults and murders of native white Brits like Rigby.

That being said, screw the little coward who attacked that 79-year-old man going to the mosque. I don't care how much one despises Islam or its violent rhetoric; anyone who attacks the elderly deserves to be strung up by their balls. At the very least he needs a maximum sentence for assault and battery. Teenager or not, he should understand the consequences for that or something equally despicable, like, for instance, assaulting a defenseless toddler.

[Denny Crane!]

That rise may be true and could perhaps be stopped by not waging wars on muslim countries fuelling terrorism and the perception of danger from muslims in revenge attacks.

So no more wars kay?

And why am I not worried? Organised racism has never had less of a toehold in the UK system. After tthe collapse of BNP organisations and the slow deflation od EDL I think people of that ilk thought UKIP would be their new posterboy. They have to much genuine success to chase though other than the occasional right wing populist rabble rousing they are fond of and gathers reactionary support without the racist BNP elements being needed or wanted.


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[Basil II the B.S]

That rise may be true and could perhaps be stopped by not waging wars on muslim countries fuelling terrorism and the perception of danger from muslims in revenge attacks.

So no more wars kay?

More or like this. War on ''Terror''+importing immigrants from the same area=bad idea.

[mongrel]

More or like this. War on ''Terror''+importing immigrants from the same area=bad idea.

Did we declare war on Poland?

That rise may be true and could perhaps be stopped by not waging wars on muslim countries fuelling terrorism and the perception of danger from muslims in revenge attacks.

So no more wars kay?

And why am I not worried? Organised racism has never had less of a toehold in the UK system. After tthe collapse of BNP organisations and the slow deflation od EDL I think people of that ilk thought UKIP would be their new posterboy. They have to much genuine success to chase though other than the occasional right wing populist rabble rousing they are fond of and gathers reactionary support without the racist BNP elements being needed or wanted.


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I agree wholeheartedly there. There was a time when columnists in dodgier media pushed the limits during the Blair era by promoting Eurabia and the Daily Star flirted with the EDL until Richard Desmond was warned off by the Board of Jewish Deputies but this was Blair era stuff, but this rubbish never took a hold in mainstream politics, except with UKIP .

But say that the reason they are doing it, is because of Islam. Now how could that possibly lead to anyone hating Islam or muslims? Colour me surprised.

As irrational as hating all Americans for the Snowden revelations, Obama, drones and Guantanamo.

[Simon Cashmere]

I truly believe the media is now fuelling this war of hatred against Muslims.

No, the people best by many many multiples, at fuelling hatred of muslims, are muslims themselves.

[Central Asian Qaghan]

No, the people best by many many multiples, at fuelling hatred of muslims, are muslims themselves.

Once again proof of your BS claim?

[Dr Zoidberg]

No, the people best by many many multiples, at fuelling hatred of muslims, are muslims themselves.

Once again proof of your BS claim?

Just taking a guess but off the top of my head.... 9/11, 2002 Bali Bombings, 2003 Australian Embassy Bombing, 2005 London Bombings, Madrid Train Bombing, Indian Hotel Attack/Bombing; not to mention the shed-load of sectarian-fuelled bombings in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, which ironically usually target "fellow" Muslims.

[Simon Cashmere]

But say that the reason they are doing it, is because of Islam. Now how could that possibly lead to anyone hating Islam or muslims? Colour me surprised.

[Ahlerich]

the thing is that the reason for terror attacks is not more or less because of islam as the western "responses" are because of christianity. the motivation is power and wealth by the leaders of any faction. the west just uses non-religious propaganda to manipulate its people into these wars while the terrorist groups use religion. both sides pick propaganda that works and in the west religion is just no powerful propaganda tool anymore. (it used to if you remember the crusades or even the war on the balkan not so long ago)


of course most people are easily manipulated when the manipulator uses the right tool and these people stand most vigorously in the first row to defend against whatever the desired enemy of the puppet masters is.

this increasing violence against muslims mentioned is just the consequence.

[mongrel]

the thing is that the reason for terror attacks is not more or less because of islam as the western "responses" are because of christianity. the motivation is power and wealth by the leaders of any faction. the west just uses non-religious propaganda to manipulate its people into these wars while the terrorist groups use religion. both sides pick propaganda that works and in the west religion is just no powerful propaganda tool anymore. (it used to if you remember the crusades or even the war on the balkan not so long ago)


of course most people are easily manipulated when the manipulator uses the right tool and these people stand most vigorously in the first row to defend against whatever the desired enemy of the puppet masters is.this increasing violence against muslims mentioned is just the consequence.

I am curious to know what motivated a recently convicted terrorist.

Pavlo Lapshyn, 25, was a PHD technology student, on a lucrative job placement. He was in Britain for all of five days before he stabbed a defenceless 82-year-old Muslim guy for no reason launching a three month nail-bombing campaign, targeting mosques.

In mitigation, he said he wanted to start a race war. The man is clearly intelligent, not your typical racist loser. Yet he too was susceptible to the idea that it is right to kill people who are different to you.

So we can all agree that all Abrahamic religions are shite?

No, because I doubt if you know who King James is, let alone studied his famous commissioned work.

[PointOfViewGun]

Terror attacks perpetrated by Muslim groups does not justify irrational hatred of Muslims in general.

[Phier]

Terror attacks perpetrated by Muslim groups does not justify irrational hatred of Muslims in general.

But a rational dislike of their religion I think is ok.

[mongrel]

But a rational dislike of their religion I think is ok.

To the extent of committing murder assault and arson, or shall we presume that such behavior is irrational?

[Phier]

To the extent of committing murder assault and arson, or shall we presume that such behavior is irrational?

Of course its "rational" what it is also illegal. If you feel that a religion is a bad for your country, and you believe that committing murder and assault and arson will somehow prevent it from taking root, than you have a rational for your behavior. It would work too if enough people followed the same behavior. Terrorism is in fact very rational.

The problem with evil is that its very effective and rational at solving problems.

[Rijul.J.Ballal]

Terror attacks perpetrated by Muslim groups does not justify irrational hatred of Muslims in general.

But would the perpetrators of the crime listen to that rational?

[PointOfViewGun]

But would the perpetrators of the crime listen to that rational?

Whether they would or not is irrelevant (assuming the crime you refer to is the one committed by Muslim groups). I doubt they perform those attacks with the purpose of being hated as well though.

[Phalanx300]

You reap what you sow, people wont always accept everything you trow at them at some point. If the government fails to stop the issues leading to this then there is no stopping it really.

[mongrel]

You reap what you sow, people wont always accept everything you trow at them at some point. If the government fails to stop the issues leading to this then there is no stopping it really.

Yes there is a means of stopping this, imprison the buggers. It works, look how the EDL has imploded as its membership swapped social security numbers for prison numbers.