Week Four - Big Rise In Anti-muslim Incidents

Question 1

What happened to offline incidents of hate crime?

And what were the nature of these incidents?

Answer 1

Offline incidents trebled from 146 in 2014/15 (12 months to March 2015) to 437 ‘offline’ incidents in the 2015 calendar year (300% increase)

Of the ‘offline’ cases, 219 involved verbal abuse and 74 involved assault (including common assault, battery, as well as attempted and grievous bodily harm).

Question 2

How does hate crime impact individuals?

Answer 2

‘Anti-Muslim hate impacts Muslims when they travel, shop and socialize in public

The largest proportion of victims are Muslim women usually wearing Islamic clothing – be it the hijab, abaya or niqab, perpetrators are overwhelmingly (white) males and verbal abuse from men often carries misogynistic, racist and Islamophobic overtones.