London:
Anti-Muslim hate incidents in the UK have more than tripled following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, a monitoring group said on Thursday.
Tell MAMA has recorded 2,010 such cases in the four months since the conflict began on October 7 with a deadly Hamas attack on Israel.
A statement from the organization said it was the highest number of cases on record in four months. The organization was established to monitor and report such incidents.
The latest figures represent a 335% increase from the 600 incidents recorded during the same period in 2022-2023.
Iman Atta, director of Tell MAMA, said: “We are deeply concerned about the impact the war between Israel and Gaza is having on hate crime and social cohesion in the UK.”
“The rise in anti-Muslim hatred is unacceptable, and we want political leaders to speak out and send a clear message that anti-Muslim hatred, like anti-Semitism, is unacceptable in our country.”
Tell MAMA said there were 901 cases offline and 1,109 cases online. It added that most of the offline incidents occurred in London, the British capital.
These include abusive behaviour, threats, attacks, vandalism, discrimination, hate speech and anti-Muslim literature.
The organization said women were targeted in 65% of cases.
Earlier this month, a Jewish charity reported that anti-Semitic incidents in the UK reached record levels last year, with incidents surging following Hamas attacks.
The Community Safety Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in the UK, recorded 4,103 “anti-Semitic hate incidents” in 2023, the highest annual record since counting began in 1984.
This is a 147% increase from the 1,662 incidents recorded in 2022.
According to AFP statistics based on official Israeli data, Hamas attacks killed about 1,160 people in Israel, most of them civilians.
Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza and ongoing military operations have killed at least 29,410 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled region.
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