An explosion in religious hate crime over the past 18 months has been revealed by police figures.
The largest forces recorded a dramatic surge in such offences after the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in the autumn of 2023 and following the Southport murders this summer.
In some areas, anti-Semitic crimes rose ten-fold following the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East on October 7 last year. Separately, Islamophobic offences more than doubled when riots broke out after three girls were stabbed to death in Southport on July 29.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson has called for perpetrators of hate crime to face the full force of the law to ‘stamp out the toxic vitriol spread by a minority of people’.
The Metropolitan force saw a massive increase in anti-Semitic offences from an average of 54 offences per month in January to September 2023 to 517 in October and 411 in November 2023.
In the wake of the Southport attacks, which triggered a blizzard of false information online, there was a rise in Islamophobic offences from an average of 116 recorded each month from March to July, to 190 in August.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show Greater Manchester Police saw a spike from an average of 13 anti-Semitic offences per month from January to September 2023 to 85 in October and 68 in November.
Islamophobic offences surged from 35 a month in 2023 to 85 in August 2024 following the murders in the neighbouring force area.
Dave Rich, of the Jewish charity, the Community Security Trust, said: ‘These figures show similar trends as CST’s own anti-Semitic data, with a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes following the October 7 attack last year to levels that have still not returned to what used to be considered “normal”.
‘The increases are even more shocking when set against the relatively small size of the Jewish communities in some of these places.’
Iman Atta, director of Tell Mama which monitors anti-Muslim hate, said: ‘Anti-Muslim hate or Islamophobia spikes repeatedly when there are international issues… So these figures are not surprising.’
Dame Diana said: ‘These numbers are deeply troubling.
‘We are determined to stamp out the toxic vitriol which is spread by a minority of people, and perpetrators of hate crime should be in no doubt that they will face the full force of the law.’