Yesterday, the Community Security Trust (a British Jewish organization akin to the US’s Anti-Defamation League) released its semi-annual report detailing anti-Semitic incidents for the first half of 2015. It “shows a 53% increase in antisemitic incidents compared to the same period last year.” This continues the sharp increase shown by its report for 2014. Police figures confirm the increase.
In an article republished today by Islamist Watch (an earlier version was previously published by Breitbart), I examine the problem of hate crimes against Jews and Muslims in the United Kingdom.
There have been many anecdotal claims – including claims by the British government – of a rise in hate crimes against Muslims. Police records show a sharp increase in the number of crimes against Jews; police records only inconsistently report on hate crimes against Muslims. The available records suggest that proportionally, Jews are far more likely than Muslims to be on the receiving end of hate crimes.
The article concludes by suggesting the British government improve its record-keeping for crimes targeting Muslims and Jews, and combat them with resources appropriate to the scale of the problem.
Johanna Markind is associate counselor at the Middle East Forum
