The Muslim Community Safety Forum (MCSF) released its long awaited report following a conference held last November at Beeston’s Hamara Centre, together with detailed important information relevant to the work of MCSF across West Yorkshire, and the need for the police, local authorities and third party reporting centres to work towards addressing the rising tide of anti-Muslim hate crime.
Kauser Jan, Chair of the MCSF said:
“We are calling on the police, local authorities and others who deal with hate crime to do more in tackling the worryingly rising trend of anti-Muslim hate crime across West Yorkshire. Official statistics underestimate the extent anti-Muslim hate crime, as there is reluctance by victims to report.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of those encountering anti-Muslim hate crime are Muslim women because of their visible religious identity markers. Whilst they are encouraged to come forward and report, they do not see the point.
The report cites that in November 2015, Islamophobic offences had more than doubled since 2010. According to the Home Office reports on Hate Crime in England and Wales in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, racial and religious hate crime accounts for 88% of motivating factors for hate crime recorded by West Yorkshire Police.
The police force recorded 40 anti-Islam hate crimes in the first six months since sub-categories of the faith strand of hate crime reporting was introduced on the 13th October 2014. This figure equated to 57.2% of all faith based hate crimes.
This figure worryingly increased to 75 incidents between June and November 2015, equating to 84.3% of faith based hate crimes. It is apparent that there is an increase in hate crimes against Muslim victims and after the 13/11/15 Paris attacks, out of 13 faith related occurrences, 12 were against Muslim victims.
“In order to be effective and help victims, we are recommending that awareness needs to be raised at a grass roots of the nature of hate crime and what actually happens once an incident has been reported; intelligence is shared on the numbers of victims of anti-Muslim hate crime and these figures are used to direct resources where they are needed most; and the five local authorities should commit to developing and implementing a Yorkshire-wide strategy to tackle Islamophobia. We are also very happy that Mark Burns-Williamson has agreed he will continue to work with the MCSF to challenge Islamophobia” Said Kauser Jan, Chair of the MCSF.
The MCSF is committed to increasing its strategic reach across West Yorkshire, whilst simultaneously actively trying to increase its representation.
You can read the full report here: hamara.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MCSF-Report-Final.pdf?mc_cid=7477378ebf&mc_eid=e722aaa687
Fully behind this important move. Solidarity xx
The problem here is not the number of “hate crimes” reported, but the idea of “hate crime” itself and, in particular, the active encouragement of people to report more of them.
As defined by the Association of Chief Police Officers and CPS, a “hate crime” is: “Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender.”
This is so broad and subjective as to include anything: lumping together instances of minor unpleasantness with real crimes – and in the process criminalizing ever more aspects of speech. So it is hardly surprising that an ever-expanding definition (e.g. the recent criminalization of wolf-whistling by Nottingham Police) leads to ever-rising figures – and especially when encouraged by tarnished police forces and self-appointed community groups trying to bolster their public profiles.