Anti-Muslim hate crimes rise again
The TellMama organisation which measures anti-Muslim attacks in the UK has released a new report which shows a worrying upwards trend of attacks perpetrated on Muslims in London.
After the BBC News London site reported that attacks on Muslims have risen by 65% the Tell Mama team got to work having a deeper look into the statistics which the BBC had used for their report.
We decided to investigate this further and judge whether the proliferation of anti-Muslim attacks in the summer of 2013 was a temporary spike. To do this, we submitted a Freedom of Information Request to the Metropolitan Police requesting a detailed breakdown of every anti-Muslim hate crime from April 2012 to August 2014 by borough (which is available as a PDF and an Excel spreadsheet). Looking at the data, we find an even more disturbing story, illustrated in the infographic below.
Before the Woolwich incident, from April 2012 to April 2013, there was an average of 28 anti-Muslim hate crimes per month. In April 2013, there were 22 anti-Muslim hate crimes in London, but in May (when Lee Rigby is murdered) that number soars to 109 crimes. As the infographic shows, this spike lasts until about July 2013. By August, it appears that anti-Muslim hate crime is back to a normal level.
However, if we measure anti-Muslim hate crimes from August 2013 to September 2014 the average number of hate crimes sits at 45 per month, a 60% rise compared to the average prior to the Woolwich incident, suggesting a long-term increase in the average level of anti-Muslim hate crimes in London.
As TellMama have shown, taking a deeper look at the information reveals an even more shocking truth of anti-Muslim attacks then the BBC article suggested.
As some people in the general public and a large proportion of the media keep associating the violence by some Muslims with supposed teachings from Islam the violence against Muslims in London and the rest of the World will only get worse.
As this book from Dr Zahid Aziz, a member of our Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam proves, Islam is about peace and tolerance.
