Hate crimes against UK Muslims soar after Paris attacks

There has been a 300 per cent spike in Islamophobic hate crimes in Britain since ISIS’ horrific Paris attacks with most victims being Muslim women wearing traditional Islamic dress.

A report to the British government’s working group on anti-Muslim hatred shows a spike in Islamophobic hate crime of more than 300 per cent, to 115, in the week following the killings on November 13 in France, The Independent reported.

Muslims living in Britain have suffered more than 100 racial attacks since the terrorist atrocities in Paris, the daily said citing figures prepared for ministers.

Most victims of the UK hate crimes were Muslim girls and women aged from 14 to 45 in traditional Islamic dress. The perpetrators were mainly white males aged from 15 to 35, it said.

The figures were compiled by the Tell Mama helpline, which records incidents of verbal and physical attacks on Muslims and mosques in the UK.

They are likely to be a significant underestimate of the total, as many victims are too frightened to contact police or community groups, the report said.

The report said a large number of the reported attacks were in public places, including on buses and trains. Thirty-four victims were women wearing the hijab, while eight involved young children.

“Many of the victims have suggested that no one came to their assistance or even consoled them, meaning that they felt victimised, embarrassed, alone and angry about what had taken place against them. Sixteen of the victims even mentioned that they would be fearful of going out in the future and that the experiences had affected their confidence,” the report to the government’s working group states.

“Out of these cases on public transport, eight involved young children who had heard the comments against their mothers, and their mothers said their children had seen them being fearful as perpetrators took aggressive physical postures against them,” it states.

In one recent case in London a young girl wearing a hijab was abused on a Tube train. A man described how the girl, sitting opposite him, was subjected to a racist rant from another man.

In another case, a mother pulled her young daughter out of school in Edinburgh, claiming anti-Islamic bullying had intensified in the wake of the Paris attacks.

“The bullying has got worse since the Paris attacks. Nobody deserves to be treated like she has been,” the mother was quoted as saying.