London, Thanasis Gavos

Sharp increases in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic offenses respectively following the attacks on 7 October 2023 in Israel and 29 July 2024 in Southport show new figures from local police forces in the UK.

For example, London’s Metropolitan Police saw the number of anti-Semitic offenses and more serious crimes rise to 517 in October 2023, 411 in November and 228 in December, while the corresponding average for each of the previous months was 54.

Islamophobic offenses in the capital rose from a monthly average of 116 between March and July 2024 to 190 in August, following the murderous knife attack by youngster Axel Rudaqubana on young girls at a dance class in Southport, NW England.

The attack, which claimed the lives of three girls aged six, seven and nine and was mistakenly attributed to a migrant, sparked widespread incidents in many parts of the country, mainly by far-right elements.

Greater Manchester Police recorded an average of 13 anti-Semitic offenses or more serious crimes each month between January and September 2023. In October, following the Hamas attack, the number of such offenses jumped to 85 in the Manchester area and at 68 in November.

The same police department recorded 85 offenses of an Islamophobic nature in August 2024, following the attack in Southport. Before the August surge, Manchester was recording an average of 39 Islamophobic offenses each month.

A similar picture emerges from West Yorkshire Police figures, with 44 anti-Semitic offenses in October 2023 compared to a monthly average of four in the previous period, and 94 Islamophobic offenses following the Southport attack compared to an average of 39 previous months.

Corresponding increases, albeit in smaller absolute numbers, were recorded by another 33 regional police directorates of the country.

Home Secretary for Policing and Crime Prevention Dame Diana Johnson commented that those who commit hate crimes, whether religious or otherwise, should be in no doubt that they will face the full force of the law.

“The significant increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crimes is very serious and for this we have committed up to 47.4 million. pounds a year to protect Jewish and Muslim communities until 2027-28,” added the deputy minister.