Analysis: UK Muslims face highest rate of hate crimes but police figures undercount them

Are hate crimes against Muslims in Britain being under-counted and even downplayed? “Jewish people are almost 10 times more likely than Muslims to be victims of religious hate crimes,” The Times newspaper reported on 30 April. “Per head of population Jews experienced more than eight times as many hate crime incidents as Muslims,” according to BBC Panorama that same month. In July 2026 Lord John Mann, the government’s antisemitism tsar, said that “Jewish people proportionately face the highest level of reported hate crime of any religious group”. While the surge in antisemitism has been recognised in mainstream political discourse, at the same time hate crimes targeting Muslims appear to have been significantly underrepresented in police data. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters A recently published Home Office report indicates that Muslims face the highest rate of hate crimes in the country, but this is not being reflected in police data. Labour MP John McDonnell told Middle East Eye: “This serious under-estimation of the hate crimes against Muslims by the police and other authorities skews the policies needed in place to protect the Muslim community.” He added: “Unless this is acknowledged and addressed it could put Muslims at further risk. I am urging the government to urgently recognise the seriousness of this issue.” When hate crimes are presented in the media or discussed by senior politicians, including members of the government, police figures tend to be referenced. According to the police record of religious hate crimes in 2025, 12 out of every 10,000 Muslims faced a hate crime in the "religion" category, while 106 out of 10,000 Jews did so. Labour minister: British Muslims haven't always been heard but Burnham will change that Read More » There are multiple categories of hate crime, including "religion" and "race". The police data does not record the religion of victims of hate crimes in the "race" category, which makes it significantly less comprehensive than data published every three years by the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW). According to CSEW data for April 2022 to March 2025, 1 percent of Muslims experienced a hate crime in the “race” category and 0.8 percent experienced one in the “religion” category. This data showed that Muslims were the most likely group to face both religious and race-based hate crime of any religious and ethnic group. In comparison, the figures for Asian people were 0.7 percent for race and 0.5 percent for religion; for Black people 0.7 percent for race and 0.1 percent for religion; for Sikhs 0.5 percent for race and 0.1 percent for religion; for Jewish people 0.2 percent for race and 0.4 percent for religion. Discrepancy in hate crime figures The Office for Statistics Regulation has advised that police and CSEW statistics should be “used alongside each other” in order to provide a more “complete picture of hate crime”. This is rarely done in citations and coverage. The Home Office report on police-recorded hate crimes covering the year up to March 2026, which was published earlier this month, shows that 13 out of 10,000 Muslims have suffered a hate crime. But the report notes that CSEW figures, “published in 2025, estimated that 0.8% of Muslims experienced a religious hate crime per year on average, compared with 0.4% of Jewish people.” What explains the significant gulf between police and CSEW figures? UK settlements ban: How conspiracy theory accusing Burnham of courting 'Islamist voters' went global Read More » The Home Office report said: “The different pattern between the two data sources may be due to the likelihood of a crime being reported to the police and the different coverage between the sources.” A January 2026 survey by the parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee indicated that as few 12.5 percent of Muslim females reported hate crimes they experienced, which suggests most anti-Muslim hate crimes are unable to be counted. The Jewish Voice for Liberation group (JVL), which has met the Office for Statistics Regulation on the matter, said in an analysis of the data: “Police recorded hate crime data has recognized limitations. They are exposed to a significant variation in victim reporting rates and police recording procedures, and they do not publish victim religion under the much larger strand of Race. “CSEW data relates to a direct victim survey and is therefore neither affected by variable victim reporting rates, nor by differences in police recording.” JVL added: “The Home Office’s advice always to present CSEW data alongside police statistics for a more reliable assessment has largely been ignored by the media, politicians and, worryingly, even governments.” 'This is a shared experience' Jenny Manson, a co-chair of JVL, told MEE: “We had a very useful meeting with the Office for Statistics Regulation.” She added that “they told us they would report our findings to the Home Office” and advise it to qualify its hate crimes report for the year ending March 2026. Manson noted that the recently released report gave “greater prominence” to the CSEW statistics. “Some attempts are made to explain this difference [with the police figures] but this does not go deep enough. “Muslims and Jews are facing an undoubted increase in Islamophobia and in antisemitism,” Manson said. “We know that the best way to counter this is to recognise that such prejudice and religious and racial hatred are interlinked; this is a shared experience. “The double standards shown towards Muslims, particularly from the right, by minimising Islamophobia, are very destructive to both our communities.” Dr Alan Maddison, who conducted the analysis published by the JVL, told MEE the Home Office should record the religion and ethnicity of victims in both the “race” and “religion” categories. “Until then they should publish all victim group CSEW data every year in their annual reports, and address the contradiction with police-recorded religious hate crime rates,” Maddison added. “Political focus on the latter will seriously misguide government resource allocation and prioritisation of action plans.” 'Hostility towards Muslims has been normalised' The recently published police data recorded a 15 percent rise in hate crimes targeting Muslims, from 4,479 to 5,132 per year. Dr Naomi Green, the assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, told MEE: “Year after year, we are confronted with increasing hostility towards British Muslims, yet there remains a reluctance to confront the political and social climate in which it is taking place. “Beyond the figures, what is particularly disturbing is the extent to which hostility towards Muslims has been normalised within mainstream political discourse.” Green added: “Political leaders cannot credibly condemn anti-Muslim hate crime while contributing to the climate of suspicion and hostility in which it flourishes. UK universities worked together to suppress pro-Palestine activism, report reveals Read More » “British Muslims should not have to continually defend their place in a country to which they belong and the government must step up to deliver on its promise to appoint a special tsar, adopt the recommendations to make the Protective Security Funding Scheme for mosques work and protect all faith communities equally against hate not selectively.” A Home Office spokesperson told MEE: "Muslims in this country face appalling levels of hate crime and this government is committed to tackling this. "We have provided £40 million to fund protective security for Muslim communities and wider measures to tackle anti-Muslim hatred. We have also increased support for victim reporting services and created a clearer definition of anti-Muslim hostility so these incidents can be reported more consistently." The British Muslim Trust (BMT), appointed by the government last year to monitor anti-Muslim hate, recorded 78 incidents involving mosques between 21 July 2025 and 30 July 2026. According to the BMT, 62.7 percent of incidents since November 2025 involved either weapons or threats to kill, arson or direct violence, alleged mass-casualty plots or threats and sustained harassment. Earlier this week a report on antisemitism in British schools was published, which revealed that three in five Jewish pupils have experienced antisemitism in school. The report indicated a serious surge in antisemitism in schools, with review author Sir David Bell urging schools to recognise antisemitism as a distinct category of harm. The government said it would accept the review’s findings in full.