Nadine Osman
Two-thirds of Nottingham’s Muslims have been victims of hate crime, according to one of the largest studies ever conducted into hate crime in the city.
A third of people in Nottingham have experienced hate crime (35 per cent), an increase of 6 per cent since the last citizen survey No Place for Hate in 2013/14, with the majority happening in the city centre and public spaces.
As part of the report for Nottingham Citizens, part of community organising charity Citizens UK, the experiences of over 4,170 people in the city were collected, including frequency, causes and locations of hate crimes, building on five years of work to tackle hate crime in the city.
The first part of the survey, published today, represents the experiences of 1202 people responding to a city survey. A second report on the experiences of 2,968 school and college children is due to be published over the summer.
Most respondents in the city survey had not reported the crime to the police (79 per cent) and of those who did, 58 per cent were satisfied with the police response and 42 per cent dissatisfied.
CEO of Himmah and Nottingham Citizens leader, Sajid Mohammed, said: “Hate crime is rising in our cities. Everyone from the new Home Secretary to Nottingham schoolgirls as young as 12 have ended up victims of hateful slurs.
“Communities can and must change this and we need cooperation from all levels of Government right up to the Prime Minister.
We also need others to act, including an end to hate crime complacency amongst social media companies, tougher action from police forces and better media reporting as part of a national response.”
Dr Jason Pandya-Wood, an academic at Nottingham Trent University who helped produce the report and analyse the data, said: “These findings are deeply troubling. Behind the worrying statistics are stories that highlight the impact that these crimes have on individuals and the motivation is clear: there are deep-seated issues that need to be addressed.
“The report reflects national data that shows that around the time of major events, incidents of hate crime increase. We noted that a number of participants had identified Brexit as being a driving factor.”