Islamophobia in action (via Tim Blair):
Jewish people are four times more likely to be attacked because of their religion than Muslims, according to figures compiled by the police.
One in 400 Jews compared to one in 1,700 Muslims are likely to be victims of “faith hate” attacks every year. The figure is based on data collected over three months in police areas accounting for half the Muslim and Jewish populations of England and Wales. The crimes range from assault and verbal abuse to criminal damage at places of worship.
Police forces started recording the religion of faith-hate crime victims only this year. They did so on the instruction of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), which wanted a clear picture of alleged community tensions around the country, following reports of Muslims being attacked after September 11 and the July 7 London bombings last year.
However, the first findings, for July to September, obtained by The Sunday Telegraph under freedom of information legislation, show that it is Jews who are much more likely to be targeted because of their religion. […]
The CPS report revealed that not a single person accused of an anti-Semitic crime had been prosecuted on a charge of religiously aggravated offending. It said: “The police statistics include incidents where no defendant has been identified or where there is insufficient evidence for a prosecution.” […]
The Sunday Telegraph has obtained information on faith-hate crimes from the Metropolitan Police, Greater Manchester, South Wales and West Mercia forces. In London and Manchester, where Muslims outnumber Jews by four to one, anti-Semitic offences exceeded anti-Muslim offences…. The figures do not record the faith of the offenders.
Rabbi Alex Chapper, 33, was the victim of a “faith-hate” crime in July last year. He was returning from a synagogue in Ilford, Essex, with three Jewish friends after conducting a service. All were wearing skull caps. Seven Asian teenagers followed them down the road shouting “Yehudi”, which means Jew in Arabic. One of them shouted, “We are Pakistani, you are Jewish. We are going to kill you”, before punching Rabbi Chapper in the face and hitting one of his friends over the head with a bottle.
“It was very frightening, we were all very shaken,” said the rabbi. “I thought we were going to get seriously hurt but someone threatened to call the police and they ran off.
“We identified the youths and told the police but they were never prosecuted. They just did not seem interested. I feel very let down.”
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