Faith matters in tackling bigotry

by NADEEM BADSHAH

RISING hate crime should be a top priority for the next government, community leaders have said, urging ministers to invest more in police forces and support for victims.

Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups are calling for racist views to be challenged more, further research to be done on incidents so as to identify trends and raising awareness of support services.

Religious hate crime has increased more than twice as fast as other forms since 2015, a report by the Commission for Countering Extremism found.

Hate-crime figures reported to police have also more than doubled since 2013.

There were 103,379 incidents recorded in England and Wales in 2018-19, of which 8,556 were motivated by a religious bias, a three per cent rise. Some 47 per cent of offences were targeted at followers of Islam.

Mohamed Omer, a government adviser on Muslim issues, has called for issues such as the lack of burial space, police on the streets and funding for schools to be addressed by

the party elected on December 12.

Omer told Eastern Eye: “[They must]tackle especially knife crime, increase police presence, tackle Islamophobia and hate crimes.

“Also, [there should be better] NHS GP accessibility, more funding for schools, affordable housing, better foreign policy and immigration policy review so as not to deter skilled

labour, [as well as] better provision for elderly care and disability, and youth employment opportunities.

“Finally, [they must] tackle avail-ability of burial space. This will become a major issue soon.

“Most important, all Muslims should register to vote and exercise their democratic right.”

The Sikh Council UK said the community wanted greater awareness of texting services on public transport in order to report racist behaviour.

Balvinder Kaur, head of operations at the organisation, told Eastern Eye: “A provision to report or text in other languages would be helpful. The government could require local authorities to monitor, pool and annually report on racist incidents in their areas on an inter-agency basis.

“It appears there is no central pooling available to identify patterns, hot spots and repeat perpetrators. If this is done, then resources can be better targeted towards reducing incidents.

“From a specific Sikh viewpoint, resources are required to sustain a monitoring, third-party reporting project.

“There is no such provision at the moment, hence the under reporting and lack of case studies.”

The Sikh Federation (UK) group recently published a manifesto which called for the UK government to support a UN-led inquiry into the 1984 killing of worshippers by Indian soldiers in the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

The manifesto also called for more state-funded Sikh faith schools or academies to increase the current number of 13, and a code of practice on the five articles of faith to be launched by the next government to reduce discrimination in the workplace and public spaces.

Meanwhile, the Hindu Council UK wants the next government to prioritise the support for victims of hate crimes.

Rajnish Kashyap, the group’s general secretary and director, said: “No doubt the UK has one of the world’s strongest legislative frameworks to tackle hate crime.

“But legislation can only ever be part of the answer. Unless people have the confidence to come forward and report, the police equipped to deal effectively with such crimes, victims properly supported and perpetrators brought to justice, too many people will continue to suffer.

“We would urge local authorities to condemn hate crimes and assure communities that all possible measures are taken to investigate reports, prevent further incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Above all, more effective action is required to challenge the attitudes and beliefs driving these crimes.”

Home secretary Priti Patel told MPs in October that the surge in recorded hate crime as “a good thing”, because it means the police are recording more offences.

She said: “When we look at the numbers, it’s clear there’s more work that’s taking place in terms of police recording hate crime. That’s a good thing and that’s why the numbers are high.”