The levels of religious hate crimes in England and Wales have shot up to unprecedented heights over the last two years, in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
Fresh data released by the Home Office on Thursday shows that police have registered over 10,000 hate crime offences since the close of March this year.
However, that number saw a slight dip compared to 2024; the number remains almost 20 per cent higher than that of March 2023, as the Gaza conflict broke out in October 2023.
UK sees sharp rise in religious hate crimes, Home Office reports
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) details data combining figures from March 2023 to March 2025, which estimated that around 176,000 hate crime incidents occur annually in both antisemitic and anti-Muslim offences, which have surged since the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Offences targeting Muslims rose by nearly one-third to 4,478, while those aimed at Jewish people almost doubled to 2,873. The Home Office linked the sharp rise to the fallout from the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
The definition of a hate crime given by the College of Policing (2020) is any offence that is perceived to be defined by hostility or prejudice due to race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or transgender identity. The guidance also observes that crimes may entail xenophobic components, and the perceived religion of a victim may not necessarily correspond to his or her true religion.
Only cases where clear evidence of hostility is found can be prosecuted as hate crimes. While not every terrorist act qualifies, those rooted in hatred toward one of the five monitored strands, such as the 2017 Finsbury Park Mosque attack, do fall under the category.
Notably, just last week, a lethal stabbing outside a synagogue in Manchester resulted in the deaths of two and the injuries of four people. The Associated Press reported police named the attacker as Jihad al-Shamie, of Syrian descent, but a British citizen, who came to the UK as a child and received citizenship in 2006.
