Anti-Muslim crime sees 'significant spike' in London

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - Hate crime targeting Muslims has seen a “significant spike” following last Saturday’s terrorist attack in London, the capital’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said on Wednesday.

“There has been a significant spike in incidents of hate crime and Islamophobic incidents in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack,” Khan said on social media.

Khan’s office backed up the mayor’s statement as provisional figures released suggested the number of racist incidents recorded on Monday was 54, higher than a daily average of 38 so far in 2017.

The office said recorded Islamophobic hate incidents had reached 20 on Monday, compared with a daily average of 3.5 this year.

This is the highest ever level of Islamophobic incidents per day so far this year.

“One of the greatest things about London is our defiant unity in the face of adversity - and that will not change in the aftermath of this horrific attack,” Khan said.

“Just as the police will do everything possible to root out extremism from our city, so we will take a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime,” he warned.

Campaign group, TellMAMA, which monitors hate crimes also reported death threats made against a Muslim family in south London over Islamic insignia on their windows.