MOSCOW, November 19 (Sputnik) – The United Kingdom has more hate crimes than any other EU country, with 272,000 crimes recorded between 2013 and 2014, the Council of Europe said Wednesday on its Twitter account.
272,000 hate crimes in #England & #Wales in 2013-14. Most ppl don't tell police or crimes not recorded.
— Council of Europe (@coe) 19 ноября 2014
The number of hate crimes in the UK exceeds other EU countries' statistics, with 85 percent of UK hate crimes being race-based, according to the Council of Europe. In contrast, Greece had only one case reported over the last year.
Hate crime is an offense based on personal characteristics and motivated by hostility or prejudice. The offense can be motivated by such personal characteristics as disability, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.
Hate crimes reached a new high in the UK over the last year, increasing by five percent compared to 2012-2013 levels, according to Home Office statistics revealed in October.
A sharp increase in anti-Muslim crimes in the UK was caused by advances of Islamic State (IS), the UK monitoring organization Tell Mama stated last Tuesday. The abuse of UK Muslims has increased after the release of videos showing the beheadings of Western citizens carried out by the IS, Tell Mama Director Fiyaz Mughal said on the organization's website. The head of the monitoring group added the number of incidences being recorded "suggest that perceptions about ISIL motivate anti-Muslim hatred nationally and in London".
The number of Muslims residing in the UK amounts to 2,7 million, which constitutes 4.8 percent of the country's total population, according to the UK Office for National Statistics.
