Religious hate crime has surged in England and Wales over the past two years amid rising community tensions stoked by Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Police reported 10,065 offenses targeting religion in the year ending March 2025, according to Home Office figures released Thursday. That tally marks a slight drop from the previous reporting year, but is about a fifth higher than the year through March 2023, though the Home Office warned that this year’s data isn’t comparable to figures from previous years because of a change in the way London’s Metropolitan Police Service — the country’s biggest force — tracks hate crimes.