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Race-hate crimes soar by 30 pc in the UK

     London: Crimes against minorities based on racial discrimination in the UK has recorded a steep rise of nearly 30 percent over the past one year. Compared to 3616 racial crimes between March 2003 and March 2004, the last year recorded 4660 racial crimes, a report published today by the Crown Prosecution Service said. Besides, nearly 1128 people accused of race crimes during the past year, had the cases against them dropped, mostly because witnesses (against them) refused to testify or failed to turn up to court. The figures do not include cases prosecuted since the 7/7 attacks, reported The Independent. Meanwhile, the spurt in such crimes has fuelled anxiety that British Muslims were the victims of a backlash against international terrorism, even as leaders of Britain's Asian and black communities said that the crime figures were a source of grave concern. Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said it was now clear that the "war on terror" had made British Muslims a target for racists. "I think that a whole (Muslim) community has been identified as the enemy," he said adding, "and this is the reason why people think it is a fifth-column community and the cause of this country's miseries. Now they want to settle scores by making us scapegoats."

    Similarly, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "These are very troubling figures in that they not only indicate that the number of prosecutions has gone up but that more race-hate crime is being committed. What is of added concern is that these figures are before 7 July. After the bomb attacks in London we saw a spate of racist incidents. What will the figures be next year? Whatever happens members of Muslim communities must report the offence immediately to the police so that they do not suffer in silence." According to the figures released, the youngest person ever to be convicted of a racially aggravated crime was a boy from Kent who was 13 at the time of the offence. He was convicted of racially aggravated criminal damage and assault in 2004 for slashing a black road sweeper across the face with a knife after attacking him with a golf club. The report also showed that the number of religiously-aggravated cases dropped to 34 from 49 the year before, but in 67 per cent of the religious cases, the victim was Muslim.