A Research Briefing commissioned by the House of Lords to look into Islamophobia within the UK.

'In the context of recent data showing a rise in the number of police recorded hate crimes and other Islamophobic attacks perpetrated against Muslims, the UK Government has been urged to adopt a formal definition of Islamophobia, similar to the definition of antisemitism adopted by the Government in 2016. This briefing summarises two definitions of Islamophobia; the first from the race equality think tank, the Runnymede Trust’s report, Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us All (2017); and the second from the report of the inquiry on a working definition of Islamophobia conducted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (2018).

This briefing includes a summary of the data on hate crimes against Muslims in the UK. The organisation TellMAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks), which collects data on reported incidents of Islamophobic abuse, discrimination and violence, recorded 1,201 verified attacks on Muslims in 2017, a 30% increase on the previous year. According to Home Office data on police recorded hate crimes, there were 94,098 hate crimes of all forms in 2017/18, of which 76% were race hate crimes and 9% were religious hate crimes. The briefing also provides a summary of the law regarding hate crimes, free speech and ‘hate speech’.'