LONDON: A group which tracks anti-Muslim hate across the UK said on Wednesday it had received the highest ever number of reports in 2024, blaming online platforms and AI for much of the increase.

`The rise in anti-Muslim hate is unacceptable and this is deeply concerning for the future,` said Tell MAMA`s director Iman Atta. `We have had the largest volume of cases reported to us... since we started our work in 2012, she added. The group received reports of 6,313 anti-Muslim hate cases in 2024 most of them online. It was able to verify 5,837. This compared with 4,406 reports the previous year, of which 3,767 were verified.

Assault cases rose 73 percent with 99 recorded in 2023 and 171 in 2024, while there were 2,197 offline cases of abusive behaviour reported to Tell MAMA in 2024. Numbers have spiked since the start of the Gaza conflict in October 2023, and the murders of three young girls in Southport in July 2024.

False claims that the Southport killings were carried out by a Muslim immigrant went viral on social networks in the early days after the attacks. They helped trigger the UK`s worst riots in decades when mobs attacked mosques and immigrant shelters.-AFP