There have been at least 320 anti-Muslim hate crimes in Belfast in the past five years.
This finding was published in a research into the lives Muslims in Northern Ireland’s capital.
However, the researchers stated that most hate crimes involving Muslims were not reported to the PSNI.
Belfast City Council commissioned the research to be carried out by the Institute for Conflict Research (ICR)
There is around 6,000 Muslims in Northern Ireland, which makes up less than half a per cent of the entire population, according to report by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in 2018.
The ICR research took place last summer and a report was delivered to the council’s good relations unit in early this year.
A final version of the report is yet to be approved by Belfast City Council.
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However, the report does set out a number of recommendations including:
- Belfast City Council taking the lead in monitoring and reporting online hate abuse
- The council running programmes to build the confidence of bystanders to report hate crimes
- More detailed hate crime figures be published by the PSNI, including figures for sub-groups and nationalities
- The PSNI to re-run Islamic awareness courses for police officers.
