A religious or faith based hate incident is any incident where you or someone else has been targeted because of your or their membership or presumed membership of a religious or faith based group.
This also includes those people who do not follow a recognised religion or faith.
No two hate incidents are the same but they may include the following:
• Verbal abuse and name-calling
• Physical attack
• Graffiti or other deliberate damage to property
• Written or recorded threats
If you see someone getting hassled, and you think it is because of their religion or belief, you can report it as an incident, even if the victim has not done so.
We know that there is severe under reporting of religious and faith based incidents. There is also confusion about whether some incidents are motivated by race or religion or both. This should not stop you reporting an incident.
These incidents don’t just affect the lives of those involved but affect their friends, their families, and every part of the local community.
If hate incidents are not reported, the bullies, bigots and thugs will feel their behaviour is totally acceptable and that they can continue to abuse people whenever they feel like it.
