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What is religious hate crime?

Religious hate crimes happen when someone is attacked or threatened because of their religion or their beliefs. Although racial and religious hatred may seem very similar, the police and the courts may treat racial crimes differently to religious ones.

Religion and the law

Religious hate crime is not currently recognised as a criminal offence in the same way as racial and homophobic crime.

However, if a crime is committed against someone because of their religion, it may be interpreted as an attack on their race as well. This means it can be treated as a racially aggravated or motivated attack. For example, criminal courts have decided that attacks on Sikhs and Jewish people are racial incidents.

If it's proven that the offender's main motivation was based on prejudice or their hatred of another race, then the sentence can be more severe than for the same offence without a racial motivation.

• Racial hate crime

Incitement to religious hatred

It is illegal to say anything or produce any written material that tries to persuade someone to commit a criminal offence against another race or group of people. This means that leaflets, flyers or speeches that promote crime against people because of their religion are against the law. This is called incitement to religious hatred.

However, it is not against the law to disagree with or criticise someone because of their religion or their beliefs.

Reporting a religious crime

If you think you have become a victim of a crime because of your religion, then you should report it to the police as soon as possible. Whether the crime is proven to have been committed because of religious prejudice or not, it is still a crime in its own right.

You should also make sure that the incident is reported to your local Community Safety Unit. Every police force in the country has one of these units and it's their job to monitor and record the number of hate crimes that are committed in your area. They work within the community to combat the problem.

• Reporting a crime

• Help and support if you're a victim of hate crime Opens new window

Religious discrimination at work

Discrimination law means that employers must make sure that all their employees are treated in the same way as each other, regardless of their religious beliefs.

Your local Citizens' Advice Bureau will be able to tell you the steps you should take if you have a religious discrimination case against your employer.

You could also try speaking to ACAS who provide up-to-date information, independent advice, for employees to solve problems.

• Find your local Citizens Advice Bureau Opens new window

• Equality and Human Rights Commission Opens new window

• ACAS Opens new window

Useful contacts

• Bullying online

• Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS)

• Citizens Advice Bureau

• NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children)

• Young people contacts