Increase in race hate crimes casts doubt on 'One Scotland' campaign

Some 3,387 racially-aggravated crimes and offences were recorded by the country's eight police forces between April and December this year, compared with 3,192 during the same period last year - a rise of 6 per cent.

The increase has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Executive's "One Scotland" campaign launched in 2002 to tackle racism in the country's streets and classrooms, and sparked calls for the Jack McConnell, the First Minister, to put the issue on a platform equal in size to the one given to sectarianism in recent months.

Ethnic community leaders are also accusing politicians of failing to wake up to the "elephant in the room" that is growing Islamophobia, saying thousands of Muslims and members of other minority racial groups are continuing to be victimised following the 11 September and 7 July terrorism attacks.

In 2005-6, 4,294 racially-aggravated crimes were recorded by police - 358 every month and more than ten times the level recorded in 2001-2.

Since then, the number has continued to rise according to new figures obtained by The Scotsman, with reported verbal and physical attacks rising to 376 per month.

The biggest increase has been seen in the Lothian and Borders police area, where police recorded 970 assaults and other racially-aggravated offences between April and December this year - up 26 per cent on the 768 crimes recorded for the same period in 2005.

Grampian also saw a big rise in reported race hate crimes, from 271 to 312, up 15 per cent.

Chief Inspector Doug Forsyth, who is in charge of diversity issues at Lothian and Borders Police, claimed a greater willingness to report incidents lay behind the increase, rather than more crime.

"If people don't want to go to the police station, they can report crimes with other agencies such as the council and health service who will pass the details to us.

"I think the rise is mostly due to greater confidence within ethnic communities that the police will take these things seriously and investigate them thoroughly."

But Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, disagreed, saying Asians were increasingly being victimised on religious grounds.

"The police have not got to grips with the scale of the problem, which is vast. Incidents are not being reported because there isn't a good link-up between communities and the police.

"People are more likely to be called a terrorist than a Paki. It's more likely to be religiously-based abuse, particularly directed against Islam. The One Scotland campaign is fine but it isn't really dealing with the changing face of racism. There's an elephant in the room at the moment, attacks directed at Islam, which no-one is addressing. One Scotland isn't hitting those buttons."

Sandra Deslandes-Clark, executive director of Semper Scotland, the support group for black and ethnic minority police, also agreed that racist attacks were on the rise. She said: "Unfortunately, the 'war on terror' has now almost legitimised racism on our streets.

"There need to be stiffer penalties and a higher-profile attempt by the Executive to tackle the problem. We have seen the First Minister speak out about sectarianism, accepting there is a problem and showing unity with police, churches and other groups. We now need the same approach on racism."

Research by Glasgow University recently showed as few as one in five racist incidents in Strathclyde are reported to the police.

While Scotland's biggest police force saw a slight drop in recorded racist crimes, from 1,400 to 1,370, the number of non-crime racist incidents, such as people being denied access to a nightclub because of the colour of their skin, jumped from about 250 to more than 400.

The conviction last month of a racist Asian gang for the savage murder of a Glasgow teenager, Kriss Donald, has triggered fears among some community members of a backlash.

But Inspector Ian McKim, Strathclyde Police's race relations co-ordinator, said there had been no sign of an increase in racial hatred since the trial.

DAILY STRUGGLE WITH ABUSE AND HASSLE

NASEEM Akhtar, 44, is from Pakistan and moved to Scotland around 20 years ago. She worked in a shop in Hamilton and never encountered any problems but that all changed when she moved to Motherwell and another shop just over a year ago.

"Since I moved here hardly a day has gone by without racial abuse and hassle. Just last Thursday a group of young boys were standing in the door of the shop. Another two young men, about 26 or 27, were asking for money. I told them to move but they started giving me abuse.

"I was standing at the counter eating a packet of peanuts. One of the young men came in, and I told him to go away. He grabbed the peanuts from me and threw them in my face. He then started calling me names like 'black bitch'. I'm ashamed to repeat the other names he called me. This happens nearly every weekend.

"There isn't very much the police can do if they are under 16. I've been to court four times this year. My husband has been to court four or five times," she said.

Last month a 16-year-old threw a brick at Ms Akhtar's husband, Zahid Tanveer, narrowly missing his head.