'Tell Mama' - the hotline to report anti-Muslim hate crime has documented a large increase in rerports in the week since Woolwich: from around four-five a day to more like 40. I would rather it were none, of course, but it should not cause for panic: the UK is in fact a remarkably tolerant country.
Let's not forget, a soldier has been brutally butchered on a busy road by a main claiming to be acting on behalf of his religion. Plenty of people are rightly horrified and angry - and some of them want some kind of revenge. A spike in repraisal attacks is, unfortunately, usual.
A recent US study looked at 500 cases of terrorism found a significant spike in activity after a terror act, most pronounced if the attack was carried out by Jihadists against a symbol of national identity.
Following 7/7, there was an equally large rise in hate crime for during July - and this was before social media lowered the bar for participation. (Many of the reports to Tell Mama have been social media abuse - something we barely had in 2005). [The Huffington Post] Read more
