UK Hindus facing 7/7 hate crime backlash

    London: The Hindu Forum of Britain, (HFB) one of the country's largest bodies representing the Hindu community, believes that the city's 2005 suicide bombings has resulted in a rise in hate crimes against Hindus. According to Ramesh Kallidai, the secretary general of the HFB, the "hate crime" incidents ranged from verbal and physical attacks on worshippers to graffiti and vandalism at Hindu temples. The Independent quoted Kallidai as saying that there is evidence to suggest that Hindus and their temples had been targeted after the July 7 bomb attacks in London, even though the terrorists had been Muslim.

   In the light of this alarming statistic, the HFB, which represents 260 Hindu bodies in Britain, has arranged security training for volunteers to prevent attacks on Hindu temples. Various Hindu groups are also pressing the British Home Office and police to keep separate records of religiously motivated attacks on Hindus. At present the figures are collected only for racial groups. Meanwhile, the British Crime Survey found that the number of racially motivated incidents in England and Wales has quadrupled since 1993 to about 50,000. Britain's Hindu population is based mainly in the London and Leicester areas, and in parts of Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford, Wolverhampton and Coventry.