Anti-Muslim groups have tripled in number. But this isn’t just a US problem | Mary O’Hara

The same forces fuelling the rise of hate groups and crime in America are operating in Brexit Britain

Crimes perpetrated on the basis of hate are nothing new. They are always with us. The levels, and the groups targeted, tend to ebb and flow with the political tides. However, the recent waves of rightwing populism in the UK and elsewhere have unleashed a hail of such incidents and emboldened those who provoke or endorse them.

In the US, where each new day brings instability and fear under a presidency that has made some of the most offensive tropes around race and immigration mainstream, the latest annual analysis from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on "hate groups" makes for stark reading. They are defined as having "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics". The SPLC has tracked hate crimes and groups for decades. Its latest report reveals that the number of hate groups rose for the second consecutive year in 2016.