RACIALLY and religiously motivated attacks have risen 12% in the past year, according to government figures to be released this week.

The Ministry of Justice statistics show there were 41,000 racially or religiously aggravated offences in 2005-06, the latest year for which figures are available.

Experts are likely to link the increase to fears related to terrorism and immigration.

Following the attack on Glasgow airport in June, racist incidents across Scotland have soared, with sharp rises in violent attacks, abuse and harassment in the four weeks after the car bombing. The worst cases included attempts to blow up an Asian shop and a mosque.

There was a similar rise in attacks on Asians in Britain after the 9/11 atrocity.

The figures out this week will also show black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white citizens. Black suspects are also far more likely to go to court and prison.

Last week Keith Jarrett, president of the National Black Police Association, caused controversy when he called for the police to increase stops and searches of black people to reduce shootings. He argued this would help protect black people, who are disproportionately likely to be murdered.

The new statistics bear out Jarrett’s argument, finding 10% of homicide victims are black, far higher than their proportion in the population. A further 7% of victims are Asian, with 4% from other ethnic minorities. Of those murder cases, one in three black victims was shot, as opposed to one in 10 for Asians and one in 20 for whites.

Earlier this year it emerged Asian people were twice as likely to be stabbed or “bottled” to death than they were a decade ago, according to Home Office figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The statistics showed the proportion of Asians killed by “sharp instruments” had risen from 4.5% to 8.5%. There was a surge around the time of 9/11, with such killings doubling to 30 between April 2001 and March 2002.

The proportion of blacks fatally stabbed or bottled over the past decade increased from 7.5% to 11.8%. The proportion of whites killed in such attacks fell from 84% to 73.6%.

The rise in Islamophobia in Britain after 9/11 was charted in a report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, which found increases in assault, verbal abuse, damage to property and Muslim women being spat at.

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