MUSLIMS targeted by Islamophobic hate attacks are reluctant to report incidents of abuse and often receive little support from onlookers, a new study claims.

Researchers from Birmingham City University and Nottingham Trent University found examples of a woman having alcohol poured over her receiving no support from other passengers on a train.

“People were watching but they ignored it. No-one wanted to help,” a female participant told academics involved int he study commissioned by Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks)

Another research participant described the lack of assistance when travelling on a bus: “A man shouted to me and my Muslim friends, ‘You are terrorists, I’m gonna come to the back of the bus and stab you’. I told the bus driver and asked him to stop and call the police but he refused."

The study also uncovered evidence that men are especially unwilling to report attacks, physical or online, for fear of being seen as weak.

The study, believed to be the first of its kind to examine the impact of online and offline anti-Muslim hate crime through in-depth interviews with victims, found many of those subjected to online threats live in fear of virtual attacks becoming ‘real world’ violence.

This prompted the joint research team, led by Imran Awan, deputy director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University, and Dr Irene Zempi, lecturer in Criminology at Nottingham Trent University, to urge social media platforms to take the threats posed to innocent people far more seriously.

Mr Awan said: “This research reveals worrying levels of fear and intimidation experienced by many Muslims, compounded by a lack of support from the wider public when facing physical threats in the real world and an absence of tough action from social media platforms at the abuse people are receiving online."