A House of Commons report confirms Islamophobia as the most common form of religious hate crime in the UK. Specifically, 42% of all religious hate crimes reported to the police were attacks against Muslims. But genuine efforts to punish Islamophobia and Islamophobic attacks are so weak that statistics on prosecutions and convictions are entirely absent. We know nothing about how police deal with complaints of Islamophobia or whether there is a uniform process across all forces. Meanwhile, Islamophobia goes unpunished and grows. This must change. What is the solution? How do we properly punish Islamophobes? As a lecturer in cultural geography at Oxford University, I have used my research skills to draw up an index of Islamophobia to help police, prosecutors, victims and analysts work out when to take legal action and how to map out the routes towards such action. Importantly, this is the first time an index to measure a hate crime has been proposed and it remains an open project. It is inspired by the way crimes such as domestic violence are processed, placing victim testimony and experience at the heart. Published last week, this index of Islamophobia is accompanied by a pathways-to-prosecution form, which helps identify the laws breached and scores each hate crime on the basis of intensity, intention, impact and recklessness. Dr Suriyah Bi is a lecturer in cultural geography at the University of Oxford FULL ARTICLE