Sectarian Hooliganism

On the eve of the nation's patronal feast, reports are that violence against Scottish Catholics has spiked:

Anti-Catholic sectarian crime in Scotland has risen 50 percent, according to official figures released by the Scottish Executive.

According to the statistics 440 Scots were convicted of religiously motivated assaults between January 2004 and June 2005.

“Sadly this document shows that Catholics in Scotland are still many times more likely to be subject of a sectarian attack than any other group,” said Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

“During the period of this study Catholics were five times more likely to be the victims.

“This is of great concern to me,” he added.

The report also showed that of the 726 cases investigated 31 percent of the incidents had been directed against Scottish Protestants.

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