Religious hate crime linked to football increased by 16% last year, new figures have revealed.
Figures published by the Scottish Government showed there were a total of 876 charges where an offence was said to have a religious aggravation in 2011/12 - a 26% rise on the previous year.
Of those, a total of 267 charges were linked in some way to football - up from 231 in 2010/11.
But the increase in charges for religious hate crimes means these made up a smaller proportion of such offences - 31% were associated with football last year, compared with 33% the previous year.
Of the 267 charges linked to football, 67 happened at a stadium, while others took place on public transport, town and city centre streets and in residential areas.
Of the incidents which happened at football grounds, 15 were at Celtic Park, with another 15 at Ibrox stadium.
Nine of the incidents took place at Hearts' Tynecastle ground, four were at the national stadium Hampden Park, and another four were at East End Park, where Dunfermline play. There were a further 20 charges from incidents at other stadiums.
But the report stressed the figures relate only to the stadium where the incident took place and make "no inference to the club affiliation of the victims or the accused, or whether these were home or away supporters".
While there was a rise in the number of charges associated with football, the number linked to marches fell to 18 - down from 32 in 2010/11.
Incidents leading to a charge of a religiously-aggravated offence happened in all of Scotland's 32 local authority areas last year, with Glasgow seeing the largest number.
There were 353 such incidents in the city, 40% of all offences. The total was down from 2010/11, when there were 356 such incidents in Glasgow.
In just over half of all cases - 51% - police officers were the victims.
Roman Catholicism and Protestantism were the forms of religion that were most often subject to abuse, being targeted in 58.1% and 40.3% of cases respectively.
There were 19 attacks on Islam in 2011/12, up from 15 the previous year, and 14 on Judaism, down from 16.
Community Safety Minister Roseanna Cunningham said: "It is completely unacceptable for people to think that offensive religious or sectarian language, or verbal or physical attacks based purely on religious prejudice, have any place in 21st century Scotland.
"While it is concerning that the number of cases has risen, I hope that the increase does indicate people feel more confident about reporting the perpetrators."
She said the Scottish Government was taking action to tackle sectarianism, stating: "I fully support the law enforcement agencies in doing everything in their power to punish those who wrongly believe it is acceptable to behave in such a way on the basis of their own religious prejudices.
"But these figures show that as well as tough enforcement, we need to tackle the root causes of religious prejudice that sadly is all too prevalent in parts of Scottish society. That is why we are carrying out a range of actions to eradicate sectarianism.
"We've brought in new legislation to give police and prosecutors additional tools in their armoury to punish those who peddle sectarian hatred, including a new offence of threatening communications.
"This is being backed by £9 million over the next three years to help organisations take forward wider work to tackle sectarianism because we've always said tackling bigotry isn't just about legislation or just about football. And we recently appointed a new independent expert group to help advise on current and future policies to eradicate sectarianism in Scotland, chaired by Dr Duncan Morrow."
The anti-sectarian charity Nil By Mouth demanded everyone who is convicted of a sectarian offence undergo rehabilitation.
Campaign director Dave Scott said: "These figures are striking, both for the nearly 30% rise in the number of offences and the fact that we have seen arrests in all 32 of Scotland's local authority areas.
"There have now been over 6,000 arrests for sectarian offences since 2003 and on average only a third of these are football-related.
"This problem goes far beyond football and Facebook and it's worrying that nearly two-thirds of those arrested were under the age of 30.
"The Government is piloting work in prisons at the moment and we would urge ministers to ensure a rehabilitation package is made compulsory for anyone convicted of sectarian offences."
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