President Trump on Friday blamed a surge in crime rates in the United Kingdom on the "spread" of "Islamic terror," but he got it all wrong.

"Just out report: United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror." Not good, we must keep America safe!" he tweeted.

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There's not only one problem with his assertion. There are many:

• First, the report was published Thursday, not Friday (minor point).



• The report does not cover the United Kingdom. It only applies to England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland are not included (common mistake among non-Brits).



•More substantially, the 13% rise is not specifically linked to Islam or terrorism. In fact, the increase is largely attributed to a surge in stalking and harassment (up 36% from June 2016 to June 2017) and sexual offenses (up 19%). A jump in robberies (up 25%) and car theft (up 22%) were also to blame.

•Overall, the report from Britain's Office for National Statistics makes it clear that crime in England and Wales is falling longterm despite year-to-year fluctuations. A decade ago, 24 in 100 adults were victims of crime. Today, it's 14 in 100.

•In 1995, it was 40 in 100.

•This fall continues despite an uptick in the number of high-profile terrorist attacks in Britain over the last few years. As USA TODAY has previously reported, the number of attacks and deaths from terrorism in Western Europe is down significantly from 20 to 40 years ago, when political — rather than religious — extremism was the cause.

It was not immediately clear who Trump was quoting in his tweet.

There were 664 homicides recorded between June 2016 and June 2017, a 2% fall compared with the year before. Thirty-five of those homicides relate to terror attacks in London and Manchester earlier this year, the report said.

Part of Trump's confusion may be here:

The report states there was a "substantial increase" — 59% or 426 offenses — in the number of "attempted murder offenses." However, this increase is largely due to just a handful of incidents, the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London. Police included the 294 people who were injured in those attacks, but did not die, in the calculation.

Stalking and harassment accounted for a third (64,924 offenses) of the overall increase in violence.

John Flatley, an analyst at the Office for National Statistics, notes in his summary of the report that while there have been increases in crime over the last 12 months, "particularly in some of the low incidence but more harmful categories," recording techniques are also improving, which could lead to a higher headline crime rate.

Britain's interior ministry — the Home Office — declined to comment on Trump's tweet.

The Muslim Council of Britain, which represents a number of groups, said in a statement: "Scaremongering based on intentionally misrepresenting data is often associated with the radical right - it is disappointing when such incompetence instead comes from the President of the United States of America."

Some Britons, including politicians, took to Twitter to vent their frustration at Trump's erroneous characterization of the report.

"Stop misleading and spreading fear. Hate crime is up and it is fueled by the kind of populist xenophobia you peddle," wrote Jo Swinson, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Jack Blackburn, whose Twitter handle describes him as an editor of a satire website, wrote: "Absolutely not the link. Rise in crime was not linked to terror. And we also have exceptionally low gun deaths. Gun control works."