Hate crime in Scotland is up with more than 3700 charges reported in the last year, figures have revealed.

The latest Scottish Government figures revealed the number of anti-Islamic hate crimes across the country has almost doubled in the past year.

Released on Friday, the figures also show a rise in disability and sexual orientation hate crimes in 2015/16 compared with 2014/15.

Overall, there has been a slight increase in incidents of hate crime reported to Scotland's prosecution service.

While racial crime - the most commonly-reported hate crime - has fallen, religiously aggravated crime is up 3%, charges with an aggravation of prejudice relating to sexual orientation are up 20% and disability hate crimes are up 14%.

There were 134 charges where conduct was derogatory towards Islam in 2015/16 compared with 71 in 2014/15, which equates to a rise of 89%.

The Scottish Government report on the figures found the rise was not attributable to a single event or pattern and "appears to reflect a general rise in the reporting of these types of charges".

A total of 581 religiously-aggravated charges were record in the past year, up 3% on 2014/15 figures. Roman Catholicism is the religion most often noted, accounting for 51% of the charges, followed by Protestantism on 24% and Islam on 23%.

There were 3712 racial crime charges reported in 2015/16, a decrease on last year and the lowest number reported since 2003/04.

Meanwhile, there were 1020 charges reported with an aggravation of prejudice relating to sexual orientation, up 20% on the previous year, and 201 relating to disability, an increase of 14%.

Justice secretary Michael Matheson said: "There is no place in Scotland for any crime motivated by prejudice, be it racial, religious, homophobic or any other form of intolerance.

"While I am concerned at an increase in the number of charges on last year, including the rise in alleged offences against Islam, it does indicate an improvement in the willingness of the public to report these crimes, and that should be welcomed.

"I want every victim of such crimes to be willing to come forward and work with the police to ensure the perpetrators can be pursued and punished appropriately.

"Intolerance in any form is simply unacceptable and there is no place for it in 21st-century Scotland."

Chief superintendent Barry McEwan, of Police Scotland, said: "Tackling hate crime is a priority for Police Scotland and we are committed to rooting out crimes motivated by prejudice.

"Today's figures provide evidence of our efforts but they also show that we must continue to work within all our communities to encourage reporting and to get the message across that hate crime will not be tolerated."