POLICE are investigating possible hate crimes in connection with the controversy over the reading of the Koran at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow.

The provost of the cathedral, The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, received violent and abusive homophobic and Islamophobic messages after religious text was read out at the church.

Mr Holdsworth believes the recent referendums on independence and Europe had played a part in encouraging the kind of online abuse he had received.

The service at St Mary’s on January 6 was intended to promote inter-faith tolerance and was attended by a number of Muslims, but it attracted furious criticism online and Mr Holdsworth, who is gay, received death threats.

Mr Holdsworth said the police had been enormously supportive and had been visiting the cathedral regularly to keep him updated about their investigations.

He also said they had taken the issue of potential hate crimes very seriously, although the timescale for possible prosecutions is not yet known.

However, Mr Holdsworth also defended the decision to have the Koran read out at the cathedral and said it had directly led to the recent rise in the congregation at the church.

“I realise I did something that touched a nerve,” he said. “But I had to have a cool head and say: what we did matched our values, what we were trying to do was be hospitable to our Muslim neighbours, get to know them and learn something about them, and that worked, that happened.

“Friendships have been formed which wouldn’t have been formed otherwise.

“The other thing that happened, which has really taken us by surprise, is that the congregation experienced a sudden rise in numbers. We are now running at 20 per cent higher year on year on Sunday morning. Now that tells me that what we are doing at St Mary’s is something that people want to believe in.”

Mr Holdsworth said the Koran had been read out at St Mary’s before without incident and speculated that the anger he witnessed was part of a trend in the wake of the referendums on Scottish independence and Europe.

“Something has changed,” he said. “The two referendums we’ve been through and the election of Trump has changed the way people think they can behave in public.

“People now seem to think that they can speak in public, on Twitter and social media, in a way that makes me deeply uncomfortable. It’s also the rise of people having 4G phones in their pocket – they can respond very quickly to things.”

However, Mr Holdsworth also said he hoped other churches would follow St Mary’s example. “That sense of getting to know people of a different faith matters and if more churches were doing that, getting to know their Muslim neighbours, serve society and generate community cohesion, then churches would probably be full up. And perhaps mosques as well – they have the same troubles as many churches of passing on the faith to younger people.”

A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “We can confirm that we are investigating a report of offensive comments having been sent to St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. Inquiries are ongoing.”