Elham Asaad Buaras
The inaugural report by the British Muslim Trust (BMT) has documented a sharp rise in anti-Muslim hostility across the UK during the summer. Titled A Summer of Division, the report, published on November 7, reveals a nationwide escalation in mosque attacks between July and October, describing it as a “sustained national escalation” of hate crimes that transformed public places of worship into targets of nationalist intimidation.
As the first official briefing since the BMT was appointed by the government to monitor anti-Muslim hate, the report recorded 27 verified attacks on 25 mosques across 23 towns and cities, spanning from Scotland to the south coast of England. Far from isolated incidents, the report concludes that the attacks formed part of an evolving national pattern that intensified over time—growing in both frequency and severity—and ultimately culminated in an arson attack with intent to endanger life.
A TIMELINE OF ESCALATION: FROM PROVOCATION TO VIOLENCE
The BMT’s analysis identifies a clear four-month trajectory of radicalisation. The first recorded incident occurred on July 26, when the Wirral Deen Centre in Birkenhead was struck by an air-gun pellet, shattering a window while women and children were inside. The report describes this as a “threshold moment,” marking a shift from online rhetoric to direct physical targeting of Muslim places of worship.
By August, the nature of the incidents had changed dramatically. The report records eight new attacks, the majority of which it categorises as acts of “symbolic intimidation” based on the imagery and messages left at the scenes. In 41% of all cases documented during this period, perpetrators employed overtly nationalist or religious symbols, such as crosses, Union Jacks, St George’s flags, and slogans including “Jesus is King”, to convey ideological hostility and assert cultural dominance over Muslim places of worship.
Source: A Summer of Division: The Nationwide Surge in Anti-Muslim Hate
Examples cited include a man in Hounslow who filmed himself affixing an anti-Muslim sign to a mosque, and an incident in Oxford, where pork products and an Israeli flag were placed at the entrance of a mosque. These acts coincided with the emergence of the “Operation Raise the Colours” campaign, which encouraged the widespread display of national flags. According to BMT analysts, “the timing and imagery were mirrored in attacks on mosques across England,” suggesting a process of “symbolic alignment” between nationalist mobilisation and hate incidents.
September marked the most volatile phase, both in scale and aggression. With nine recorded incidents, the period saw a transition from symbolic provocation to violent physical attacks. The report highlights a series of property offences: a masked break-in at a Huddersfield mosque, and the smashing of windows with a metal pole at a Glasgow mosque while children were present.
This surge coincided with the “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London, led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, which drew thousands and amplified rhetoric about “taking back Britain.” The BMT identifies a 13-day window from late August to early September during which nine attacks occurred—a third of the total incidents across the four-month period. This, the report concludes, represented “the most concentrated and violent phase of the year,” marking a “tipping point where symbolic hate turned into sustained physical aggression.”
By October, while the overall frequency of incidents stabilised, their intensity reached a new and deeply alarming level. In Watford, three mosques were vandalised within a single week, with one suspect arrested carrying bladed weapons. The most severe attack took place on October 4 in Peacehaven, East Sussex, where the local Community Mosque was deliberately set on fire using accelerants. The Imam narrowly escaped the blaze, and two men were later charged with arson with intent to endanger life.
According to the report, this incident represented “a new and deeply troubling escalation—an apparent intent not merely to intimidate, but to endanger life.” Local Muslims told BMT investigators that they had already felt “abandoned and unprotected” after months of harassment, compounding the psychological toll of the attack.
CORRELATION WITH NATIONALIST CAMPAIGNS
While the BMT emphasises that its data cannot establish direct causation, it identifies what it calls a “striking temporal correlation” between the surge in mosque attacks and the rise of nationalist mobilisation throughout the summer. Both “Operation Raise the Colours” in August and the “Unite the Kingdom” rally in September are cited as key moments when “nationalist sentiment became visually and rhetorically mainstreamed.”
The flag of St George spray-painted on a zebra crossing in Sidcup, southeast London, apparently part of “Operation Raise the Colours” campaign cited as key moment when “nationalist sentiment became visually and rhetorically mainstreamed” in the BMT report. (Credit: Wikimedia)
The report states, “While some framed this summer’s campaigns as calls for unity and patriotism, in practice, they coincided with a wave of incidents in which the flag itself became an instrument of nationalist intimidation, used to signal exclusion and drive division.”
In several cases, perpetrators explicitly used national flags and religious symbols as tools of harassment. Victims described these acts as “public messages of exclusion,” aimed at asserting that Muslims “did not belong in the national fabric.”
The BMT found that many within Muslim communities perceived the attacks as “a direct challenge to their sense of belonging, a message that their place in British society was being fundamentally questioned because of their faith.”
INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE AND EROSION OF TRUST
Beyond the immediate physical damage, the report documents a growing erosion of confidence in public institutions. Victims and community leaders repeatedly reported limited police follow-up, inadequate online platform response, and a lack of visible government engagement.
According to the BMT, “Muslims do not feel their concerns are addressed adequately. Victims consistently reported limited follow-up from police or online platforms, fuelling a perception that ‘anti-Muslim hatred’ is tolerated or minimised.”
This perceived neglect, the report warns, has compounded trauma and fostered alienation. In Peacehaven, for example, residents described feeling “abandoned and unprotected” even before the arson attack—reflecting a wider sentiment of institutional indifference.
RECOMMENDATIONS: TOWARDS A COORDINATED NATIONAL STRATEGY
In its concluding section, the BMT calls for a “comprehensive and coordinated national strategy” to address what it identifies as a “cross-regional and digitally amplified pattern of hate.” The report urges the establishment of enhanced victim support mechanisms, including rapid response services and trauma counselling for affected communities. It also recommends increased protective security funding for mosques, with particular emphasis on smaller and under-resourced institutions that remain especially vulnerable.
Furthermore, the BMT highlights the need for improved intelligence-sharing between local police forces, national agencies, and civil society partners to detect and prevent coordinated hate incidents more effectively. The report also advocates renewed investment in community cohesion initiatives to rebuild interfaith trust and reaffirm that “mosques are civic anchors serving people of all backgrounds.”
The report concludes with an urgent warning, underscoring the gravity of its findings: “The events of summer 2025 demonstrate how swiftly public discourse can translate into real-world harm. Without a national strategy to counter the convergence of nationalism and hate, Britain risks further erosion of the pluralistic values that underpin its democracy.” It cautions that the failure to act decisively would not only leave Muslim communities vulnerable but also endanger the very principles of equality, safety, and social cohesion upon which the country’s democratic fabric depends.
Feature photo: The walls surrounding the Epsom Islamic Centre were defaced with offensive graffiti in the early hours of, October 14, 2025, part of a wider, escalating wave of anti-Muslim attacks documented in the BMT’s A Summer of Division report. (Credit: A Summer of Division/BMT)
