Elham Asaad Buaras
The Prime Minister of the UK has on November 6 been urged to tackle Islamophobia after a sevenfold increase in anti-Muslim incidents following Israel-Gaza hostilities.
Tell MAMA, a national project which records and measures anti-Muslim incidents, said some 515 cases were reported between October 7 and 29 – compared to just 73 during the same period in 2022.
The newly formed Anti-Islamophobia Working Group (AIWG), a coalition of anti-racist organisations backed by the US State Department, have now called on Rishi Sunak to crack down on anti-Muslim hatred.
AIWG founder Anisa Mahmood said: “With a dramatic surge in Islamophobic incidents since the conflict, it’s urgent now more than ever for the Prime Minister to engage with this issue.
“That’s why we’re calling on him to meet with the working group so we can create meaningful change and tackle Islamophobia.”
“There’s no better time to do this than Islamophobia Awareness Month.” The incidents, which were revealed at the start of Islamophobia Awareness Month, include a mosque in Oxford being targeted with a petrol can being thrown into the car park. Of the 515 cases, 247 happened offline – including 24 assaults – while the remainder consisted of online hatred and threats.
Tell MAMA said of the 515 anti-Muslim hate cases reported, 247 cases happened offline – with 177 cases of abusive behaviour, 25 threats, 24 assaults, 13 cases of vandalism, 11 acts of discrimination, 12 cases of hate speech and 5 examples of anti-Muslim literature.
Cases occurred in areas like London (155), Northwest (26), Lancashire (6), South Yorkshire (7), West Yorkshire (12), East Midlands (9) and West Midlands (13), South East (4), South West (5), North East (6), Wales (2), Scotland (2).
Tell MAMA received 268 online anti-Muslim hate incidents.
Tell MAMA said there has been a two-fold increase in London alone – citing racist, dehumanising, and threatening behaviours targeting Arab,
Palestinian and Muslim communities both offline and online.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, AIWG, which contains major organisations such as Hope Not Hate and Show Racism the Red Card, wrote:
‘This Islamophobia Awareness Month we are calling on you to protect and safeguard the British Muslim community from the scourge of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred.
‘It is with a deep commitment to justice, equality and social cohesion that we call upon the government to take decisive and immediate action to address and eradicate Islamophobia.’
Successive Tory governments have long been accused of neglecting and feeding Islamophobia in the country.
On October 5, two days before the start of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the Home Office released hate-crime figures showing there were 3,452 (39%) anti-Muslim attacks in the year ending March 2023, meaning Muslims have remained the most targeted group since police started compiling hate crime statistics in 2011.
To put the extent of anti-Muslim hate crime in context, the next most targeted group last year was Jews, who were attacked 1,510 times (17%), while Christians were targeted 649 times (7%).
“There must be zero tolerance for any form of racism or hatred, and that the police should act immediately to crackdown on any criminality – both in our streets and online.
We have taken action to tackle hatred and the Government regularly engages with community voices to understand the issues that affect them,” said a spokesman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities to The Muslim News.
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