Home Correspondent
A proliferation of national flags across England, widely seen as a display of patriotic pride, has coincided with a troubling rise in targeted attacks against Muslim communities, including mosque defacements, vandalism, and public harassment.
“Operation Raise the Colours,” a campaign launched in August by Andrew Currien of the far-right Britain First, called on supporters to blanket the UK in St George’s Cross and Union Jack flags. Though presented as a ‘celebration of national pride,’ critics argue it functions as a coordinated instrument of intimidation against Muslim communities.
CALCULATED PRE-PRAYERS ATTACK
The most brazen act occurred on August 28, when vandals defaced the South Essex Islamic Centre in Basildon with red crosses and slogans just hours before Friday prayers—a timing widely seen as deliberate.
Police confirmed the 11pm attack and released CCTV of two white male suspects: one in his 30s, muscular with a moustache, wearing a grey sleeveless Lonsdale jumper and black trousers; the second, around 6ft 3ins and slim, was in grey shorts, a grey hoodie, black socks, and white trainers.
“I was so hurt,” said Akmal, a 33-year-old engineer who asked to use a pseudonym. “It was so close to home. My local masjid. It felt like a real kick in the teeth.”
The community reacted with shock and anger. Gavin Callaghan, leader of Basildon Council, described the attack as “pathetic criminal cowardice.”
“Don’t dress it up. Don’t excuse it. It’s scum behaviour, and it shames our town. To do this right before Friday prayers is no coincidence. That’s targeted. That’s intimidation. And it’s criminal,” he added.
In a longer statement on X, Callaghan branded the vandals “cowardly scumbags” and questioned their motives: “How many of these cowards will be in church on Sunday? None. If they were, they might hear: ‘Do unto others as you would have done unto you.’ ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ This isn’t Christian. It isn’t patriotic. It isn’t brave. It’s just pathetic, criminal cowardice.”
He later thanked local councillors and volunteers who scrubbed the graffiti away before Friday prayers, posting images of the clean-up effort. “Basildon has shown that these scumbags don’t act/speak for us,” he declared.
Wajid Akhter, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, went further, “The St George flag is a symbol of England we should all be proud of. For it to be used in this way, which echoes how Nazis targeted Jewish homes, is a disgrace to our flag and our nation. Silence has allowed hate to grow.”
Local church leaders also condemned the misuse of religious symbols. In a joint statement, bishops called the graffiti “scandalous and profoundly misguided,” warning that invoking Christianity to justify racism is “theologically false and morally dangerous.”
Voices from the mosque itself highlight the human impact. Saima Rafiq, of the South Essex Islamic Trust, said she was ‘disturbed’ to see the graffiti but heartened by the community response: “These acts are based on perception rather than facts and I think we can work to get the right message out there.”
Her husband, Husman Rafiq, emphasised their long-standing roots in Basildon, noting, “We’re born and bred here, we are British nationals. It’s a small number of people, a minority that are behaving this way.”
The couple praised the support of local council staff, who helped clear the graffiti ahead of Friday prayers, saying their assistance reinforced that the community and local authorities stand united against hate.
KNIFE DRAWN OUTSIDE A MOSQUE
Three days later, on August 31, a man attacked worshippers outside Portsmouth’s Jami Mosque.
According to a spokesperson, a group of Muslims had come from elsewhere to pray on the pavement as the mosque was locked. The assailant launched racist abuse, punched one man in the chest, and brandished a knife.
Police arrested Callum Mcinally, 29, of Southsea, who was later charged with racially aggravated assault, harassment, and threatening with a blade. He pleaded guilty on September 2 and will be sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on October 3.
WAVE OF INTIMIDATION
These incidents are not isolated.
On August 29, a Chinese takeaway in York was vandalised with a St George’s Cross. In Reading, road signs and even the Al Majid Centre Mosque were plastered with the red cross.
A spokesman for the mosque described a pattern of harassment to The Muslim News. “They came at night and painted crosses on the mosque steps and a rubbish bin. I removed them the next morning, but that evening, around 11 pm, they returned and did it again.”
He said the police took statements and photos, but they had heard nothing since. Though worshippers were concerned, leaders urged calm. “We have CCTV, but it was too dark to identify anyone. This has never happened before—it’s the first time.”
In Birkenhead, the Wirral Deen Centre was repeatedly targeted, with airgun pellets fired through one of its windows in early August. And in northern towns such as County Durham and Houghton-le-Spring, racist graffiti and xenophobic slurs have appeared on buildings.
The cumulative effect has been a climate of unease. “It’s the fear factor,” said Sajid Fani, 43, a Basildon resident. “They put terror in the hearts of people when it comes to Muslims. I want to show people we are just like them. We’re just human.”
Yet the vandalism of his local mosque inspired resilience. “Alhamdulillah, it resulted in more people coming to the mosque, so the outcome was positive,” he said of the Friday prayers that followed.
For Maryam, another Basildon resident, the atmosphere has become suffocating. “There’s a line between being patriotic and being outright racist or Islamophobic – and some people here are crossing that line,” she said.
She described repeated harassment: being called a “post box” for wearing a hijab, witnessing racist slurs hurled at East African women, and hearing her child insulted in public. “It has affected my mental health. It’s created a lot of trauma and barriers to simply living a normal life,” she said, adding that better police engagement could encourage victims to report hate crimes.
RECLAIMING THE FLAG
Some Muslim communities have responded by actively reclaiming the national symbols that have been used in acts of intimidation.
At the Wirral Deen Centre in Birkenhead, leaders found a Union Jack tied to their railings—likely intended to offend. Instead of removing it, they displayed it proudly in their window.
“A strong and powerful response would be to show that this is our flag, and we are proud British Muslims,” one mosque leader explained. “It’s a common misconception that Muslims aren’t regarded as British; we needed to address that.”
Another added, “We decided to claim our narrative as British Muslims, and our claim to the Union Jack as much as anybody’s.”
A similar gesture was made in Cumbria, where the South Lakes Islamic Centre in Dalton-in-Furness displayed Union Jacks on its half-built mosque.
A viral Facebook post had wrongly assumed the flags were a protest, prompting a flood of anti-Muslim comments. The centre clarified: “It reflects who we are, a British mosque rooted in Cumbria, proud of our home and the community we serve. The flag symbolises our shared belonging and our commitment to building unity, friendship, and a home for all.”
THE POLITICS OF SILENCE
The government’s response has been heavily criticized.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “very encouraging” of people flying national flags, calling them “a great symbol of our nation.” He revealed his own family had a St George’s Cross displayed inside Downing Street.
But his comments drew backlash online. “A UK version of the KKK is marching through towns, spraying red crosses on mosques, hotels, homes, restaurants & shops to drive fear into minorities,” one person wrote on X. “And this is his response. A disgusting, shameless pig.”
Another user added, “In the past few days: a man with a knife outside a mosque, racist graffiti on takeaways and mosques, a nurse racially abused in a park, masked men trying to enter a hotel housing refugees. And not a word of condemnation from Keir Starmer. A serious failure of leadership.”
Analysts link the attacks to the political climate. Shabna Begum of the Runnymede Trust stated that violence against Muslims stems from political and media rhetoric that scapegoats them for economic problems.
She warned that governments using such tactics “ultimately collapse,” questioning the cost to Muslim communities used as “political fodder.”
Photos: Red St George’s Crosses defaced the walls of the South Essex Islamic Community Centre and were daubed on the steps and a rubbish bin outside the Al Majid Centre Mosque in Reading, part of coordinated far-right intimidation against Muslim communities (Credit: Al Majid Centre Mosque / South Essex Islamic Trust Facebook)
