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'We’re in self-imposed lockdown': British Muslims staying indoors amid spike in Islamophobic hate crime
9 August 2024, 07:22 | Updated: 9 August 2024, 10:59
Muslims in Britain have told LBC they are living in fear and too afraid to go out amid a spike in Islamophobic incidents.
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Charities and organisations representing British Muslims have told us that individuals, places of worship and Muslim-owned businesses have been directly targeted since riots broke out across England in the wake of the Southport stabbings.
Majid Iqbal, Chief Executive of the Islamophobia Response Unit, a group monitoring anti-Muslim hate, said: "There's a number of people who've confirmed that either they're not going out much or at all, they're not continuing in their daily life as they would do."
He also told LBC that “some of the mosques have considered and have cancelled the Friday prayer just for fear of safety”.
Mr Iqbal said he’d seen a twenty-fold increase in the number of Islamophobic incidents sent to him via community WhatsApp groups over the past week.
Separately, Tell Mama, which also records instances of anti-muslim hate, says 10 mosques have been attacked or threatened in the last 10 days.
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LBC spoke to a woman called “Amal” who has experienced religious abuse in the wake of the riots.
“This woman was calling me a P*** calling my family members P*** and she was quite… she was threatening to us with her dog. She said that the dog will eat her up our arms and legs,” she said.
“It’s actually quite terrifying being a Muslim woman – it’s made me feel that I can’t actually go out and do my daily chores or continue with my life without fearing that something will happen.
“I’ve seen behaviour change in the local shops - people that would serve me and would be quite nice to me but their approach to me has changed.
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“I’ve been trying my best work from home so I’m not out - I actually feel quite fearful to actually go to my normal Friday prayers.
“I have contributed so much and so has my grandad, so has my father, so have my family members. We are not disturbing others so why should it be go back to your own country? Why should somebody have to say that?
“There isn’t a different country to go to. This is our country.”
The Muslim Council of Britain is “urgently calling on authorities to investigate these crimes thoroughly and bring those responsible to justice”.
The Home Office has increased funding for mosque security in the wake of the riots.
Haniyah Aadam from Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham welcomes the extra funding.
“We’ve implemented is a really good CCTV system where we have over 30 cameras all around the mosque - we are looking into extra security right now and that’s going to involve internal shutters.
“Last year we were tackling far-right extremists on social media and getting a lot of hate mail talking about bombs - we received things in the post as well.
“We do have events planned this week and we are going to go ahead with them because we have to put a counter message out to say we’re not afraid.”
Abdullah Saif from Muslim Engagement and Development, an advocacy organisation in the UK, urged the Prime Minister to meet with Muslim representative bodies.
“The government really has to reach out to the Muslim community - there has to be a genuine attempt to foster that relationship.
“It has been fractured, post-Gaza and the elections, so work has to be done.
“There has to be a clear message that we are going to stamp out Islamophobia.”
Figures from Tell MAMA show….that in the period between October and February 2024 there has been a 335% increase in anti-Muslim hate cases.
65% of Islamophobic recorded attacks have been against Muslim women, the majority of which have targeted visibly Muslim women wearing the hijab.
