Extreme-right activists are terrorising UK’s Muslims, says charity

The surge in extreme rightwing activity in the past week has led to a fivefold increase in threats to Muslims, such as of rape and death, and a threefold increase in hate crime incidents, a national monitoring group said on Sunday.

Muslims in Britain have been left “terrorised” by the increase in extreme rightwing activity since Monday, which is directly linked to a large increase in anti-Islamic hate crimes, according to initial analysis from Tell Mama.

Tell Mama is a monitoring group that tracks complaints of anti-Muslim hate crimes. It says the increase in fear Muslims have experienced is directly linked to the extreme far right.

A total of 10 mosques, the charity says, have faced attacks or threats, including Islamic places of worship in Southport, Liverpool and Hartlepool.

The charity says people have been left too scared to leave their homes, with women wearing head coverings such as the hijab facing threats in the street.

The increases are from initial figures collected from 26 July to 2 August, and are compared with the same period last year. The data includes incidents online and in the real world.

The charity says the figure a year ago was already higher than normal because of a rise in hate crime incidents triggered by the Israel-Gaza conflict. The full data will be released soon, and the experience of Tell Mama, and the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Jewish hate incidents, is that threats and attacks are underreported.

Tell Mama’s director, Iman Atta, said the initial data showed a clear trend: “This is due to the extreme far right’s misinformation and disinformation after the Southport attacks, which falsely linked Muslims to the incident.

“This led to far-right anti-Muslim hate marches across the UK, and to the far right mobilising and spreading more hate online. It is a direct result of the surge in far-right activity.

“The marches and violence are terrorising communities. People do not want to be visible, do not want to go to the mosque. People can have legitimate concerns about immigration but that does not mean they vandalise mosques or attack or threaten Muslim communities.”

The analysis is based on reports to Tell Mama; police keep their own data. After the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict last year police recorded higher rises than the CST in antisemitic hate crime.