Reports of abuse directed at Muslims in Britain have more than trebled since the Hamas attacks in Israel, with women bearing the brunt, figures have shown.
The Tell Mama organisation, which monitors Islamophobic incidents, recorded 2,010 cases between October 7 and February 7, a 235 per cent increase on the 600 incidents seen over the same four months a year earlier.
It mirrors the huge increase seen in antisemitic abuse since the Hamas attacks, driving anti-Jewish incidents to their highest level in 40 years. The Community Security Trust recorded 4,103 incidents in 2023, a 147 per cent increase on 2022.
Tell Mama said that 901 of the reported anti-Muslim incidents took place face-to-face while 1,109 were seen online.
It included a woman being assaulted on a bus in east London and told that “you Muslims are troublemakers”; a woman whose car was vandalised with a Nazi swastika; a death threat sent to worshippers at a mosque; and cases of Muslim women being called “terrorists”.
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Women were the targets in almost two thirds of cases, the organisation said. “[It] once again demonstrates that British Muslim women have borne the majority of the brunt of anti-Muslim hate during this time.”
Women are felt to be particularly vulnerable to Islamophobic abuse as their clothing is more likely to mark them out as Muslim.
Iman Atta, director of Tell Mama, said: “We are deeply concerned about the impacts that the Israel and Gaza war are having on hate crimes and on social cohesion in the UK. This rise in anti-Muslim hate is unacceptable and we hope that political leaders speak out to send a clear message that anti-Muslim hate, like antisemitism, is unacceptable in our country.”
Atta said that it was now “more than ever essential that we sustain, nurture and protect the bonds we have between communities”.
It was therefore an “extraordinarily stupid” time for the government to have withdrawn funding from the Inter Faith Network, a body set up in 1987 to promote dialogue and collaboration between different religious groups in Britain, according to Sir Stephen Timms, a Labour MP.
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Without government funding, the Inter Faith Network is likely to be forced to shut down, the Charity Commission has said. The government has said it will no longer fund the charity because it appointed a member of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), an umbrella body for mosques and Islamic institutions, to its governance team.
Felicity Buchan, a communities minister, said that the government had “a longstanding policy of non-engagement with the MCB” and so felt the appointment “poses a reputation risk to government”.
Timms said: “Is it not, given the debate in this chamber yesterday, extraordinarily stupid to be shutting down at this precise point our principal vehicle in the UK for Muslim-Jewish dialogue? Surely we need more, not to be shutting that down?”
He said that the charity had made a “very important contribution” for almost 40 years.
Tensions have arisen in the past between the government and the Church of England over which Muslim leaders to invite to multi-faith events including royal occasions, with the government sometimes objecting to invitations for those with any links to the Muslim Council of Britain.
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A spokesman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “Interfaith work is hugely important but that does not require us to use taxpayer money in a way that legitimises the influence of organisations such as the MCB. The Inter Faith Network cannot rely on continuous taxpayer funding.”
