As Islamophobia Awareness Month begins across Britain, Abdullah Saif, CEO of Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), examines the political forces fuelling anti-Muslim hatred and calls for urgent action to confront it.
Muslims across the UK are living in an increasingly hostile social and political climate. Muslims were targeted in 45% of all religious hate crimes, according to the latest Home Office data.
Excluding Met police data, hate crimes against Muslims reached their highest annual level since collection began in the year to March 2018. More than half of Muslims surveyed say they have experienced Islamophobic prejudice, and between 2025-2026 roughly one Islamic centre was attacked every five days.
These are startling findings, and serve as clear indications that much more needs to be done to tackle this rising menace dividing our communities and causing people to live in fear.
Some try to cast doubt on this reality, distorting findings and dressing their denialism in the seemingly respectable language of methodological critique. Others are more brazen, openly questioning whether the Islamophobic hatred we can all see reflected in news stories is even real. Muslims and those close to them know all too well that the problem is very real, and apparently getting worse.
The far-right threat
The UK’s leading domestic intelligence agency, MI5, is also aware of this danger. As part of his annual threat update on 13th October, Director General Sir Ken McCallum said cases where anti-immigration and anti-Muslim views had tipped into “terrorist intent” were the “most marked trend” of the past year, and that the upgrade of the threat level to “severe” was driven in significant part by the extreme right.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
But of course, that alarm bell has been ringing for a while, as Muslim communities and the police forces working with them already know.
In January 2025, a 16-year-old neo-Nazi radicalised online planned to set fire to the Inverclyde Muslim Centre in Greenock and trap worshippers inside using an airgun. Police acted on intelligence and detained him outside before he could carry out the attack.
On 4th October 2025, two masked men poured accelerant at the entrance of Peacehaven Mosque in East Sussex and set it alight while two worshippers were inside; both luckily escaped unharmed.
These are just a few examples from a disturbingly long list of planned attacks, which intended to murder innocent people to send a clear message: Muslims are not welcome in Britain.
Political demonisation
These events emerged in a broader political climate where the demonisation of Muslims has been openly encouraged.
There are the obvious examples, such as the so-called Unite the Kingdom rally organised by far-right agitator Tommy Robinson in September 2025, where unhinged conspiracy theories and dehumanising rhetoric were broadcast from a stage in central London.
Exemplifying this, far-right Colombian-American influencer Valentina Gomez gave a speech where she proclaimed, “if these rapist Muslims take over, they will not only rape your women, they will behead your sons … we either fight now or we die.”
Below the threshold of outright hate, a steady drip-feed of anti-Muslim bigotry has also been coming from many of our politicians.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has a history of questioning Muslim loyalty to Britain, despite opinion polls clearly showing Muslims strongly identify with their Britishness. In fact, the recent investigative journalism by ITV revealed a deep institutionalised Islamophobia living within Reform – and the same can be said for their even further-right rival, Restore.
Public outcry over Israel’s genocide in Gaza has also been weaponised to cast Muslims as a suspect community.
In November 2023, before defecting to Reform, then-Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman, wrote that Gaza-solidarity protests were an “assertion of primacy” by certain groups, “particularly Islamists.”
This of course, despite these marches drawing huge numbers of non-Muslims, including anti-war groups and anti-Zionist Jewish activists.
International connections
The effort to foster animosity toward Muslims among the UK’s population has international roots too.
It’s now pretty much common knowledge that Tommy Robinson has received support from far-right, pro-Israel networks who are close to the Trump administration. Robinson was even invited to the US earlier in the year, where he met Trump officials and took a tour of the state department.
Commenting on the nature of his trip, he said he was there to “mak[e] alliances and friendships” while “warning” about Islam.
Amichai Chikli, Israel’s diaspora minister, called the UTK rally “beautiful” and said “I salute every patriot who marched.” Weeks later he declared himself “proud to host British patriot” Robinson in Israel.
These same officials have also spoken publicly of a need to “take advantage” of European fears of “radical Islam”.
This brief sketch shows that the propagation of Islamophobia operates at multiple levels – the street, the chambers of Parliament and even internationally – often in a mutually reinforcing relationship.
Even when the government does act, such as with this year’s definition of “anti-Muslim hostility”, a watered-down text that avoids the word Islamophobia altogether, the move is held up as proof of special treatment and feeds further resentment.
Tackling Islamophobia
Muslims shouldn’t have to fight for a seat at the civic table, and neither should any group. Yet, as a community we are clearly going to have to work harder to uproot this problem.
Initiatives are being carried out to make this happen. For example, the theme for Islamophobia Awareness Month, which runs throughout November each year, is Don’t Let it Slide, drawing attention to the need for Muslims to report all instances of discrimination they face.
People often think reporting makes no difference, but the facts say otherwise. There are numerous instances where discrimination has been successfully challenged, including cases at work, street violence and media coverage.
Staying silent only emboldens the bad faith actors who want to bully our community into passivity.
A broader whole-of-society push is also needed, as complacency from the majority simply allows the problem to fester.
Research shows there is a strong perception among the British public that Muslims face prejudice – translating that awareness into action through education around how to report discrimination they may witness will be critical.
We also need more robust action by the government. The Prime Minister says an adviser on anti-Muslim hostility will be appointed soon, seven months after the role was first promised. Muslims have heard “soon” before.
We also need a full inquiry into Islamophobia – 61% of the public already support government action to challenge it.
Greater effort to work with other communities to address the shared challenges of racism and anti-religious hatred are also needed.
After all, when three neo-Nazis stockpiled over 200 weapons to attack Islamic centres in Leeds before being convicted last year, they were also planning on hitting synagogues.
With greater action and organisation, the hatred directed at Muslim communities must be contained and defeated. Given the rising tempo of Islamophobia across the Western world right now, it seems we have little other choice.
