Do UK politicians and media trivialise anti-Muslim, racist attacks?

Anti-Muslim hate is in the headlines in the UK, where since-debunked online misinformation has sparked a flood of far-right riots.

Mosques and Muslim-owned establishments have been in the crosshairs of mobs in multiple cities across the country in the riots that have been ongoing for more than a week.

The violent clashes and targeted attacks on Muslim communities have brought the issue of anti-Muslim hate into sharp focus.

Even as many protesters have been recorded targeting people of colour and spewing anti-Muslim vitriol, the apparent reluctance of authorities to call the riots anti-Muslim has raised concerns that politicians and the media may be downplaying its role in stoking the unrest.

Zarah Sultana, a member of Parliament from the ruling Labour Party, argued this view during a TV interview when she questioned why it was controversial to call the protests "Islamophobic", knowing that Muslim communities were being specifically targeted.

"Yes, they are very reluctant to use those names, racism and Islamophobia, or racist and Islamophobic attack," Kawtar Najib, an expert on Islamophobia, said.

The academic believes that had it has been other populations that were targeted, there may not have been as much reluctance.

The riots were fuelled by online misinformation that a suspect arrested after the fatal stabbing of three young girls during a dance class in Southport, England, was a Muslim asylum seeker.

The claim was false, as police and other officials have confirmed that the suspect was born in Wales.

It was only days after the riots began that the country's home secretary called them anti-Muslim and the prime minister said it was unacceptable for Muslims and mosques to be targeted, noted Mustafa Al-Dabbagh, spokesperson of the Muslim Association of Britain.

"The fact is that it took them so long to get to this point, it took them so long to acknowledge it speaks to a much deeper institutional and structural problem we have within our political circles and within the media, where there is a reluctance to call Islamophobia what it is, to call it out for what it is," he said.

Anti-Muslim riots

Al-Dabbagh said the ongoing riots were definitely anti-Muslim in character.

"Of course, it is Islamophobic when mosques are targeted, when mosques have bricks thrown at them and when Muslims … or people that are perceived to be Muslim are attacked on the street," he said.

He also pointed to reports of far-right protesters stopping cars in the street, allegedly to check the race of the driver or passengers.

It is anti-Muslim when there are "thugs and extremists setting up checkpoints" across towns in the UK, "asking drivers whether they are white or if they're brown and allowing the white ones through".

Najib, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool, said she did not agree with Prime Minister Keir Starmer's portrayal of the riots as "far-right thuggery", suggesting that a better description would be racist and Islamophobic attacks.

"Because, people of colour and Muslims are clearly targeted."

Citing examples, she said during the riots, immigrants in a hostel where refugees were staying were targeted, along with mosques and shops owned by Muslims.

"So, they see if it's South Asian shops or Arabic shops, and then they go there, and they attack it. Sometimes, they attacked shops and even libraries.

"That goes beyond … Muslimness and racism."

Deep-rooted problem

Al-Dabbagh noted that British society had deep-rooted structural and institutional problems of anti-Muslim hate.

"It's been the incitement by sections of our right-wing media. It's been the demonisation of Muslims, by politicians, by commentators, by the media, and it's been, on the rise," he said, adding: "It is permeated through the media, certain sections of the media, right-wing media. It is permeated through certain members of Parliament, certain political parties."

According to Al-Dabbagh, this incitement that has taken place over the long term led to the current street riots.

"It has been sort of the rise of the far right and the far-right rhetoric, and we're seeing it play out on our streets, and more needs to be done to tackle it."

He said the fear has been palpable among Muslims.

"People are telling each other to be careful leaving the house, people are telling their parents and their family members certainly in towns in the north of England to stay at home."

Certain mosques have had to limit the number of prayers they hold, with many Muslims afraid to attend congregational Friday prayers.

With more far-right protesters planning to gather outside immigration centres, Al-Dabbagh said, "We can only sort of wait and watch and see what happens."

According to the British daily The Guardian, UK-based monitoring group Tell Mama reported that around 10 mosques had been attacked or faced threats during the ongoing riots.

The newspaper also said that a "fivefold increase in threats to Muslims, such as of rape and death, and a three-fold increase in hate crime incidents" was reported over the past week.

In response to these attacks, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that the government was earmarking more funds to improve security at mosques.

Al-Dabbagh said he welcomed the move but highlighted the need for greater measures.

"We can't stress this enough that more needs to be done to tackle the deep-rooted and structural Islamophobia problems we have in our country, specifically in certain sectors of the media and certain sections of our political establishment," he said.

Criminalisation of Islamophobia

Experts also called for anti-Muslim hate to be recognised as a criminal offence in the UK.

Unlike the country's Jewish or Sikh population, Muslims are not considered a racial community in Britain. This means they are not afforded the same protection under its racial equality laws, according to Najib.

She said that because of this, Muslims "feel, most of the time, ignored by the institutions and laws".

Al-Dabbagh echoed this sentiment, arguing for anti-Muslim hate to be criminalised.

"Islamophobia is a hate crime, attacking someone purely based on their faith or their perceived faith, for being a Muslim or perceived to be a Muslim is a hate crime," he said.

As an academic, Najib said she and her colleagues had tried multiple times to explain that anti-Muslim hate is a form of racism that needs to be taken seriously, though the definition has been rejected several times.

"It should be a criminal offence," she said, adding that recognition of Muslims as a race would make it easier to consider anti-Muslim attacks or attacks on Muslims as such.

Global trend

Najib said the rise of anti-Muslim hate in the UK was no surprise, adding that rising hostility towards Muslims went beyond its beyond.

"It's a phenomenon that we can see everywhere … it's a global phenomenon. And particularly, in Europe, we can see it."

It is also distinct in the UK, where institutions and laws put in place to protect minority groups have frequently failed to defend and protect Muslims.

"Islamophobia is raising alarm as it has become a pressing issue in many of these places," she said.

"A week ago, I don't think that people would think that mosque would be attacked this way or people in the street would be attacked this way. From one day to another, we can have … terrifying attacks against Muslims."