Pig heads and racist rhetoric - UK's Muslims encounter hostile climate

Many Muslims say they have always had a hard time feeling completely welcome in the United Kingdom, especially after Brexit. But since Israel's war on Gaza began in October, things appear to have taken a turn for the worse.

Last month, two men threw a pig's head through a Muslim family's window in Blackburn. Days later, two women in hijab were run down by a car at a crosswalk in east London. Other citizens have been spat at, as well as verbally and physically abused, whether at a protest or when going about their daily lives.

That's according to Majid Iqbal, CEO of the Islamophobia Response Unit (IRU), an independent charity that supports victims of Islamophobic hate crime and discrimination.

IRU recently represented the two Muslim women who were hit by a car, and the case is still being investigated. Speaking to TRT World, Iqbal said, "It was a particularly horrific attack. One lady was thrown metres into the air and across the road, and the other lady was dragged by the vehicle and had visible tyre marks over her face and sustained horrific injuries."

Politicians behaving badly

Amid growing hostility, some Muslims have tried turning to their elected officials for help.

But British politicians have also been stepping up anti-Islamic rhetoric in recent months. One has been sharing racist AI-generated images on social media that imply Muslims are taking over the country.

Another has claimed that "Islamists" have taken control of London, levelling accusations that the Muslim mayor is giving up the capital city. And still another has suggested there are "no-go" areas for non-Muslims in certain parts of the country.

According to the latest report by the charity Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks), there's been a 335 percent increase in the number of reported anti-Muslim hate cases across the UK from October 2023 to February 2024, compared to the same period in 2022/2023.

Aneesah Ijaz, a 25-year-old law graduate from Warwickshire, is not surprised by those numbers.

Speaking to TRT World, Ijaz said, "I've witnessed Islamophobia growing up in a world where the West’s war on terror was going on. I’ve always been exposed to it."

Ijaz has been on guard against anti-Muslim sentiments for years, after a traumatic incident in 2018 when she was a student at the University of Warwick.

While waiting outside a pub after work in an affluent suburb of Birmingham, she was subjected to anti-Muslim abuse by a man nearby, including threats of violence and racially charged remarks.

He’d just come out of a nearby bar and started walking towards her with a bottle of alcohol in his hand. “I'm going to hurt you. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to bomb you like you bomb us,” were some of the threats he made.

Ijaz feared for her safety and despite being in a familiar area with colleagues present, nobody intervened or offered help. When her father came, he tried to ask bar staff for help tracking down the perpetrator, to no avail.

When Ijaz and her father filed a police report, officers seemed understanding at first and promised to take action. But after two weeks, the family followed up only to find out that the case had been closed without their knowledge.

"It showed me that the government agencies really didn't have my back, so I learnt to keep things more to myself," which she admits was "disheartening" while pursuing a career in law as a then 20-year-old.

Since that incident, Ijaz said she has faced many microaggressions because she wears a hijab and is visibly Muslim.

"You go through experiences on a daily basis, but you can't put your finger on it and push them to the back of your head," she added.

What is Islamophobia?

Islamophobia is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness, according to a 2018 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims. The APPG is a cross-party group that has no official status or powers within the UK parliament, and is independent of government.

However, the UK’s ruling Conservative Party does not appear to accept this definition.

Former Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson recently alleged that Islamists had gained control of London and of the Mayor Sadiq Khan. At the time, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak denied that Islamophobia was an issue within his party.

But Anderson was suspended from the Conservative Party after refusing to apologise for his remarks and has now defected to right-wing populist Reform UK Party.

Meanwhile Paul Scully, another Conservative Member of Parliament, recently made comments referring to “no-go” zones in majority Muslim areas in the country. He has since apologised for his remarks. However, many people appear to agree with him.

A recent poll of 25,000 people by advocacy group HOPE not hate found that 58 percent of members of the ruling Conservative Party think Islam is a threat to the British way of life.

And 52 percent think it’s true that "Parts of many European cities are under the control of Sharia law and are 'no-go' zones for non-Muslims," with only 21 percent believing it to be false.

So, what has been fuelling this rise?

One reason is the war on Gaza, said Zara Mohammed, secretary general for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). But the issue goes far beyond that.

According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, there are about 3.9 million Muslims in England and Wales, accounting for 6.5 percent of the population. Pew Research forecast that those numbers could more than triple by 2050 to 13 million, in part due to immigration.

Those numbers could be making some nervous.

Speaking to TRT World, Mohammed said, "The Home Office’s own statistics for the last five to 10 years have shown that when it comes to all religiously motivated hate crime, 40 percent of that is against Muslims."

And experts say the issue runs across the political spectrum, not just in the Conservative Party. The opposition Labour Party is also at risk of losing Muslim voters. The UK is going to have a general election this year and anti-Muslim hatred will be a key policy issue for many Muslim voters.

Voting matters

Nadia Kalooji, 33, who works in the charity sector, told TRT World that tackling anti-Muslim hatred in the UK will require civic engagement.

"Until we stop dehumanising Muslims, until we put people in power who see Muslims as humans, as equals, I don't think we're ever going to counter this rise in Islamophobia," she said.

Kalooji added that she has written to her MP about the issue a number of times, only to realise that Paul Scully is her representative. So now she is "very pessimistic about the change that can happen."

"People who are in power don't realise what they say affects everyday people like me. They're putting a target on our back."

According to the British Muslim Heritage Centre, Muslims are more recognisable as a minority community. Many women wear the hijab and become "easy targets" for far-right extremists and Islamophobes.

"More people would care to admit that they have thought about taking their hijab off," Ijaz said. "I wonder, if I wasn't wearing this, would I be treated slightly differently? Could I pass as someone else and people might not notice me as much?"

Kalooji herself was the victim of an anti-Islam attack six years ago. She was walking home from work on a sunny July afternoon, when a tall white man approached her unexpectedly. Assuming it was someone she knew, the charity worker turned around but was instead met with dread as the man attempted to forcibly remove her hijab.

Despite her resistance, he pushed her to the ground and proceeded to pour alcohol over her. While her attacker fled, Kalooji was left shaken, feeling vulnerable and alone. She said she felt deeply traumatised and distressed, especially because the attack occurred in broad daylight on a well-used public path, only a couple of minutes from her family home in South London.

"I hurt my shoulder and grazed my face a bit. Gosh, it was quite a long while ago but it still feels very fresh and relevant," she recalled.

The police ended up being no help. She said she eventually went to therapy to help her cope with the trauma of the incident, adding, "It took me nearly six, seven years to say to myself, I deserve the space to heal from it. I suffered with very bad anxiety after the attack, and I still do. I'm still very apprehensive to leave the house and when I do leave, it's after a great deal of deliberating."

Over the years, she too has continued to endure and witness microaggressions.

Kalooji recounts a recent incident in her local supermarket where a man made a derogatory comment about an elderly Muslim woman in the queue who was a bit slow and struggling to pack her groceries, saying "she would be faster if she were packing bombs instead of groceries."

Shocked by the blatant anti-Muslim hatred, Kalooji instinctively challenged the man, who attempted to justify his remarks by making a reference to his military background, adding that he found Islam to be problematic.

"We've considered moving countries more since I've had my son," Kalooji said. "I'm very fearful of what this growing intolerance could mean for him when he starts going to school. It's a very difficult conversation to have as to why people might treat him differently."

Finding allies

Given how widespread it is, MCB's Zara Mohammed said Islamophobia is "not a Muslim problem, it's a societal evil."

She argued that the first step to countering it would require supporting and adopting a definition accepted by both main political parties in the UK. Secondly, it's important to lobby and raise awareness.

"We don't need to do this alone," she said, highlighting that allyship is key. Third, people should be encouraged to report any anti-Islam incidents.

Mohammed also advocated offering people an opportunity to learn more about the faith and its beauty and goodness. There are many UK-based individuals and organisations who are doing all they can to educate people about Islam.

Speaking to TRT World, a volunteer for a charity that gives free copies of the English translation of the Quran in a bustling spot in central London, said he has noticed a shift since October.

"There are more and more people who are curious about Islam, keen to explore what the Muslims and the pro-Palestinian protesters really believe in," he said.

"We have had people who’d challenge us quite aggressively and are surprised when we respond calmly. They say they expect Muslims to be violent and aggressive, and calmness is not something they associate with us."

He said some take the copy of the Quran and throw it in the bin, but the volunteers don’t react and just quietly go and retrieve the copy.