The mainstreaming of Islamophobia in the UK

Mobasha Tazamal is the Associate Director of The Bridge Initiative. Her work has been featured in outlets like the Independent, Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye.

A mosque is firebombed as bricks are thrown at its windows and congregants huddle inside in fear, mobs of white men harass and violently assault people of color on the streets, a hotel housing asylum seekers is set alight, Muslim-owned businesses are destroyed, Muslim gravestones are vandalized, mosques are attacked, and a Muslim man is stabbed . . .

This is just a snippet of the Islamophobic violence that has gripped the U.K. this past week.

Described as some of the worst race riots the country has experienced in decades, this violent disorder was triggered by a horrific knife attack that resulted in the deaths of three young girls in Southport, England, after accounts on social media claimed the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker. However, despite authorities revealing the identity of the 17-year-old suspect — who is not Muslim and was born in Cardiff — far-right mobs continued their rampage across the country, terrorizing the U.K.’s Muslim community.

Disinformation on online platforms played a crucial role in inciting these riots, as individuals with large followings spread false claims. For instance, a study by Dr. Marc Owen Jones, outlined how self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, GB News broadcaster Darren Grimes and anti-Muslim agitator Tommy Robinson had a significant impact in spreading fictitious rumors online.

However, the ease with which these racist claims spread demonstrates something else — the normalization of Islamophobia in British society. And it’s not just social media that’s to blame.

According to a 2019 report by the anti-racist group Hope not Hate, “more than a third of people in the UK believe that Islam is a threat to the British way of life.” Nearly a third of the public (32 percent) subscribes to anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, including claims of “No-Go zones,” which nearly half of Conservative voters (47 percent) believe are true. And the report also argued that anti-Muslim prejudice was a key driver in the growth of the far right.

The reasons for this are two-fold: For one, British media has long peddled a manufactured narrative that Muslims don’t assimilate or uphold “British values,” that they’re prone to violence, that Muslim men are involved in pedophilia and the rape of white women, and that Muslim women are both oppressed and also a threat to British culture. It’s thus unsurprising that a 2022 survey found over a quarter (25.9 percent) of the British public felt negatively toward Muslims.

At the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, British media was also found to be far more negative in its coverage compared to several other European countries. Dehumanizing terminology dominated British tabloids, which referred to refugees as an “influx,” “flood,” “hordes” and “swarms.” And outlets amplified fears by using military metaphors and war imagery, with headlines like “send in the army” to stop the “invasion.”

Today, claims of “No-Go Zones” and manufactured issues are regularly repeated on Talk TV and GB News — two platforms that garner millions of monthly views. And the Centre for Media Monitoring has documented the pervasiveness of the issue, highlighting how such right-wing outlets have published a steady stream of demonizing content blaming Muslims for the recent violent unrest. This, despite the fact that it’s been Muslims, their places of worship, their homes and their business that are targeted.

While white nationalist mobs descended on Muslim communities this week, these media networks became their megaphones, with broadcasters amplifying bigotry. Some claimed Muslims should expect this behavior, while others promoted dangerous conspiracy theories about an “Islamification” of society. In doing so, these networks were normalizing views that portray immigrants of color as a threat to British society and British Muslims as a “suspect community” blamed for society’s ills.

When it comes to British politicians, unfortunately, not much is different. For years, rhetoric across the political spectrum has been laced with anti-Muslim tropes.

This past week’s anti-Muslim mobs chanted slogans that were used by mainstream politicians in parliament. “Stop the boats” was the immigration policy of previous Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. His Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who spearheaded an illegal migration bill, had argued that illegal immigrants “possess values which are at odds with our country,” and attempted to tie “people coming on boats” to “drug-dealing, exploitation, and prostitution.” In 2022, then-Conservative Home Secretary Priti Patel put asylum seekers in the same category as rapists. And it was her prime minister, Boris Johnson, who in 2018 likened Muslim women who wore the niqab to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers.” He took office the following year.

The riots in Southport weren’t just caused by online misinformation campaigns, they were also fueled by the widespread prevalence of Islamophobia in mainstream society. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

But it’s not just occasional anti-Muslim statements — Islamophobia is widespread in British politics. Social media accounts of some Conservative party members are indistinguishable from far-right profiles, with one party member writing they would like to “turf all Muslims out of public office,” and another expressing a desire to “get rid of all mosques.”

Others have referred to Muslims as “cavemen,” claimed “most” are sex offenders, and just this past week, Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick argued that individuals shouting “Allahu akbar” — the Arabic phrase meaning “God is great” — should be arrested. Moreover, in May this year, former Tory vice-chair Lee Anderson alleged that London Mayor Sadiq Khan was under the control of “Islamists” and that he “hates this country… our heritage, our culture.”

Despite overwhelming evidence of institutional Islamophobia, Conservatives haven’t just failed to act, they’ve signaled to the public that anti-Muslim racism is acceptable.

So, too, have others on the right. For instance, claims that Muslims are a threat to the “British way of life” are routine for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage — the face of the Brexit campaign who built a career on demonizing Muslims and people of color, helping far-right talking points enter mainstream discourse. His infamous 2016 “Breaking Point” poster, which depicted a line of brown individuals walking toward the border, drew comparisons to Nazi propaganda. Earlier this year, he claimed that British Muslims “do not subscribe to British values” and “loathe much of what we stand for.” And in 2020, he even called for publicizing all hotels housing migrants, as some residents “might be ISIS” — lest we forget, last week, it was a Holiday Inn housing asylum seekers that was targeted by the mobs.

The riots in Southport weren’t just caused by online misinformation campaigns, they were also fueled by the widespread prevalence of Islamophobia in mainstream society. And while today’s anti-Muslim sentiment can be traced back to the 7/7 terror attacks in London, as a result of which four million British Muslims were held collectively responsible for the actions of four individuals, Islamophobia has primarily skyrocketed as a result of decades of negative media stories and harmful government policies (i.e. PREVENT) that framed British Muslims as prone to “extremism.”

British media and politicians have sowed the seeds for this violent disorder, having spent years vilifying and scapegoating Muslims to divert attention away from policy failures, and to gain votes and views. The failure to acknowledge and tackle this in newsrooms and the halls of parliament guarantees we will see a repeat of these ugly riots.