75% of Muslims in UK fear for safety after far-right riots

• Nearly 20% reported facing hostility in the UK before the first riot on July 30 in Southport.
• The alleged attacker was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Cardiff.
• Rioting spread to other major cities across the UK, with mosques becoming targets.

According to a survey by the Muslim Women’s Network, three-quarters of Muslims in the UK are now concerned for their safety following a series of far-right riots across the country. Before the violence erupted, only 16 percent felt similarly. Nearly 20 percent reported having faced hostility in the UK before the first riot on July 30 in Southport, which began after a mass stabbing at a youth club resulted in the deaths of three young girls and injuries to multiple others.

Misinformation on social media falsely attributed the attack to a Muslim or an asylum-seeker. The alleged attacker was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Cardiff. Rioting then spread to other major cities across the UK, with mosques becoming targets at multiple locations.

In an interview with Sky News, two Muslim women who were at the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool, one of the mosques targeted by rioters, expressed their fears about the current climate in the UK. Lila Tamea, a 26-year-old student, said: “There was almost a sense that the police weren’t going to protect us. So, it was crucial to see solidarity not just from the Muslim community.”

“It was quite a lot of the non-Muslim kind of community who came out that Friday to defend the mosque.”

Amina Atiq, a 29-year-old poet, told Sky News: “I felt as if it was not fair that we didn’t get a chance as a Muslim family to grieve for the three little girls. Because soon after that, we felt as if we were more suspect to that attack.”

The CEO of the Muslim Women’s Network, Baroness Shaista Gohir, told Sky News: “Hate crime has gone up in the last decade, and the Hate Crime Strategy is out of date.”

She added: “I want to see hate crime legislation strengthened with the term ‘hostility’ defined.”

Gohir said the charity is establishing a helpline and emphasized that more people, especially Muslim women, need to report hate crimes to help society understand their frequency better.

“What’s worrying me is when women are calling up saying, ‘we were abused, and we were with our children.’”

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