How UK's First-Ever Survey Reveals Detailed Attacks on Mosques and Islamic Bodies?

The hate and prejudice against Muslims and against anything associated with Islam in the UK pushed British Muslims to express their fears over rising Islamophobic attacks on mosques, warning that the safe refuges of places of worship can be" shattered by a single act of hatred."

In fact, half of the mosques and Islamic bodies in the UK have been targeted by religiously-motivated attacks during the past three years.

The majority of these institutions in Britain are suffering from hate attacks due to the lack of serious procedures, whether on the part of the government or security when dealing with such attacks, because most of the attacks are not investigated by the police.

UK's first-ever survey sheds light on the difficult security situation in Muslim mosques in the United Kingdom, revealing a large number of Islamic bodies were attacked with hate and racist motives.

 

UK's First Ever Survey

In a newly released UK report, nearly 42 percent of mosques and Islamic institutions have experienced religiously motivated attacks during the last three years.

The UK survey, which was the first of its kind, was jointly conducted by two British institutions, Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) and Muslim Census, has revealed an unprecedented rise in the number of attacks on Muslim bodies, especially mosques.

According to the report, the most common form of attack experienced by mosques and other Islamic institutions "was vandalism, followed by burglary or theft (34 percent), with 83 percent being attacked at least once a year."

Overall, 35% of mosques experienced attacks motivated by Islamophobic reasons at least once a year.

Many mosques are hesitant to report any attack to avoid negative impacts, "such as fear of attending mosques, reduction in community cohesion, and loss of confidence in police action," according to the report.

Nearly 17 percent of mosques in the UK have faced physical abuse directed at staff.

In the report, Mosques officials said they constantly receive threats of physical violence on social media; they have expressed their frustrations and how increased Islamophobia hate crimes are taking a toll on their wellbeing.

The report quoted an unidentified mosque official as saying: "We have witnessed individuals breaking windows, vandalizing worshipers' vehicles, and spraying racist graffiti on the mosque building."

The report confirmed that 15 percent of mosques in the UK witnessed an increase in attacks during the period of the Coronavirus.

 

Where Are the Police?

In the face of the increasing attacks on mosques, the role of the police in deterring the aggressors came to light; the survey reveals rifts in the views of the leaders of the mosques.

About 55 percent of them were satisfied with the police response, while 38 percent admitted that there were no serious police actions. Some of them consider that reporting attacks is unnecessary because they already know that the police won't take any action.

However, Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, the UK national police chiefs' council lead for hate crime, disproved such allegations and said UK police take all hate crime reports seriously "since they have a devastating impact on individual victims and the communities involved," according to the report.

"We work hard to build confidence by engaging with affected communities at a local and national level. We are in regular contact with our partners at the charity who support Muslim communities, and I would encourage anyone who suffers hate crime to report it to the police," he told Al Jazeera.

He added: "Everyone has a right to live their lives and practice their religion, without the fear of targeted abuse for who they are, either physically or verbally; and we will always seek to protect that right."

Although the survey does not mention the nature of the incidents that the British police did not take seriously, there is a growing feeling that the UK police and the government are not taking any action to protect mosques from attacks.

Mohammed Kozbar, chairman of the trustees of Finsbury Park Mosque in London, expresses regret about the government's lack of seriousness in addressing the phenomenon of Islamophobia in general and attacks on Islamic bodies in particular.

In his interview with Al Jazeera Net, Kozbar confirms that there is a lack of seriousness in dealing with attacks on mosques because most of the attacks and the suspects are not investigated by the police.

Between March 2020 and 2121, the UK Home Office statistics registered 6,377 religious hate crimes, half of which targeted the Muslim community in Britain, which represents 4.4 percent of the British population.

 

Funding Problem

While calls continue to provide the necessary protection for mosques in Britain, the government launched a plan of $23 million to grant funding to mosques in order to install surveillance cameras in mosques and hire security men. However, several mosques are still finding it challenging to get funding.

In 2021, the British Home Office approved a third of the requests submitted by mosques to benefit from this funding, but this percentage was not that important, especially since more than 50% of mosques announced in their candidacy files that "the main reason for the request is the constant threat of being subjected to racist attacks," according to the report.

The British government is not dealing strictly with the calls to face hate attacks which directly increases aggression and hostility against Muslims.

Kozbar said that the attack on Finsbury Park Mosque is not an exception, saying that Muslims are exposed to a torrent of messages and comments on social media expressing threats and mocking religious symbols, in addition to the physical attacks.

The British government's adoption of an official definition of Islamophobia will establish the legal framework to punish anyone who attacks mosques or Muslims, according to the chairman of the trustees of Finsbury Park Mosque.