'The UK government has gone out of its way to try and ignore the rise in Islamophobia, which has been happening hand over fist since the early days of the war on terror,' human rights lawyer tells Anadolu
British Muslims are facing a rising wave of prejudice and discrimination, but a recent decision to defund a key Islamophobia tracking initiative signals the government's intent to remain silent, a human rights lawyer warns.
“Most of the information we have about Islamophobic attacks actually came from an organization called Tell Mama,” lawyer Tasnime Akunjee tells Anadolu, pointing to a 600% rise in attacks against Muslims.
Tell Mama UK, a leading organization that monitors anti-Muslim hate incidents, now faces possible closure after the government withdrew financial support without providing details of any alternative reporting mechanism.
Since its founding in 2012, Tell Mama has been funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to track Islamophobic attacks and support victims. The group handled more than 10,000 reports of anti-Muslim hate incidents in 2023-2024 alone.
Akunjee says the move raises concerns about whether formal data on Islamophobia will remain publicly available.
“The UK government has gone out of its way to try and ignore the rise in Islamophobia, which has been happening hand over fist since the early days of the war on terror,” he said, attributing the more recent surge to the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.
- A disparity in response
Akunjee contrasted the government's treatment of Islamophobia with its approach to antisemitism, saying reports of anti-Jewish hate are widely publicized and acted upon, while anti-Muslim incidents are often ignored.
“That's being publicized, that's being acted on,” he said of antisemitism reports. “But, Islamophobia is not being acted on, it's not being publicized.”
He also noted that antisemitism has an official working definition recognized by the UK government — one that was adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) — which has been criticized for conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish hate.
“There is no working definition of Islamophobia,” Akunjee said. “So the question is, how do you then define what something is in order to be able to record it in the first place?”
Unless Islamophobia is classified in the same way as antisemitism, he warned, official reporting on anti-Muslim incidents will remain incomplete.
- Ignoring problems
Akunjee said Tell Mama's data collection was based on the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) definition of Islamophobia, which includes any attack motivated by prejudice against Islam, Muslims, or “Muslimness.”
He noted that this definition also captured attacks on Sikhs, who have historically been mistaken for Muslims in Islamophobic hate crimes.
“But where we are now … I don't see that there is a methodology to recording those incidents and having them published,” he said. “And that speaks ill of the intentions of any government has pulled funding for that.”
Even before the funding cut, Akunjee said, many victims of Islamophobic hate crimes did not report incidents, believing “nothing will come of it.”
Returning to the “practical disparity” in how the government treats antisemitism versus Islamophobia, citing the arrest of pro-Palestinian activists — including high-profile figures — over social media comments.
Specific policies, such as freezing funds for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) — the UK's largest Muslim umbrella organization, with over 500 affiliated mosques, schools, and charities — suggest the government “has no interest in recording any of these problems,” he said.
“They are more of an interest in pretending these problems don't exist.”
- Rising Islamophobia in the UK
The UK government has repeatedly downplayed concerns over Islamophobia but recently launched a working group to define and tackle anti-Muslim hatred.
On Feb. 28, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner acknowledged the growing problem, calling the rise in anti-Muslim hate crime “unacceptable” and vowing action.
“That's why we've committed to defining Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia, as a crucial steps forward in tackling it and creating a society where everyone feels safe and welcome,” she said.
Government statistics show hate crimes, including Islamophobic incidents, have reached record levels in England and Wales.
However, with the closure of Tell Mama looming, Akunjee and other critics warn that efforts to track and combat Islamophobia may soon become even more difficult.
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