Roots of Islamophobia in UK

The recent series of riots in the UK started on June 29, with the fatal stabbing of three White youths

The UK recently witnessed Islamophobia in the form of brutal attacks on Muslims across the country. Islamophobia in the UK is at least partly attributed to the different ways in which the British law enforcement agencies, British politicians and the British media perceive Right-Wing extremism and Islamic extremism.

The Guardian quotes the think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) to say that the British police and politicians, including Labour politicians, adopt a “two-tier approach” to extremism that fails to treat Far-Right attacks as seriously as Islamist attacks.  

RUSI said that right -wing violence is often classified as “mere thuggery” by politicians, prosecutors and security agencies. But equivalent acts by Islamists are labelled as “terrorism.”

Recent rioting across England and Northern Ireland that targeted hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques was fuelled by neo-Nazi and extreme-Right Wing groups.

According to RUSI, White Right Wing violence is seen as “low impact and disjointed” and therefore, not as serious as Islamic violence. The latter is seen as being “deliberate and planned” and therefore sinister.

Far-Right violence is often classified as mere ‘thuggery’ or “hooliganism”. For example, Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the recent rash of violence across the UK as “Far-Right thuggery”. This “two-tier” approach determines the State’s approach to the two different cases of violence. Islamic violence is treated as a dangerous and deep-seated malaise which needs to be tackled with an iron fist.

In the recent seven-day series of riots started on June 29, with the fatal stabbing of three White youths,  Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7) and Alice da Silva Aguiar (9), at a dance class in the seaside town of Southport, in the north of England.

Later that day, police arrested a 17-year-old British-born Ruwandan  from a village nearby. He was not a Muslim contrary to the information circulating in the social media network.  

The post-murder violence involved supporters of the now disbanded Far-Right group, the English Defence League (EDL). On X, formerly Twitter, EDL founder, far-right activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, posted inflammatory messages to his nearly a million followers while on holiday in Cyprus!

An influencer on X associated with Yaxley-Lennon, who posts under “Lord Simon”, was among the first to publicly call for nationwide protests against the killings of the kids in Southport attack.

Riots broke out across England, from Plymouth on the south coast to Sunderland in the North East. There have also been riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland. About 600 arrests had been made by Friday 9 August, with more than 150 people charged. The arrested included children as young as 11.

Resistance to Racism

However,  British society at large reacted sensibly and restored the social equanimity. People gathered on the streets in several towns chanting slogans like “racism off our streets”. In Accrington, Lancashire, Muslim anti-fascist protesters who went to protect a local mosque were embraced by pub-goers, in a “massive” moment of unity.

In town after town, unity marches were staged spontaneously to close the racial and religious gap.  

Islamophobia and White Far-ight violence are fundamentally rooted in opposition to immigration, especially of non-Whites from the former colonies. “We want our country back” is the chief slogan of this movement.

The recent riots were reminiscent of events in the 1970s and 80s, when immigrants were targeted by the neo-Nazi National Front. In 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell gave his infamous “rivers of blood” speech, in which he said that by permitting mass immigration, UK was like “heaping up its own funeral pyre”.

Robert Winder, a historian and the author of The Last Wolf: The Hidden Springs of Englishness in a piece in The Guardian said that anti-immigrant riots were common in British history.

“In 1190, the Jews of York were herded into a castle and killed; in 1263 a further 400 died in a Palm Sunday rampage in London; and in 1290 the entire Jewish population was roughly escorted to the coast and deported. The year 1312 saw race riots against the Flemish weavers who had come, it was said, “onlie to seeke woorck”.

“In the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, foreigners were set upon for saying “brod” instead of “bread”, and 100 years later the Steelyard in Blackfriars in London, home to the Scandinavian trade, was ransacked.”

“There were anti-Italian uprisings in 1456-7, and on the night before the May Day holiday of 1517, a 1,000-strong mob in London attacked anybody that looked foreign. Things got even busier after that. Every time people came, fists flew. No room here for the full list, but there have been riots ever since, against all-comers from Cardiff to Notting Hill,” Winder wrote.

However, Winder does say at the end of the sordid list that “each racist convulsion drew out an anti-racist movement to counter it, which usually outweighed the original splinter groups.”

Also, these race and anti-immigrant riots made British society reflect on the harsh conditions in which violence flared – squalid slums, inhuman working practices, child poverty, the “demon drink” and so on.

Labour’s role

Interestingly, the Labour Party, known to be a liberal-minded  working peoples’ party, has had a fair share of the responsibility for the rise of racism, the growth of an anti-immigration sentiment and Islamophobia.

It was Labour that got Britain into the genocidal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where thousands of Muslims were killed using modern military technology.

Iraq and Afghanistan did radicalise some Muslims. But that was framed as an inherent problem of Islam itself. Many Muslims were “fundamentally incompatible with the modern world”, declared Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In 2006, the Labour Cabinet Minister Jack Straw declared he was uncomfortable speaking to Muslim women wearing a veil, calling it “a visible statement of separation and of difference.”

The widespread demonisation of Gaza protesters in the UK as a “dangerous rabble” added to Islamophobia. 

Islamophobic Attitudes

Of UK’s total population, Muslims account for 6.5% of the population (a total of 3.9 million). A survey done by the Muslim Council of Britain found that 18% the British believe that “Muslim immigration to this country is part of a bigger plan to make Muslims a majority of this country’s population”. Around 32% believe there are “no-go areas in Britain where Sharia law dominates and non- Muslims cannot enter.” About 31% of young children believe that Muslims are taking over England.

 The average Briton believes 15% of the population are Muslim (actually it is 0.5%), and that Muslims will make up 22% of the population by 2020 (forecast at 0.6%).

Around 22% have negative feelings towards Muslims. Thirty three percent believe that equal opportunities have gone too far when it comes to Muslims. About 43% are concerned if mosque re built near them. Twenty two percent are concerned if Muslim family moves next door. Around 30% would object to their child visiting a mosque. About 47% would not be willing to accept Muslims as members of their family.

Media’s Role

The University of Cambridge/ ESRC Roundtable research found that the British mainstream media’s reporting on Muslim communities contributed to an atmosphere of rising hostility towards Muslims.

Since 2006, academics have observed how media coverage on a global level has represented Muslims as “underdeveloped, illiterate, homeless and orchestrators of failed states.” The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), found in 2018 that 59% of all articles analysed associated Muslims with negative behaviours. Over one-third of all articles misrepresented Muslims, and 43% of all broadcast clips associated Muslims with negative behaviour. Terrorism was the most recurring theme in reports relating to Muslims and Islam.