Wave of Mosque Attacks Across UK Sparks Concern Over Rising Anti-Muslim Hate
The British Muslim Trust (BMT), the UK government’s official partner for monitoring Islamophobia, recorded 27 incidents targeting 25 mosques between July and October this year. More than a quarter of these attacks involved violence or serious damage, including arson, vandalism, and the use of weapons, The Guardian reported on Friday.
The report, titled A Summer of Division, documents mosques being set on fire in East Sussex, shot at in Merseyside, and smashed with paving stones and metal poles in Greater Manchester and Glasgow. Three mosques were attacked multiple times.
According to the BMT, about 40% of the incidents featured British or English flags, crosses, or slogans such as “Christ is King” and “Jesus is King.” The organization said this trend reflected efforts by far-right groups to weaponize Christian symbols and nationalist imagery to promote division.
The frequency of such incidents rose through the summer, increasing from one in July to nine in both September and October. The BMT said this spike coincided with public nationalist rallies, suggesting that these events may have emboldened local acts of anti-Muslim hostility.
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While the data did not establish direct causation, the BMT said the “temporal correlation” between nationalist mobilizations and mosque attacks was “striking.”
The group urged the government to develop rapid-response mechanisms for mosques, simplify access to security funding, and promote education initiatives highlighting mosques’ roles as “civic anchors” in British communities.
BMT Chief Executive Akeela Ahmed warned: “The evidence from this summer is incontrovertible — anti-Muslim hate in Britain is rising in both visibility and severity, and mosques are being targeted on a staggering scale.”
Source: Agencies
