It’s a heartbreaking time to be a Muslim.
From the racist trans misogyny directed towards Imane Khelif at the Olympics last week (and the fact that France has banned women who wear hijabs from competing), to the race riots taking place in the UK right now, our dehumanisation is reminiscent of the scenes we saw after the terror attacks in 2015, and feels as scary as post 9/11. How little times have changed.
On 29 July, three little girls aged under 10 years old were killed in a mass stabbing at a dance event. Eight other children were injured, as well as two adults.
Mere hours after the attack, police arrested a 17-year-old boy and announced the incident was not being treated as terror-related. But when have racists ever let facts in the way of their agenda? And so, like clockwork, social media users claimed the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat last year.
The boy was actually born in Wales to Rwandan parents and there are no reports that he is Muslim, but this doesn’t matter. The misinformation has taken on a life of its own, breaking free of alt right circles and finding its way into the screens, minds and hearts of everyday folks all across the UK.
The day after the stabbing, a mosque in Southport, England, was attacked. People lobbed bricks, bottles and other projectiles through its windows. More than 25 police officers were taken to hospital after the riot. A cop car was also set on fire.
Despite the obvious targeting of a Muslim place of worship and the context within which this happened, local MP Patrick Hurley did not name Islamophobia as the cause of the attack. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Muslims that the attacks won’t be tolerated, “whatever the apparent motivation”. If the roles were reversed and a group of Muslims attacked a place of worship and injured 27 police officers, the ideologies of the perpetrators would be the front page news.
In the 10 days since the attack, there have been numerous and ongoing race riots and random attacks against Muslims and people of colour in general in England and Northern Ireland. On August 4, terrified staff at an inn that houses asylum seekers had to barricade themselves inside by stacking fridges against the door as violent extremists tried to break in. Neighbours fled their homes out of fear for their lives.
Footage online shows a South Asian man was dragged out of his car by a violent crowd who yelled slurs at him and damaged his vehicle. He is believed to have been a taxi driver. Another man was stabbed, and elsewhere a man had his head stomped on. Police are investigating multiple hate crimes, including an incident where a young boy sustained facial injuries after a group of youths attacked him.
Asian taxi drivers in Hull also racially targeted. Some were forced out of work on their busiest day of the week due to the abuse and vandalism. They stand defiant. One said today he will go out, he’s not scared & racism doesn’t win but has little faith the situation will improve
— Monika Plaha (@monikaplaha) August 4, 2024
Muslims have shared TikToks online about being ordered to work from home out of fear that they will be attacked on their commute. Hijabi women are discussing not leaving their homes because they are worried they will be the target of a hate crime. Other videos have circulated showing Muslim businesses torched and white families — with prams and small children in tow — chanting slurs like “Pakis out”.
And all the while, the violence continues: cars and buildings are being set on fire with petrol bombs, and multiple countries — including Australia — are urging residents not to travel to the UK. Police have arrested more than 400 people and said they have no doubt that there is a “paramilitary element” to the attacks.
At what point do we stop referring to these as riots, and start calling them domestic terror events?
Despite the fact that Muslims are by and large the most likely to be victimised by terrorism — and it’s actually far right extremism that is on the rise right now — we continue to be blamed for violence that has nothing to do with us. The irony of far right, mostly white extremists expressing their hatred for Muslim terrorists by committing what I would argue are actual acts of terror is not lost on me. And neither is the role politicians and media organisations have played in creating tensions that have led to this hatred, not only in the UK but in the west in general.
The “stop the boats” rhetoric that became popular in the early 2000s is still pedalled by politicians across the nation, including ex-UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Politicians have taken advantage of anti-Muslim sentiments to distract from class issues and bolster defence budgets. Why would they name Islamophobia as an issue? That would result in them not only having to do something about it, but actually acknowledge when the vilification of Muslims is used to boost votes.
Even here in Australia, Muslims have been facing renewed suspicions of our allegedly nefarious behaviour. Earlier this year we saw Senator Fatima Payman scolded by the Prime Minister himself for standing up for her Muslim constituents, and a vicious media flurry blamed her for the demise of democracy itself. Just this week, the Albanese government faced backlash after it linked increased terror threats to protests about Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, despite multiple reports in recent years consistently naming far-right extremists as a rising threat to peace in this country.
I’m not surprised by any of this, though. Ever since Australia completely failed at taking responsibility for Brenton Tarrant, the man who travelled to Christchurch, New Zealand, and killed 51 Muslims during their Friday prayer, it has been abundantly clear that this country has no interest in seriously combating Islamophobia. This has only further been proven by Australia’s continued support of Israel (including the supply of weapons) despite its mass slaughter of Palestinians.
The sharp increase in hatred towards Muslims in the West right now is a direct result of the violence perpetrated against us overseas, which manufactures consent for violence against us here.
When you sanction the mass killing of our people overseas, what you implicitly tell fascists in our own country is that we don’t matter, that our lives don’t have value, and that we are the enemy.
It’s post 9/11 all over again, and I’m heartbroken for my nine-year-old little sister who will have to live in a world that hasn’t gotten much better since I was her age.