In the report’s foreword, journalist
Peter Osborne claims that in the current environment, hate-crimes against Muslims are inevitable. He says, “The constant assault on Muslims from certain politicians, and above all the mainstream media, has created an atmosphere where hate crimes… are bound to occur and are even encouraged by mainstream society.”
More alarming still is the mounting evidence suggesting that racism against Muslims is more accepted than intolerance towards other ethnic minorities in the U.K. A University of Exeter study warns that “anti-Muslim hate crimes have not been afforded the same priority attention [that] government and police have invested in racist hate crimes.”
And in a “Dispatches” documentary for Channel 4 in 2008 called It Shouldn’t Happen to a Muslim, Osborne found that the press could make discriminatory comments about Muslims that were not tolerated when applied to other groups. When he replaced the word “Muslim” in some recent newspaper headlines with “Jews,” “Blacks,” or “Gays” and showed them to members of the public, they found the comments deeply offensive.
Muslims are the biggest Black and Minority Ethnic community and the second largest faith group in the U.K., but despite this they are the least represented in both public and private sectors. Many British Muslims feel they are treated as lesser citizens by a country that roots its values in freedom and equality.
In an article published by The Independent newspaper in 2009, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown listed a number of recent affronts against Muslims by the British establishment, claiming “again, Muslims are made to understand that different standards apply to others.” Describing herself as “Muslim-lite” and reminding readers that she is “often critical of Muslim people and nations,” she writes that “this week even I, even I can see that for the British establishment Muslims are contemptible creatures, devalued human beings.”
This is, perhaps, something of an exaggeration, but in the current climate, which sees many British Muslims suffer attacks on the grounds of their religious affiliation, it’s not surprising that emotions are running high. Just as certain sections of the government, the press, and the public are prone to act as though the tiny minority of Islamic extremists who participate in terrorist attacks on the West represent all Muslims, so some Muslims may be forgiven for assuming that the racial ignorance of these sections is representative of the U.K. establishment as a whole.
Although the government has tried to address Islamophobia via a number initiatives, reports show that these have largely failed. “They lack an understanding of the various Muslim communities and fail to accept that British foreign policy has had a contributing effect to this radicalisation,” Chris Doyle says.
Russian leaders might do well to stop encouraging “more harsh, more cruel measures… to fight terrorism,” and instead try a less hypocritical approach. Ideally, one that doesn’t ultimately boost the cause of terrorists by amplifying their growing catalogue of complaints.

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