Pig heads and cars on fire: How Britain’s Jewish and Muslim communities have both suffered since Hamas massacre
Barney Davis and Maira Butt report on surge in hate crimes in Britain since the 7 October attacks
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Cars set on fire, attacks in the street, and mosques and Jewish schools vandalised with red paint.
These are just some of the incidents Britain’s Jewish and Muslim communities have faced during a surge in hate crime since the deadly Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October.
Last month, the Metropolitan Police said antisemitic attacks in London had increased by a staggering 1,353 per cent. Jewish children have been told to disguise their uniforms over fear of reprisals, and there have been multiple instances of posters of Israeli hostages being torn down.
Last weekend, tens of thousands of people took part in a march against antisemitism in London in a show of solidarity.
Over the same period, there has also been a sevenfold increase in Islamophobic incidents, according to reports by Tell Mama (a group that logs anti-Muslim activity). In a shocking incident in October, a man was arrested after a Muslim mother was struck with a concrete slab in an attack in broad daylight in Dewsbury.
From abuse in the street and vandalism to accusations of being “terrorists”, the similarities in the abuse being perpetrated against these two communities are striking.
Since the Nova music festival killings, volunteer security force Shomrim Stamford Hill has reported 84 hate crimes against people of all religions in one Jewish quarter of north London alone. Stamford Hill has seen cars set on fire, and visibly Jewish people threatened with being stabbed as they visit their local shopping precinct.
In one incident, a hooded figure in a black face covering was caught on CCTV splashing the walls of a local school in red paint.
A school security guard, who did not wish to be named, told The Independent: “It is because of the situation on the news, but these children have nothing to do with it, of course. What did they do? It’s not nice for them as they come in, but it’s not only here it is happening.”
In a separate incident, a man was arrested after CCTV showed a flaming box left underneath a family saloon car shortly before it caught alight outside a woman’s home.
Shomrim chief executive Chaim Hochhauser says: “We are Charedi Orthodox Jewish people, we are an easy target and we are vulnerable. Our greatest fear is that it starts with shouting but it doesn’t end there. Someone will get hurt.”
But Shomrim doesn’t just investigate antisemitic crimes. Hochhauser points to an attack on a Muslim mother walking alongside her three children, aged 16, five and three, in Stoke Newington when she was verbally and physically assaulted.
The female attacker made Islamophobic remarks, called the victim a “monkey”, and told her: “Go back home, go back to your country.” She then assaulted her, scratching her under her eye and drawing blood, and hitting her on the head, shoulders and arms, Hochhauser says.
“We collected all the CCTV evidence and reported it to the police,” he continues. “She didn’t have the words to thank us and the Jewish community who helped her take the case forward. We get on so well with our local Muslims that we have great relations. We are an example that we can work together.”
Hochhauser says there should be more police visibility in Stamford Hill, adding that hate crime victims are always shocked at being targeted for their religion.
“We are talking about families of young girls coming home from school and being pushed into the road and shouted at,” he says. “They are not Muslims, these people who are shouting at the Jewish community. They are from different ethnic minority communities, but they now shout ‘Free, free Palestine’ and commit hate crimes targeting the Jewish community.
“It’s happening all over. At supermarkets and clothes stores, they say: ‘We are not serving you Jewish people.’ We are seeing it all over London, and it’s unfair. Why should we suffer like this? Our children don’t know what is happening in the Middle East – it’s not their fault.”
Labour MP Diane Abbott, whose Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency takes in Stamford Hill, told The Independent she had twice raised the need for police to be alert to hate crimes with the Met’s borough commander.
She said: “We know that there are heightened tensions because of the terrible scenes people are witnessing on their TV screens. But this provides no excuse to anyone to engage in either antisemitic or Islamophobic attacks, which are both despicable. There can be no place for any form of racism in our shared community.”
Britain’s Muslim community is also facing a rise in hate, with reports of verbal and physical abuse as well as vandalism, and even the dumping of a pig’s head at a proposed mosque in the market town of Barnoldswick, Lancashire.
AbdulMaalik Tailor, a convert to the Islamic faith, is Britain’s first professionally qualified Muslim tour guide. He says he regularly gets online abuse, such as being called a “Muslim dog”.
He says he was also asked by a member of a synagogue at a hate crime meeting in London whether he “knew anyone over there [in Palestine] that could release the hostages”.
“I was shocked and horrified,” he tells The Independent. “I thought, what have I done to deserve this? The insinuation was that I was linked with Hamas.”
He says children have been affected as their local mosques have been vandalised with red paint. “Red paint is essentially saying ‘Blood on your hands,’” he says. “Kids are asking us why it’s happening. People in the Muslim community don’t report things either – there is a sense that police won’t do anything anyway.”
Acton Central Mosque was attacked on four separate occasions since 7 October, each time being sprayed with red paint.
“We’ve not seen anything like this for over 13 years,” the Imam of the mosque says. “People were scared, they were worried. We couldn’t open everything back up at once. The last time [the attacker] did it, it was in broad daylight and we thought he could do anything. We have classes here for children, and parents wanted to know what was going on.”
Taj Ali was on his way home with his friends from a pro-Palestinian protest when, he says, they were attacked by a woman calling them “terrorists”. She pointed at the Palestinian flag and said it was the flag of “Pakistan”.
“It just feels like people are so brainwashed,” the journalist and co-editor of Tribune magazine tells The Independent. “The thing that was so heartwarming is that two Jewish women intervened and told the woman Palestine is not Hamas. We sat together on the Tube on the way back and one of the Jewish women was in tears. She was saying, ‘I just want all of this to stop.’”
Ali, who has been vocal about antisemitism, says he sees both struggles as part of the same fight against racism. “There is no difference between a Jewish man wearing a kippah and being attacked, and a Muslim woman wearing a hijab being attacked.”
In response to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza and its impact on London, the Metropolitan Police have launched Operation Brocks, with a dedicated website appealing for help to identify people suspected of hate crimes at protest marches.
In a statement last month, the force said: “The Met is determined to bring those suspected of hate crime in London to justice.
“We know some of our communities continue to feel extremely vulnerable as violence in the Middle East continues.
“Hundreds of officers are undertaking extra patrols at places of worship, schools and other premises.
“They are also listening to the concerns of community leaders and representatives of different faiths.
“There is no place for hate or division in our city and we will take robust and positive action wherever we can.”
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