I’m chair of the government’s Islamophobia taskforce – we haven’t met in years

At this time of heightened fear, anxiety and tensions, government should be doing its utmost to fulfil its statutory obligations and responsibilities towards all communities, writes Akeela Ahmed. Yet when it comes to British Muslims, this simply isn’t happening. I should know...

‘I myself experience hate incidents and micro-aggressions on a weekly basis,’ says Akeela Ahmed (Akeela Ahmed)

Since the atrocities on 7 October and the ensuing war on Gaza by Israel there’s been a staggering increase in antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes. The regional conflict is playing out on UK soil in ways never seen before. Misinformation and fake news are spreading rapidly online, with extremists on all sides exploiting the conflict to catalyse their hatred of Muslims and Jews alike.

While Tell MAMA has recorded a 335 per cent increase in anti-Muslim hate cases over the last four months, even before the outbreak of war the situation was intolerable.

At the time, this made British Muslims the most targeted faith group in recorded religiously motivated hate crimes. But we know from British Crime Survey data that recorded hate crime figures only tell part of the story. Actual instances of hate crime will be far higher due to significant underreporting, often due to lack of trust in authorities.