Muslims targeted by violence in wake of IS claimed attacks
The attack on Muslim worshippers outside a London mosque on Monday follows a rising wave of violence and harassment directed against Muslims across Britain and around the world.
This month alone, a Muslim woman wearing a head scarf told police in Lancashire her car was struck by a bag of vomit. Worshippers at the Omar Faruque mosque in Cambridge found strips of ham attached to their vehicles. Several Muslim families have reported receiving letters warning, “You are no longer welcome in this country.” Scores say they have been spat on.
Across Britain, Muslims say they are being targeted by a wave of animosity and violence simply because of the way they dress and worship, and because they share a religion hijacked by bloodthirsty extremists like the Islamic State group, which was quick to claim responsibility for recent attacks in Britain and elsewhere. In Monday’s attack, a man plowed a van into a crowd of worshippers, injuring at least nine people — a tactic used in the recent attacks on Westminster and London bridges.
London’s Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, said Monday’s assault outside two mosques during the holy month of Ramadan was clearly “an attack on Muslims.”
“We are easy targets because of the way we dress and when we pray,” said Hassan Ali, a 34-year-old resident of Finsbury Park, a north London neighbourhood that is home to a large Muslim population and where the attack occurred. “But every time there is an attack here or elsewhere, we are blamed. When we are attacked, people look away.”
Since the wave of Is-inspired terror attacks in Britain, there has been a five-fold increase of hate crimes against Muslims. Tensions have also been running high since Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, a vote that was largely driven by anti-immigrant rhetoric — a message that was further reinforced by some of Britain’s right-leaning tabloids and spread by populist European politicians promising to stem immigration and tackle terrorism associated with IS.
Such attacks against Muslims have been on a worldwide increase. In January, a white nationalist opened fire on an Islamic cultural centre in Quebec City, Canada, killing six people and wounding nearly 20. In the same month, the Islamic Center of Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, was destroyed by a fire in what authorities called a hate crime and another mosque was burned to the ground. Last year, nearly 100 mosques were attacked in Germany and dozens across Europe have been targeted by arsonists this year.
Stirring tension plays an important part in Islamic State and al-qaida propaganda, as well as propaganda by rightleaning political groups.
Brendan Cox, the widower of the slain British parliamentarian Jo Cox, said both the farright and Islamic extremists are propelled by polarization.
“Far-right fascists and Islamic terrorists are driven by the same hatred of difference, same ideology of supremacy & use of same tactics,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Islamic State group and al-qaida have targeted Muslims living in the West, repeatedly saying they will never be fully accepted members in a society of “unbelievers.”
The idea has been to sow mistrust and drive both sides to the extremes. In the case of IS, the propaganda has gone even further, warning Muslims that if they failed to either join the fight in defence of the extremists’ self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria or carry out attacks in their home countries, they themselves were complicit in a system of oppression against Muslims.
Islamic State supporters used Monday’s attack to fuel more tensions by noting that the attacker, identified as 47-year-old Darren Osborne, was not shot to death, unlike the London Bridge attackers. “Muslims. you need to wake up, the war is starting now in your own streets,” the message went on, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.