More Muslims targeted after Johnson column, says anti-racism group

There was a “significant spike” in Islamophobic incidents following Boris Johnson’s comparison between women in burkas and letterboxes, according to an anti-racism organisation.

Tell MAMA said there was a 375% rise in anti-Muslim incidents from the week before Mr Johnson’s comments to the week after.

In the week following the Telegraph column in which he compared veiled Muslim women to “letterboxes”, 38 incidents were reported to police and Tell MAMA.

Of those incidents, 22 involved “visibly Muslim women who wore the face veil”, according to the organisation.

“Between August 5 and August 29, 42% of the street-based incidents reported to Tell MAMA directly referenced Boris Johnson and/or the language used in his column,” it stated.

In his Telegraph article in August 2018, Mr Johnson said full-face veils should not be banned, but it was “absolutely ridiculous” women chose to “go around looking like letterboxes”.

He also compared them to “bank robbers”.

Mr Johnson later defended his words, insisting the backlash to them was nothing more than “confected indignation” .

In its publication of statistics on Islamophobic incidents for 2018, Tell MAMA said there was also a “significant spike” in activity after the so-called Punish a Muslim Day letters were sent to Islamic households, organisations and places of work.

The letters, which sought to incite violence, led to reports of 37 public incidents that referenced them.

After the letters there was a period of “heightened tensions, fears, and anxieties around the proposed day”, the statement added.

Tell MAMA said it recorded 2,963 antiMuslim hate incidents in 2018, which includes reports made to both the organisation and the police.