Islamophobic tide

Muslims have been living in the cities and towns of western Europe for around a century by now. By all accounts, they are still the most persecuted, discriminated against, stereotyped and profiled group in the region and, arguably, throughout much of the Western world as well. They are by any measure ‘insiders’ in the West, having lived, worked, worshipped and fought for the region for decades. And yet, they are treated like permanent outsiders. Muslims, be they citizens or recent immigrants, have been the favourite target of the far-right in the West while mainstream politicians have institutionalized immigration and internal security policies that systematically and unfairly target Muslims. At least in the UK, this toxicity has now spread beyond the halls of officialdom and the most extreme members of the right wing and seeped into much of the wider population. Evidence of this can be seen in the chaos enveloping the country following the stabbing of three young girls in the town of Southport in northwest England. The far right seized on the attack and spread misinformation about the identity of the alleged perpetrator, falsely claiming that he was an immigrant and/or a Muslim. Not that it would matter even if this was the case, but tarring large groups of different individuals is the calling card of bigots and extremists everywhere.

These claims appear to have been swallowed hook, line and centre by many people, with violent riots breaking out in several towns and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Mosques are now being offered extra security, hotels housing asylum seekers are being attacked and several shops and other businesses have been looted throughout the country. The situation has gotten so bad that the UK policing minister was forced to clarify that there will be no need to bring in the army. Many, including the authorities, have labelled the protesters as an isolated band of ‘far-right thugs’ and promised swift action against them. This narrative is arguably missing the true scope of the problem. Given the many thousands taking part in the riots, it is safe to assume that the ‘far-right’ narratives against Muslims have a much wider appeal than was previously thought. This is no longer about a few hundred alienated white men spreading hateful lies on social media. The extremists now have the numbers to cause widespread mayhem in the real world and bring one of the world’s most advance countries in the world to the brink of a national emergency.

This view is backed by the fact that far-right parties made considerable gains in the UK’s recent general elections, with the Nigel Farage-led Reform UK party winning 14.3 per cent of the aggregate votes. This is a historically successful performance for a far-right party in Britain. Outside of the British Isles, the attitude towards Muslims is no less hostile. In Italy a government that is openly hostile to Muslim immigrants and is making it harder for NGOs to rescue migrants stranded at sea has been voted into power. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands anti-Islam populist Geert Wilder’s party became the largest in the Dutch parliament after the November 2023 elections. In fact, rampant Islamophobia was often seen as something that was more of a mainland Europe problem and something that the UK had avoided. This is clearly not the case. The tide of Islamophobia in the West is only growing and appears to have more official and popular support than ever before.