Anti-Muslim hate report figures 'alarming'

Reports of anti-Muslim hate and prejudice in London in the first half of the year have surpassed the total annual count for 2023, according to an organisation monitoring the issue.

Anti-Muslim hate-monitoring group Tell Mama branded the statistics it had collated "alarming", saying the annual total was more than six times higher in 2025 than in 2021.

It said the data showed a "sustained escalation of anti-Muslim hate" and behind each report was "a Londoner who was made to feel unsafe simply because of their faith".

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said anti-Muslim hate "has absolutely no place in London", while the Met Police said arrests and charges for such crimes rose by 57% in the past year.

There were 313 reports in 2021, more than doubling to 818 in 2022, and rising each year since to a record of 1,909 last year.

Between the beginning of January and the end of June this year, Tell Mama recorded 1,031 reports, surpassing the 1,028 reports in the whole of 2023.

Separate data collected by the Met Police showed that reported faith hate crime rose by 25% in London over the past year, and there was a 31% rise in reported Islamophobic offences.

In July, another organisation recording anti-Muslim hatred, the British Muslim Trust, said it had noted 70 attacks at Muslim places of worship across the UK in the 12 months to July, including vandalism and intimidation.

In May, a Unite the Kingdom rally, organised by activist Tommy Robinson, took place in central London, and was criticised by one of the capital's deputy mayors for instances of Islamophobia she said occurred at the event.

Some protesters held a demonstration outside Parliament where they called for the "removal of Islam", while Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, reposted a video of himself saying that, were he to become prime minister, he would "stop Islam", adding: "It's time for many Muslims to leave this country."

Iman Atta, director at Tell Mama, said: "A worrying rise in repeat victimisation and heightened levels of targeted anger are leaving victims with a fractured sense of personal safety, highlighting the urgent need for robust counter-extremism strategies rather than political platitudes.

"This is not a temporary blip, it is a sustained escalation of anti-Muslim hate, and it demands a sustained and uncompromising no-nonsense response from our public institutions."

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: "We will not tolerate attacks on the Muslim community.

"Hate crime in all its forms – including ongoing efforts to tackle racism, anti-Muslim hate crime, and other forms of hatred in the capital – remains a core policing priority."

A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: "Anti-Muslim hate has absolutely no place in London.

"The rise in attacks on Muslims in London and across the country is vile and the police have the mayor's full support in taking a zero-tolerance approach."

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