This rhetoric, amplified by editions such as The Spectator, are indirectly responsible and directly culpable for a rise in Anti-Muslim hate crime which rose in England and Wales by 19% in the 12 months to March 2025, according to Home Office figures. Last year, over a three-month period, Ahmed’s team documented 27 attacks against 25 mosques in 23 different parts of the country. In Scotland, Muslims were the target of nearly a third of religious hate crime.
A recent BMT survey found that more than half of Muslims (56%) had experienced religious prejudice in the past year. Muslim women appear to bear the brunt of the hostility, with reports of hijabs being ripped off, women being abused on public transport and others being harassed or filmed in public. Far-right groups have fused anti-immigration and anti-Muslim narratives, portraying Muslims as outsiders regardless of their citizenship. As Shabna Begum, the director of Runnymede Trust, warned in the months after the 2024 riots: “No one wants to be seen to defend Muslims.”
Allowing someone like Rod Liddle to endorse such rhetoric is just pouring fuel on the fire which, in turn...
...allows this kind of demonstration to take place at all.
Expressing concerns about the influence of radical Islam in the UK is an acceptable measure of our ability as a Democracy to tolerate the kind of free speech advocated by The Spectator in its finer moments - inciting the kind of hate speech against all Moslems flowing freely on our streets is not.
A recent BMT survey found that more than half of Muslims (56%) had experienced religious prejudice in the past year. Muslim women appear to bear the brunt of the hostility, with reports of hijabs being ripped off, women being abused on public transport and others being harassed or filmed in public. Far-right groups have fused anti-immigration and anti-Muslim narratives, portraying Muslims as outsiders regardless of their citizenship. As Shabna Begum, the director of Runnymede Trust, warned in the months after the 2024 riots: “No one wants to be seen to defend Muslims.”
Allowing someone like Rod Liddle to endorse such rhetoric is just pouring fuel on the fire which, in turn...
...allows this kind of demonstration to take place at all.
Expressing concerns about the influence of radical Islam in the UK is an acceptable measure of our ability as a Democracy to tolerate the kind of free speech advocated by The Spectator in its finer moments - inciting the kind of hate speech against all Moslems flowing freely on our streets is not.
