Muslim clerics in UK warn of worrying levels of Islamaphobia United Kingdom

Muslim clerics in Britain have warned of increasing levels of Islamaphobia in the UK

Muslim clerics in Britain have warned of increasing levels of Islamaphobia in the UK after recent videos showing anti-Muslim abuse on public transport were posted online and police forces in England and Wales were ordered to treat such attacks in the same vein as anti-Semitism. 

A 36-year-old woman from north-west London, which was filmed shouting abuse at two Muslim women, one of whom was pregnant, was subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty to causing racially aggravated distress.

In the same week, a 25-year-old man handed himself in to police after video footage emerged that purportedly showed a man screaming Islamophobic abuse at a pensioner in Tottenham, north London, and then apparently throwing his walking frame out on to the pavement.

The videos, which were widely shared on social media, emerged shortly after the Metropolitan police released figures indicating that anti-Muslim attacks in London had increased by 70 percent in the 12 months to July, from 478 incidents the previous year to 816.

It is worth mentioning that earlier this month, British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered police forces to record data on anti-Muslim hate crimes and to treat them as seriously as anti-Semitic attacks.