The chair of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London has warned that Islamophobia has intensified since the 2017 terror attack in the area, as dozens gathered to remember the man who was killed five years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Makram Ali, 51, was killed on 19 June 2017 when Darren Osborne drove a rented van into worshippers gathered outside the nearby Muslim Welfare House soon after evening Ramadan prayers. Twelve others were injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mosque\u2019s chairman, Mohammed Kozbar, said Muslims still do not feel safe in the UK. \u201cThe problem we are facing is that since this attack took place not much has changed in tackling Islamophobia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kozbar said he remembered Theresa May, who was prime minister at the time, promising to take action \u201cto tackle this disease which causes Islamophobia\u201d. However, five years on, he said, \u201cwe don\u2019t have a definition of Islamophobia\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the situation for Muslims in the UK has deteriorated further, pointing to \u201cthe institutionalization of Islamophobia\u201d by the government and some parts of the media. \u201cWe as Muslims are still feeling the effects of this attack and we won\u2019t feel safe until Islamophobia is taken seriously by the authorities and the police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ali\u2019s daughter Ruzina Akhtar was among those at the memorial service. She said that as a Muslim woman, she wanted everyone \u201cto voice any Islamophobic behavior as it still exists, so it is tackled right away\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darren Osborne was sentenced to concurrent whole life terms in 2018 for the murder of Ali and the attempted murders of other people. The judge, Justice Cheema-Grubb, said his choice to target a group wearing traditional Islamic dress reflected his \u201cideology of hate towards Muslims\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The chair of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London has warned that Islamophobia has intensified since the 2017 terror attack in the area, as dozens gathered to remember the man who was killed five years ago. Makram Ali, 51, was killed on 19 June 2017 when Darren Osborne drove a rented van into worshippers …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":83575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[209,135],"class_list":["post-83574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-islamophobia","tag-united-kingdom"],"yoast_head":"\n