LONDON (AFP) – A group which tracks anti-Muslim hate across the United Kingdom (UK) said it had received the highest ever number of reports in 2024, blaming online platforms and artificial intelligence for much of the increase.
“The rise in anti-Muslim hate is unacceptable and this is deeply concerning for the future,” said Tell MAMA’s director Iman Atta.
“We have had the largest volume of cases reported to us… since we started our work in 2012,” she added.
The group received reports of 6,313 anti-Muslim hate cases in 2024 – most of them online.
It was able to verify 5,837.
This compared with 4,406 reports the previous year, of which 3,767 were verified.
Assault cases rose 73 per cent with 99 recorded in 2023 and 171 in 2024, while there were 2,197 offline cases of abusive behaviour reported to Tell MAMA in 2024.
Numbers have spiked since the start of the Gaza conflict in October 2023, and the murders of three young girls in Southport in July 2024.
False claims that the Southport killings were carried out by a Muslim immigrant went viral on social networks in the early days after the attacks.
They helped trigger the UK’s worst riots in decades when mobs attacked mosques and immigrant shelters.
Axel Rudakubana, a UK citizen born in Cardiff to parents of Rwandan origin, is serving 13 life terms for the murders. “Significant national and international events spiked online reports of anti-Muslim hate into Tell MAMA,” according to the report.
“Tell MAMA is deeply concerned about how artificial intelligence generated anti-Muslim pictures are being generated and circulated online,” the group added.
Atta called for the government to take coordinated action and urged the public “to stand together against hatred and extremism”.
“To date X remains the most toxic online platform in the dissemination of anti-Muslim hate,” the group added, referring to the network formerly known as Twitter.
It highlighted the “aggressive language and the targeted nature of anti-Muslim hate towards other users” on the platform.
Tell MAMA called on the government and social media platforms to “address the rising issues that face the online space” arguing it must remain “a space that upholds the fundamental rights of all”.
