UK mosques on alert over far-right protests

Agitators targeted Islamic places of worship since rumours spread online that suspect behind knife attack was Muslim

British Muslims voiced fear about far-right protests that have targeted UK mosques in recent days, as community leaders bolstered security at Islamic centres before more demonstrations planned for Saturday.

Agitators have targeted Islamic places of worship since unsubstantiated rumours spread online that the teenage suspect behind a knife attack that killed three girls in northwest England on Monday was Muslim.

Demonstrators threw bricks at a mosque on Tuesday night in Southport, the city where 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana is accused of carrying out the mass stabbing, in riots police blamed on the far-right English Defence League.

Then on Friday evening, protesters shouted Islamophobic chants, and threw beer cans and bricks at police outside a mosque in the northeastern English city of Sunderland.

"The Muslim community is deeply anxious right now, really distressed about what they've seen," Zara Mohammed, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), told AFP on Friday.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has accused "gangs of thugs" of "hijacking" the nation's grief to "sow hatred" and pledged that anyone carrying out violent acts will "face the full force of the law".

On Thursday night, the MCB held a meeting with mosque leaders to discuss security ahead of the further threat of violence this weekend.

One of the leaders present reported receiving "threatening calls saying 'We are going to attack you'", while others wondered whether they should go ahead with planned activities, such as children's classes and women's meetings, Mohammed said.

Some of Britain's approximately 2,000 mosques could afford to pay security guards, she added.

Shaukat Warraich, director of the company Mosque Security, which provides protection services to Islamic places of worship, said he had received inquiries from more than 100 mosques "seeking help and advice".

"Many mosques have expressed their vulnerability and fear to us," Warraich told AFP.

On Friday evening in Liverpool, near Southport, the Abdullah Quilliam mosque was able to count on the support of large numbers of local residents, not all Muslim, who turned up to protect the building after rumours circulated online about plans to target it.

"I'm here in solidarity for another community who are my neighbours really. These are all people who live in my streets. These are people who live in my city," Daniel, who did not give his surname, told AFP.

At the end of Friday prayers at the London Central Mosque, many worshippers interviewed by AFP said they were worried about the anti-Islamic violence of the last few days.

"Before it was hidden but now people dare to say what they really think and it is very frightening," said Hishem Betts, a 24-year-old student.

Imran Mahmood, a 52-year-old computer programmer, voiced alarm that social media rumours may have encouraged some people to direct their ire at mosques.

"Instead of looking at the facts, they started blaming Muslims. It is brainwashing," he said.

"It is just really shocking to see how coordinated and planned this is, how quickly a disinformation fake news campaign has resulted in this," the MCB's Mohammed said of the Islamophobic protests.

But it "hasn't come out of a vacuum", she added, pointing to "a strain of anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiment" in the country, including from political leaders.

Lawmaker Lee Anderson of the anti-immigration hard-right Reform UK party, which won a breakthrough five seats at last month's general election, sparked controversy earlier this year by accusing London Mayor Sadiq Khan of being "controlled by Islamists".

His populist party leader, Nigel Farage, was accused of stoking this week's trouble after he posted a video questioning "whether the truth is being withheld from us" over the Southport attack.

"This is not something new but the scale is becoming wider," said Iman Atta of the Tell Mama project, which records incidents of Islamophobia.

She said that "language" used around migration helps "drive those who are extreme to actually become more emboldened to come out".