A Muslim politician has detailed how he was subjected to an Islamophobic hate crime this week. Posting on X, Mothin Ali described it as “a memorable night ruined by a racist thug.”
The deputy leader of the Green Party was on his way to the EuroAsia Curry Awards (hosted in London) on Monday night when the incident occurred.
He described the crime:
A man walked towards me shouting: “I know you. I’ve seen all about you online. You should be deported.” Then he called me a “f*ing Paki.” Shouting that he’s ‘white’ and I should be deported
This makes it clear that this was a targeted attack on Ali, for daring to speak loudly about what it’s like as a Muslim in the public eye.
The man came right up to his face, shouting abuse. When Ali reached for his phone to record, he finally backed off — still threatening to “smash [Ali’s] head in.”
Islamophobic hate crime becoming the norm
As Ali says in his post, this crime is all too common an occurrence now, something which British Muslims are all too hyper-aware of when in public.
Ali said:
As Deputy Leader of the Green Party, I know how dangerous this hate is and how it drives so many Muslims away from public life.
He also didn’t shy away from calling out the cause of this hate — the media, far right politicians, and extremist grifters who sow hate online:
This was not random. His words echoed the racist abuse I see online every day. British men are being radicalised by extremists, politicians, parts of the media and oligarchs.
We have already seen a spike in Islamophobic hate crime, attacks on places of worship and a torrent of abuse so many face just trying to live their lives
This comes at a time when Islamophobic hate is at a record high, with anti-Muslim hate organisation Tell Mama finding that the amount of reports made to them had increased by 43% from 2023 to 2024.
Mothin Ali ‘s attack is the rule
In the report, Tell Mama says:
We have seen a surge in rhetoric that falsely portrays Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers
It is clear what is driving this hatred towards Muslims and other immigrants: people in power or with influence spreading hate and sowing division, so that we don’t pay attention to them. Ali’s experience is hardly isolated, though.
As the Canary reported in April, 85 Muslim graves – including those of babies and children – were desecrated in an Islamophobic attack in Hertfordshire.
Hamzah Naveed, a campaigner against Islamophobia who has been working with the People’s Alliance for Change and Equality (PACE) in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, previously told the Canary:
it’s easier to get people divided and hate refugees and hate religion so that we don’t knock the doors of power and ask: where is the money being spent?
What happened to Ali needs calling out for what it is: an Islamophobic hate crime fuelled by the disgusting rhetoric peddled by far-right grifters like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson to spread division in the lower classes.
However, the issue runs deeper than just the far right. As with all racist attacks, they do not happen in isolation. The attack on Ali and the desecration of the Muslim graves are a product of a deeply Islamophobic society – one that is historically so.
Currently, the Labour government have repeatedly not taken action on Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim sentiment has become normalised and even expected. We have a clearly a societal problem for which more than just Ali’s attacker and the vandals who desecrated children’s graves alone bear responsibility.
Featured image via Green Party
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