Shaista Gohir, the head of a leading UK Muslim charity, has said she is "deeply worried" about the unprecedented levels of anxiety in the community as government data shows hate crimes against Muslims are up by nearly a fifth.
Gohir, the cross-bench peer and head of the Muslim Women's Network, has criticised ministers for being "silent" and called for a public government response to figures which she believes to be "an underestimation".
Home Office figures, released on Thursday, showed recorded hate crime in England and Wales was rising for the first time in three years, including increases in racially and religiously motivated offences. In England and Wales, where 3.9 million people identify as Muslim, anti-Muslim hate crime rose from 2,690 offences to 3,199 in the 12 months to March 2025.
The figures have been released one week on from the Manchester synagogue attack, in which two people died and others were injured, and amid deepening fears of possible community flashpoints driven by the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The data also showed what the government called a "clear spike" in offences after the Southport murders last summer, which were followed by riots across the country.
However, Lady Gohir believes the true figures are higher, given escalations in recent months and the normalisation of stereotyping and anti-Muslim rhetoric from politicians and public figures.
"I think that's an underestimation given what's happened over the last few weeks and months," she said, citing the East Sussex mosque which was set ablaze last weekend, among other recent incidents targeting the Muslim or perceived Muslim communities. "We're deeply, deeply worried. I don't remember a time in all my activism where so many Muslims are collectively deeply anxious and worried and depressed."
"I'm so disappointed in the government, they're silent," added Gohir, who leads the Birmingham-based charity, which is the only national Muslim women's charity in the UK.
In the year ending March 2025, there were 137,550 hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales. Race hate crimes saw a 6% increase from the previous year, and religiously motivated hate crimes were up 3% from 6,973 to 7,164 - the highest annual total on record.
Mosques and community centres across the UK reported a spate of attacks on worshippers and property in July 2024 after social media-fuelled rumours claimed that the Southport attacker was Muslim. It later emerged that Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three young girls, was born into a Christian family and possessed anti-Islam literature.
On Thursday, an appeal court heard that a man who in February burned a Qur'an outside the Turkish consulate in London was using his human right to free speech. In June, Hamit Coskun was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence after shouting "fuck Islam" and "Islam is religion of terrorism" while holding the flaming religious text outside the consulate.
"The funny thing is, when it comes to voting in four years' time they will be then wanting to speak to Muslims. It'll be too late. We need support now, when we're actually enduring the worst possible time it is to be a Muslim in Britain," said Gohir. "Where is the condemnation from other parties as well?"
Responding to the figures on Thursday, Shabana Mahmood said they showed "too many people" were living in fear, and announced an increase in police patrols at synagogues and mosques after the Manchester synagogue attack last week, as well as £50m to keep places of worship safe.
The home secretary added: "Jewish and Muslim communities continue to experience unacceptable levels of often violent hate crime, and I will not tolerate British people being targeted simply because of their religion, race, or identity."
Gohir, who plans to meet Mahmood to discuss community safety, welcomed her statements and called on the government to condemn the rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes.
She added that places of worship need to be protected as a matter of course but asked what the government would do to increase the safety and security of Muslims in their everyday life.
"When you look at what's happened collectively to Muslim communities, it's shocking," said Gohir. "Basically, this government is sending a message to Muslims that we don't care about you and you don't really matter."
Ministers cautioned against the reported 18% fall in the number of religious hate crimes targeting Jewish people - from 2,093 to 1,715 - as it excludes data from the Metropolitan police, Britain's largest police force, because of a change in their crime recording system. More than half of all British Jews live in London, according to the 2021 census.
In response to the growing number of hate crimes and to encourage more people to report all kinds of anti-Muslim incidents, the Muslim Women's Network launched a national helpline this week, Muslim Safety Net, which will run alongside its existing domestic abuse helpline. It will be accompanied by a nationwide month-long campaign with billboards in Birmingham, London and Manchester.
"Most people don't trust reporting to the police or even helplines," said Gohir, whose charity's own research found that 80% of anti-Muslim incidents go unreported. "We think we could maybe fill in that space."