Tell MAMA commissioned a poll of 550 British Muslims in July 2024 to assess perceptions around anti-Muslim prejudice and to assess what the impacts of anti-Muslim hate have been on Muslims post 7 October and the subsequent conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The Survation poll was conducted between 15 July 2024 and 29 July 2024. It involved 550 British Muslims of Shia and Sunni theological backgrounds. The survey was representative of the British Muslim population to targets drawn from the Office for National Statistics, representative of age, sex and regional distributions.
The Tell MAMA Commissioned Poll demonstrated several key findings, including that 60% of the participants surveyed believed anti-Muslim hate in British society has increased over the past year. 27% of British Muslims surveyed said that they had experienced an anti-Muslim hate incident in the last year. There has also been a 300% increase in verbal abuse and anti-Muslim prejudice against British Muslims since 7 October 2023.
The Tell MAMA commissioned Survation data backs up the academic reports of Tell MAMA, in that verbal anti-Muslim abuse against British Muslims has increased and key locations where the abuse takes place includes ‘at a street level’, on public transport and worryingly, within work environments. 22% of those who had experienced incidents of verbal abuse experienced it in the workplace or other institutions.
The report demonstrates why ‘Third Party services’ like Tell MAMA are important and where individuals can report physical and online anti-Muslim attacks against them. Third Party hate crime reporting services provide members of the public with another avenue through which they can report in anti-Muslim hate and organisations like Tell MAMA help to support access to justice for victims by linking them into relevant forces, assisting in collecting relevant evidence and in advocating for victims.
Nearly 69% of British Muslims who received verbal attacks, did not report these into the police, authorities or third-party services. This demonstrates that more work needs to be done by all to demonstrate how reporting in can ensure access to justice for victims of anti-Muslim hate or Islamophobia.
These findings point to a significant number of British Muslims who have suffered anti-Muslim abuse and hate in the last year. The poll also points to verbal abuse that has taken place at a street level, on public transport and in the workplace.
The findings also show that perceptions within British Muslims, of anti-Muslim prejudice in British society, are increasing allied with a sense of feeling uneasy about their personal safety. The inverse correlation is understandable given the tensions felt by British Muslims since 7 October 2023.
“These findings demonstrate that British Muslims feel a sense of trepidation and a growing sense of the toxic nature of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia,” said Iman Atta OBE, Director of Tell MAMA. “This is even before the recent events and the attacks on mosques like Southport mosque by members of the far right. We have a real problem now and that is entrenched anti-Muslim hate in the minds of some in our communities. We need to actively and pro-actively challenge this hate wherever and whenever we come across it through peaceful dialogue, engagement and law enforcement where necessary”.
