بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
As Time Moves Forward, Western Culture Moves Backwards
On the 9th of October, the Guardian Newspaper reported that the head of UK Muslim charity Shaista Gohir, was ‘deeply worried’ as anti-Muslim hate crimes were up by a fifth according to the latest government figures. She emphasised that even these troubling statistics were probably an ‘underestimation’ as many incidents go unreported.
Shaista Gohir leads the Birmingham-based charity, which is the only national Muslim women’s charity in the UK. She added that, “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,”
She is also a cross-bench peer and heads of the Muslim Women’s Network. She has criticised ministers for being “silent” and called for a public government response to the data.
Home Office figures showed that recorded hate crimes 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.
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.
As millions of Muslim around the world still see the West as a bastion of freedom and hope, an illusion compounded by the media machine of colonialism, this is a sign to wake up from the liberal “dream”. The truth is that those who live under Western “privilege” are actually trying the survive a nightmare of social dynamics that amount to a war zone for Muslim women.
What we must recognise is no job opportunity, monetary reward or educational platform will allow Muslim women to function at high levels if she does not have safety and security, which is a basic human need.
We must remember that the laws and rules of liberal politics are a house of cards that protect no one. It is only Allah (swt) that is the protector of the believers.
[هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى عَلَى الْعَرْشِ يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَمَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنَ السَّمَاء وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ]
“It is He who created the heavens and earth in six days and then established Himself above the Throne. He knows what penetrates into the earth and what emerges from it and what descends from the heaven and what ascends therein; and He is with you wherever you are. And Allah, of what you do, is Seeing.” [Surah Hadid: 4]
But this can only be done under the correct Islamic authority of the Khilafah (Caliphate) State under the policies adopted by the noble Sahaba (ra).
We cannot have half solutions; we cannot have partial integration with Muslims. We must only ever commit to the pure and complete agenda that is clear in the Quran and Sunnah.
What we see in the Guardian report is merely an extension of the global attack on Islam that is feared as the only real solution to the oppression faced by the forces of Iblis (devil) and the enemies of truth.
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Imrana Mohamed
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir