UK's rising anti-Muslim sentiment not fully captured in official statistics: Expert

ISTANBUL

Official statistics on anti-Muslim hate crimes in the UK fail to reflect the true scale of the problem, as many incidents go unreported due to mistrust of authorities, according to a British academic.

Peter Hopkins, a professor of social geography at Newcastle University, told Anadolu that anti-Muslim hate crimes in the UK have risen amid events such as Israel’s yearlong offensive on Gaza and broader developments in the Middle East.

“There are other times where they've increased. So normally there's a trigger event, like 9/11 for example was one of them,” Hopkins explained, referring to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 in the US, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Despite the noticeable rise in anti-Muslim sentiment, Hopkins remarked that this situation is not equally reflected in the statistics, adding: “There's the actual hate crime count that's recorded to the police and ends up in the official statistics, but there's a lot that isn't recorded and … it kind of goes under the radar sort of thing. And people might tell their friends or their family or their colleagues, but it doesn't get officially reported.”

Lack of trust in police

Hopkins stressed that there are many reasons why the Muslim community does not report the racist and anti-Muslim incidents they face to official authorities, leading to the inability to gather accurate data from annual hate crime statistics.

Many in the Muslim community view the police and authorities with suspicion, he said.

“For some people … they're kind of suspicious of the police and of authority. So they don't really trust the system. For others, they're aware that the police are racist and institutionally racist, and so they don't think they'll be listened to if they report, say, a racist or Islamophobic hate crime, they don't think it will be taken seriously by the police,” he added.

The academic said victims avoid filing complaints, fearing the legal system might work against them.

“There are also some people who would say that they don't think the particular incident was serious enough. So they think that the incident was maybe too low level or that they didn't have enough evidence or they don't have a witness sort of thing.

“And also for some people, it's such a frequent experience. It's so regular and it's so often that they end up saying, ‘I don't really see the point in reporting it because it's happening so often. I would just be on the phone all the time or online reporting it’,” he explained.

Hopkins stressed that hate crimes should be registered as such, pointing out that people can report incidents online or directly to authorities.

“And then there are organizations that are set up to record in particular incidents and also to offer support. But a lot of people wouldn't use either of those routes and they would just basically not report it. So that's how it's unreported," he said.

Media misrepresents Muslims

Hopkins also warned of the growing influence of the far-right in the UK, saying that both social and traditional media play a role in fueling anti-Muslim sentiment.

“The far-right activists on social media, the way in which social media has been used and how people share misinformation about issues online, that's a big issue and big problem with social media coverage.”

Mainstream media, according to Hopkins, also contributes to the problem by reinforcing stereotypes.

“There are also issues to do with media representation in general, how mainstream newspapers or online news outlets represent Muslims and Islam can encourage Islamophobia. Visibility can be a big issue. So if you're visibly Muslim, so like a Muslim woman with a headscarf or a veil, that can lead to heightened Islamophobia as well,” he added.