Muslims biggest victims of terrorism: UK IHRC

IHRC said in a statement on Monday that the terrorist attacks that happened in the Finsbury park area of London highlights major deficiencies in the provision of security to Muslims and also a culture of hate that currently pervades Britain and legitimises hate crimes against Muslims.

The statements added, “Since the recent atrocities in London and Manchester authorities have done little to address the increased vulnerability of the Muslim community despite repeated calls by the IHRC.”

“Neither the government nor the Mayor of London heeded our recommendations based on our own historical recording of the rise of anti-Muslim hate speech and hate crimes,” says the statement.

The statements reiterated it should be remembered that Muslims are the biggest victims of terrorism, being at the same time targets of extremist groups like Daesh and their supporters.

IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh said, 'It should not take a tragedy like this for the police to start taking seriously the threat faced by the Muslim community. The authorities should make every effort to have a visible and very public policy that protects Muslims from hate crime, one that is both effective and which also sends the signal to wider society that Muslims are just as if not more vulnerable to terrorism as other communities.'

In the meantime, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Nicola Sturgeon said that she was terrified and touched to hear the news.

The attacks were made when Muslims were coming out of a mosque after prayers; our response to the attacks is like the ones made in the past in the name of Islam, she added.

The attacks of the extremists and terrorists that are a minority should not rupture our multicultural and multinational society. That is what they want, and we shouldn’t let them, Sturgeon added.

Brendan Cox whose wife, Jo Cox, was killed last year in a racist terrorist attack in Birstall, England, told BBC that the hatred we saw in the past few days was shown by the people who don’t believe in multinational communities.

On Monday, the British PM called the attacks “sickening”, and said security measures for mosques will be strengthened by the police in the last week of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.

At least one person died and 10 others were injured after a vehicle ran over pedestrians close to two mosques in a north London neighbourhood on Sunday evening, UK police have said.

The 48-year-old driver of the van, who was identified as Darren Osborne, was caught by bystanders and later by police after the incident in Finsbury Park.

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