Britain suffers: From ISIS attacks to right-wing threats

Shaimaa Hefzy

British police have arrested a man for attempted murder after he carried out a stabbing inside the Regent Park mosque in central London on February 20. Although no further details were announced about the perpetrator, the incident has raised questions about the depth of terrorist operations against Muslims in Britain.

In 2018, warnings of the extreme right’s activity in Britain increased in conjunction with the growing right-wing populist power in Europe. The UK’s chief counterterrorism official warned that Britain is facing a new and major threat from organized right-wing terrorists.

The police had thwarted four plots by right-wing extremists last year. “The right-wing terrorist threat is more important and more challenging than public opinion might think,” Mark Rowley, London’s assistant police commissioner, told reporters.

There have long been strengthening indicators of the threat from the far right, which began to take an organized form in 2017, with five terrorist attacks attributed to right-wing extremists.

British Muslims have been subject to more than 100 hate crimes, which is a 300% increase compared to the average number of Islamophobia crimes in the country.

The UK Independence Party (UKIP), which was founded in 1993 and advocates nationalism, is the most prominent right-wing institution in the UK. It has not only been opposed to immigrants, but has also advocated Britain’s exit from the European Union and other European institutions.

UKIP has pledged to ban the veil as part of its general election platform. Party leader Paul Nuttall has said that “wearing the burqa and niqab outside the house is an obstacle to societal harmony and a security risk.”

The Britain First movement, which emerged in 2011 from a group of former members of the British National Party, has become one of the largest right-wing groups in the country. It aims to restore British traditions again and to end what it calls “Islamization” in British society. It is also against mass immigration to the country, regardless of skin color or race.

The movement stated that it has about 6,000 members, but it is seeking to build a cyber army on social media, with the number of followers on its page reaching 1.4 million, which is the largest number among other British political parties.

A report by Tell MAMA, a British organization to combat Islamophobia, revealed that Muslims in Britain have suffered 115 assaults since the Paris attacks, including verbal and physical assaults, while 70% of those assaults were carried out from public transportation, such as buses and subways.

With the increase in terrorist threats from both the far right and Islamist terrorists, the British government has begun an urgent review of the files of those who committed terrorist acts and are about to leave prison. This comes amid questions about the effectiveness of MI5’s monitoring of them after their release.

UK Justice Minister Robert Buckland said in remarks this month that the government is reviewing the restrictions imposed on 74 currently released terrorists under conditions that allow them to return to normal life.

“We are going to look at a broader list of a few hundred people who may not be involved in terrorist crimes, but they are famous for having extreme views… I want to make sure that we cover this aspect carefully, and we are studying in advance the case of those people who may be released from custody in the next few weeks,” Buckland said.

On the other hand, the British government supports a specialized agency, providing it with more than £1 million, to monitor and record incidents of hatred against Muslims and to support victims, which is the first of its kind in Britain.

“Expressing concern about Islamophobia is insufficient, so the government has taken clear, rigorous and practical measures to counter religious intolerance,” said Edwin Samuel, a spokesman for the British government in the Middle East and North Africa.