Photograph by Kim Traynor
There have been a number of high profile police actions in the last few days across London’s transport network, and a huge increase in anti-Muslim incidents since the murder of a British solider in Woolwich.
The last few days has seen two RAF Typhoons scrambled to “escort” a passenger aircraft from Pakistan to London Stansted with two men arrested for talking about a bomb on the plane, London bridge closed for a few hours after reports of a man with an axe, and a section of the M6 motorway closed due to a “suspicious vehicle”. The Woolwich attack has given London’s police and security services the jitters, with fears of another attack.
The flipside of the coin to increased security presence in the capital has been a huge increase in the number of anti-Muslim incidents across the UK. Interfaith conflict resolution group, Faith Matters, which run a helpline, have said that they have received 162 calls since Wednesday’s attack on Woolwich, which is near a sevenfold increase on the normal daily average of six.
A number of people have already been charged of leaving allegedly offensive and anti-Islamic comments on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. These include a 22-year-old man from Lincoln, a 28-year-old man from London, and a 23-year-old woman from Southsea.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, said the incidents ranged from name-calling and verbal abuse, to the pulling of of headscarves, and attacks on mosques. Describing the incidents, he said:
“Some of them are quite aggressive very focused, very aggressive attacks”
Politicians from all major parties including the Conservaties, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and UKIP have called for calm in the wake of the attacks.