Government commits £117 million to protect UK Muslims

The announcement, which comes at the start of Ramadan, will cover community sites across the UK

More than £117m of taxpayers’ money will be used to protect mosques, Muslim schools and community centres from hate attacks over the next four years.

Home secretary James Cleverly said the money, which will be spent on measures including CCTV cameras, alarms and fencing, would give “reassurance and confidence to UK Muslims”.

The announcement, which follows a £70m package for Jewish groups, comes in response to concerns that the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza is fuelling division in the UK.

The government condemned a recent rise in reported anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish hatred and ministers have made it clear they expect the police to fully investigate all hate crimes and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to bring perpetrators to justice.

Cleverly said that anti-Muslim hatred “has absolutely no place in our society”.

“We will not let events in the Middle East be used as an excuse to justify abuse against British Muslims.

“That is exactly why we have committed to this funding, giving reassurance and confidence to UK Muslims at a time when it is crucially needed.”

The funding forms part of a package of support to provide reassurance that anti-Muslim abuse, threats or harassment or any form of hate crime will not be tolerated.

But a plan to announce a new adviser on tackling anti-Muslim hate suffered a setback when the frontrunner pulled out because of the volume of vile abuse he had suffered.

Fiyaz Mughal, who founded the anti-Muslim hate monitoring organisation Tell MAMA, said he had suffered over a decade of abuse for his work and when his name was publicly linked to the adviser role it escalated and he said he “couldn’t take it any more”.

The £117m over the next four years follows the £29.4m available for 2023-24, which included £4.9m allocated following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel which triggered the latest round of fighting in Gaza.

The announcement, which comes at the start of Ramadan, will cover community sites across the UK.

The funding package is bigger than that given to the Community Security Trust to cover Jewish facilities because of the higher Muslim population and a larger number of sites to cover.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat said the funding demonstrates that the government “stands firmly against hate crimes, abuse, threats or harassment against British Muslims”.

“We continue to work closely with policing and community partners to ensure the safety and security of British Muslims,” he said.