75% of Muslims fear for safety after far-right riots
Two hundred members of the Muslim Women's Network were asked how safe they felt in the UK both before and after the riots.
Approximately 75% expressed extreme concern for their safety at this time, up from 16% prior to the riots.
Following the Southport stabbings, which resulted in days of violence throughout the UK due to false information on the primary suspect in the crime, over one in five respondents claimed to have experienced hatred.
Lila Tamea, who sought refuge in the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool when clashes between far-right protesters and counter-demonstrators erupted on Friday 2 August, said that even before the riots she felt she could not rely on police to protect her and her community.
The 26-year-old PhD student told Sky News: "There was almost a sense of the police aren't going to protect us.
"And so, it was really important that there was that show of solidarity from not just the Muslim community. It was quite a lot of the non-Muslim kind of community who came out that Friday to defend the mosque."
Poet Amina Atiq, 29, stated: "I thought it was unfair that we, as a Muslim family, were not given the opportunity to grieve for the three small girls.
"Because soon after that, we felt as if we were more suspect to that attack."
Amina also bemoaned the rioters' speech, expressing her frustration, asking, "How am I meant to convince you to see me as a human?"
The head of the Muslim Women's Network, Baroness Shaista Gohir, has pushed the government to review its hate crime laws.
"Hate crime has gone up in the last decade, and the Hate Crime Strategy is out of date," she stated.
"I want to see hate crime legislation strengthened with the term 'hostility' defined."