Mohammed Kozbar, chairman of Finsbury Park Mosque, has urged members of the Muslim community and the police to work together to put an end to Islamophobic crimes.
Islington is the London borough with the second highest number of Islamophobic crimes reported in the past year. The number of these crimes has increased by almost a third from the previous year.
Mr Kozbar, who joined the St Thomas’s Road mosque in 2005, commented on the shocking number of women who are targeted in Islamophobic attacks. Women make up 60 per cent of victims according to Tell MAMA, an organisation that monitors hate crimes targeted at Muslims.
He said: “It is worrying because it is targeted at the most vulnerable people, women, and this is really very concerning, if this is the case. We don’t want to end up with someone who gets killed.
“We always said that there is an increase in Islamophobic crimes. There have been a lot of attacks on individuals and institutions like our mosque. It is a significant increase of 70 per cent.” [Islington Gazette] Read more
