Mohammed Kozbar complained to the BBC when mosque attack was not even a topic on Question Time. Islamophobic attacks should be classed as terror-related and not simply hate crimes, the chairman of Finsbury Park Mosque has said.
UK authorities must “be consistent” when it comes to how terror-style attacks, Mohammed Kozbar said, as he revealed he supported a change in the law that saw Islamophobic violence included.
Speaking at a local government conference in Birmingham, he said police and the media “always find excuses” for a terror-style crime to be recorded differently when an attacker is non-Muslim.
The mosque was the target of a terror attack last month when 47-year-old Darren Osborne drove a van into a crowd of Muslims as they left midnight prayer, killing one and injuring several others.
Kozbar revealed he had to “work hard” for the incident to be deemed a terror attack and ministers initially refused to call a national minute’s silence in respect to the event, as they had done in the wake of the Manchester and London Bridge attacks. [The Huffington Post UK] Read more
