Islamophobic incidents rose by 375 per cent in the week after
Boris Johnson compared veiled Muslim women to “letterboxes”, research has shown.
Monitoring group
Tell Mama said the
Daily Telegraph column written by the now-prime minister was followed by the biggest spike in anti-Muslim hatred in 2018, as his words were repeated by racists abusing Muslims on the street and online.
In the three weeks after the article was published last August, 42 per cent of offline Islamophobic incidents reported “directly referenced Boris Johnson and/or the language used in his column”,
a report said.
Many were
directed at visibly Muslim women who wore the niqab or other veils, who were called “letterboxes” and “ninjas”.
Online abuse reported to Tell Mama repeated the same words or incorporated them into pictures and memes that were sent to Muslims online.