A record £66m of emergency security funding was issued by the Home Office for mosques and related community sites in the UK when violent disorder spread in the aftermath of the Southport attacks in 2024. Exclusive figures obtained by the Guardian also reveal a record of about £41m of security funding was issued for mosques and related community sites for the year from April 2025-26 as part of the protective security scheme. The chief executive of the British Muslim Trust, the government’s partner for monitoring anti-Muslim hatred, said the figures “tell an incredibly sombre story about the rise in anti-Muslim hostility that British Muslims are living with”.
The government launched a security scheme for places of worship in 2016 for England and Wales, and later created a dedicated scheme worth £29.4m for mosques and faith schools in the UK in 2023 to provide security to ensure the safety of Muslim communities. According to figures obtained via a freedom of information request, the security funding issued for mosques, Islamic faith schools and associated sites was £73,147 in 2016-17, before increasing to about £3m in 2022-23, £29m in 2024-25 and a record of about £41m in 2025-26. The Home Office introduced a separate emergency security scheme as a temporary measure for places of worship when violent disorder spread across cities after a knife attack in Southport in 2024 in which three girls at a dance class were murdered.
Of the almost £69m granted to places of worship in the UK as part of this scheme, about £66m was issued to mosques and associated sites, the data revealed. At the time, mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers were targeted after false news had spread online claiming that the perpetrator of the attack was a Muslim asylum seeker. Shaista Gohir, the chief executive of Muslim Women’s Network UK, said the figures created “the impression that substantial action is being taken to tackle anti-Muslim hostility” but the government’s response remained “limited compared with the scale of the problem”.
One mosque leader I spoke to recently had to apply several times and still only received funding for some requested measures. Many others are still waiting for decisions,” Gohir said. The Jami community centre in Birmingham has reported at least five incidents relating to hate crime and racially aggravated criminal damage between March and July this year, according to West Midlands police.
The centre has introduced their own security measures, including gates and blackout boards, while it completes its application for security funding. Worshippers told the Guardian about the incidents – some of which had not been reported to police – including smashed windows and Islamophobic graffiti. Khalid, a volunteer at the centre, organised an emergency meeting with MPs, councillors and police.
He criticised the lack of response from West Midlands police to the several incidents that have occurred. We’ve had the imam being verbally abused. There’s people being verbally abused … What are we waiting for?
Extract — continue reading at the source.
