Manchester mosque attack not designated a hate crime

Police refuse to class another Manchester mosque race attack as hate crime

Greater Manchester Police are refusing to class repeated white supremacist attacks on Manchester mosques as hate crimes.

The Muslim Social Justice Initiative (MSJI) said that the attackers had desecrated Qurans and caused £30,000 in damage to Stockport’s Elaf mosque. The thugs had also attempted to rig a boiler to explode. MSJI also noted that police keep refusing to classify attacks on mosques in the area as racially motivated, despite four other attacks on the same mosque in the past year:

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The Elaf mosque is not the only one to be targeted. In February 2026 a man armed with an axe, knife and hammer entered Manchester Central Mosque. Mosque officials said that the attack was part of a:

notable rise in threats and hostility over recent years [and an] increase in Islamophobic incidents.

The BBC, along with local press, did report the attack on its news website, but the BBC’s national coverage was limited to a single online article. This is a stark contrast to the attention given to an arson attack on ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity.

Comments 2

frank_freeman says:

3 months ago

Diane Abbot was absolutely right when she said there was a hierarchy of racism and should never have apologized. Compare this to the coverage of the ambulances being torched, which has all the signs of a false flag attack. It is notable that Israel’s defenders are also encouraging anti Muslim sentiment.

- Angela Sibley says:
  
  3 months ago
  
  She was right on that but she still needed to apologise for her article. In it she said there were no Jews in the slave ships. She failed to recognise the history of pogroms and the Holocaust. If you’re looking at racism against different groups historically that is a big failing!