FIVE years on since a terrorist brutally murdered my father Mohammed Saleem and carried out three mosque bombings in the West Midlands, Islamophobia continues to blight the world.

Hate crime has more than doubled in the last five years, mainly due to the toxic campaigning against Muslims, migrants and refugees during the EU referendum campaign.

The Islamophobic threat is real and the Tories need to be held accountable for demonising Muslims, migrants and refugees throughout their Brexit campaigning.

The bigotry and racism come from the very top. Boris Johnson’s despicable recent letterbox comments regarding people wearing the niqab led to more attacks on Muslim women for the way they look and dress.  

Muslim women are the primary targets of Islamophobic abuse and attacks because of the consistent demonisation by right-wing Islamophobes, politicians and the media.

It’s the outrageous divisive, xenophobic rhetoric from politicians and leaders that lead to violence and hate on our streets and it’s absolutely shameful that their open bigotry is so shameless.

The anti-immigrant language used by some mainstream politicians has always coincided with the rise in hate crimes.

Since my father’s murder by neonazi Pavlo Lapshyn, I have been an active campaigner against racism and Islamophobia, writing for and speaking on many platforms. But no platform is as high as those offered to Prime Minister Theresa May.

Her rise to the position of prime minister was hardly a cause for celebration for British Muslims. She has used Islamophobia and an anti-refugee rhetoric to get where she is today.

War, imperialism, fascism and racism are the breeding ground for discrimination and hatred, which the British government is complicit in.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric and bigotry have been the main factor for the so-called “war on terror” for over 17 years and the demonisation of Muslims and Islam has been used to its full extent by the US and British mainstream media to justify the bombings of Muslim countries.

An entire industry was built on the back of the so-called “war on terror” following September 11, from police militarisation to  surveillance to rendition.

The discriminatory Schedule 7 Terrorism Act allows police and border officers to question and search travellers as they pass through airports and ports to ascertain whether they are involved in terrorism.

Schedule 7 has proved that you’re more likely to be stopped and searched because of the way you look.

Islamophobia is systemic within media institutions, political establishments, policing, the judicial system and we need to start looking at it beyond the Daily Mail.

Prevent, the government’s so-called counter radicalisation programme demonises the entire Muslim community and frames terrorism as a Muslim problem, yet statistics clearly show that far-right-wing extremism is rising faster than any other form of extremism in Britain, with white supremacists increasing in numbers.

Recently, a British army soldier who vowed that he would “die committed to the white race” was jailed for being a member of a neonazi banned terrorist group. Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen had been trying to recruit fellow soldiers for National Action in preparation for a race war to “cleanse our lands.”

He was one of eight members of the terrorist group to be convicted in a series of trials that dismantled its Midlands cell.

The counter terrorism unit responsible has warned that the threat would not go away and predicted that key leaders would start new fractions under new names.

The government’s approach to the far-right problem has been appalling. It hasn’t taken the threat seriously up until the terrorist murder of MP Jo Cox.  

My father’s murder fell on deaf ears. The Conservatives have been so relentless on creating laws and measures to stigmatise and silence Muslims and Islam that they are still blind to what their discriminatory laws have caused on the ground to people of colour.

Instead the government, in the past at least, has funded right-wing think tank Quilliam to perpetuate an anti-Islam rhetoric. Quilliam does not represent the majority of Muslims in Britain.

Islamophobia has been embedded systemically within the immigration system.

Schools, NHS, GP, employers, institutions, landlords are encouraged to spy and report people they suspect of being so-called “illegal immigrants” to the police and the Home Office which may lead to deportation.

If we want to oppose Islamophobia as activists than we must understand it from a structural and ideological perspective.

Islamophobia doesn’t exist because Muslims don’t integrate with their neighbours or because people don’t understand Islam. Islamophobia exists because the state and its allies have always understood Islam and its history, values and ethics.

The drip feed of anti-Muslim hatred has blindsided many to the rapid rise of the far right on the streets of Britain.
Yet the growing prominence of Stephen Yaxley Lennon – or Tommy Robinson – has shocked many. He has become the face of the international far-right.

Turn the clock back five years to one of Robinson’s pathetic anti-Muslim protests as the English Defence League leader. But now he is regarded a far-right celebrity and given mainstream platforms on the BBC and other channels to preach hatred against Muslims and promote fascism.

Robinson is funded by US right-wing Middle East Forum, the same group that supports the illegal settlements in Palestine. They paid for Robinson’s legal defence and four other similar organisations bankrolled the high-profile campaign to release him.

We need to be on the alert against the threat posed by these powerful and rich far-right organisations.

The British government needs to tackle Islamophobia and the rise of the far right head on.

It should also hold social media platforms to account for emboldening Islamophobia online, offline and at street level and in the school playgrounds.

My niece had her hijab ripped off at her school. Children are being told – even the British born – to “pack their bags and go back where they came from.”

The idea that all Muslims are terrorists or bombers is a huge problem and we need to dismantle it before another child is viciously attacked for the way they look and dress.