The riots over the last week have been fuelled by Islamophobia which has been increasingly mainstreamed over the last 14 years.

I’ve asked the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Secretary to meet with Muslim community representatives to discuss the safety of British Muslims further.

Full text of the letter:

Dear Keir,

I am writing to express my deep concern at the horrific social unrest we have seen over the last week across the UK. This violence has been stoked by the far-right and fuelled by widespread Islamophobia which have become mainstream over the past fourteen years. I welcome the strong leadership you and your Cabinet have shown on this issue, rejecting the classification of this rioting as legitimate protests, and convening an urgent COBR meeting this morning.

I am pleased to see you and the Home Secretary prioritising protecting mosques through introducing a new rapid response process for police, local authorities and mosques to get security deployed quickly to protect communities at risk from attack, in addition to the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme which already provides funding for security for mosques and Muslim faith schools.

With an alarming increase in attacks on mosques and Muslims, far-right rioters shouting Islamophobic hate and white supremacist groups mobilising on Britain’s streets so quickly, there is no doubt that British Muslims are feeling extremely anxious and unsafe. British Muslims are an integral part of our society and should be treated as such. It is imperative that this Labour Government, in stark contrast to previous Conservative governments, will not ignore Islamophobia when it occurs. As such, I would encourage you, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to convene an urgent meeting with national Muslim organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain as the UK’s largest representative body of Muslim organisations, to show your unequivocal support for Muslim communities. It is also vital that the Government convenes urgent roundtables with regional Muslim leaders, particularly in areas where the violence has been concentrated, to discuss the specific security concerns of those communities and what action is being taken to de-escalate tensions, return social order and keep Muslim and minority communities, including asylum seekers, safe.

The Labour Party has always been committed to anti-racism and tackling Islamophobia, and was one of the first political parties to adopt the widely supported definition of Islamophobia, produced by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, internally in the party, in trade unions and by Labour-run councils. Adopting this definition in government, which successive Conservative Prime Ministers neglected to do, will send a strong message that the racism and vitriol we are seeing by a minority of far-right activists on Britain’s streets is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

I look forward to seeing the decisive action you and your Cabinet continue to take against this violence, and stand ready to support in any which way I can.

Yours sincerely,

Afzal Khan MP

Member of Parliament for Manchester Rusholme