The October 7 attacks by Hamas and the devastation brought against Gaza since have resonated globally and continue to take significant space in the national conversation in the UK. A surge in cases of both antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate here shows how faraway events also impact local communities and increase tension here.
This article examines the broader impact of these events on anti-Muslim sentiments in the UK by using data from social media platforms Twitter/X and Telegram. There has been a significant increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric in the UK, much of which regurgitates existing narratives and conspiracy theories rather than directly relating to the case of Israel-Palestine. In other words, the war has given justification to more openly express strong anti-Muslim hate.
Much of the rhetoric used against Muslims after October 7, 2023, in the dataset builds on the same basic idea: that Muslim people everywhere can be held accountable for the actions of Hamas. This view is translated to a British context and adapted to well-known racist narratives. Political leaders who are Muslim are attacked and questioned, and the loyalty of all Muslims in the UK is questioned. It is also used to add fuel to the anti-immigration rhetoric, which has in recent years grown stronger.
Fuel to existing anti-Muslim narratives
On October 7 and in the following days and weeks, there was a large spike in mentions of Muslims and Islam on Twitter/X. Most of this relates to Israel-Gaza and highlights a strong polarization where users support either Israel or Palestine. Another large group of the posts report and share news content or condemn the attack by Hamas or the retaliation by the Israel Defense Forces.
However, alongside this, there is a notable upsurge in broader anti-Muslim ideas and conspiracy theories. Using a deep learning model to extract common topics and themes from the Twitter/X posts, we find a large amount of content that expresses hate and calls for violence against Gaza and Palestinians but also Muslims elsewhere.
The events caused a notable increase in the expression of anti-Muslim hatred, and the strong reactions were not just limited to the events themselves. A large portion of content does not directly reference or relate to Israel-Gaza but is instead based on pre-existing narratives that have been reframed or given new or additional attention in relation. Many of these narratives and ideas are already frequent in anti-Muslim contexts and associated with the far right.
The three largest anti-Muslim themes that spiked after October 7 among British users on Twitter/X are: anti-immigration (a topic that has long been closely associated with anti-Muslim views), conspiracy theories relating to civilizational conflict between the West and accusations of disloyalty of British Muslims and the Muslim world, and hatred against Muslim public figures in the UK.
Anti-immigration and being ‘incompatible’ with Britain
A significant portion of the messages in our dataset concerns Muslim immigration to the UK and Europe. The increase in attention relates to how closely anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric have become entwined in the last decades. Far-right activist groups in the UK have long focused on Muslim immigration as their primary target, often arguing that Islam is incompatible with cultures in Britain. While a part of these messages relates to potential increased migration from Palestine to the UK and Europe in the wake of the war, this is not a significant portion of the content.
Rather, the focus is on the existing anti-Muslim trope of immigration bringing in violent Muslims into the UK. The attacks on October 7 fed into the existing idea of Islam and Muslims being inherently violent and immigration therefore dangerous. It is a view that conflates the actions of a specific organization with Muslims in general and Islam as a whole. A post echoing this view on the evening of October 7 read, “it is time for Europe to stand with Israel and immediately end all Muslim immigration” and received 468 retweets and 3,800 likes. Another post read: “UK has facilitated the invasion and are now losing control. Most Muslim culture is not compatible with Western civilisation. The West is sowing the seeds of its [sic] own demise.”
Many posts also increasingly took on a conspiracy theorist element over the coming weeks. One post which received 122 retweets read: “Islamaphobia [sic] was a fake term coined by Muslim lobbying groups in the wake of 9/11 to deter criticism of Islam and its role in Western society. It has no real significance beyond smearing those who oppose mass immigration.”
Our dataset shows that the anti-immigration topic rose immediately after the attack; however, it continued to rise during the month until peaking in the last week of October. The increase over time was driven by the start of pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The planning of a demonstration on Remembrance Day (November 11) became a focal point on social media. Then Home Secretary Suella Braverman called the upcoming demonstration a “Hate march,” focusing on its, according to her, antisemitic message.
In part because of its clash with Remembrance Sunday, it was also argued by some to be disrespectful against British traditions. A post which was shared extensively read: “The reason why muslims & immigrants want to disrespect Remembrance Sunday is because they have no connection to our history, culture or sacrifices.”
Civilisational conflict
The idea of a coming civilisational conflict between the West and Muslim countries has for a long time existed in the far right but is ordinarily not expressed in explicit terms. Rather, conspiracy theories that focus on the supposed intentional weakening of the West and Europe through Muslim immigration and influence are more commonly seen. These are also found in our Twitter/X dataset but the violence of the attack following war put focus on the narrative of armed civilisational conflict.
“IF THE UK ENTER INTO WW3 & FIGHT ALONGSIDE ISRAEL AGAINST MUSLIM ALLIES IRAN, IRAQ, TURKEY, AFGHANISTAN, SYRIA, JORDAN ….
WILL UK CITIZENS THAT ARE MUSLIMS FIGHT ON THE SIDE OF THE UK OR FIGHT WITH THEIR FELLOW MUSLIMS ?
WOULD SOME UK MUSLIM CITIZENS FIGHT AGAINST THE UK OVERSEAS ?”
– Post on October 9 from a British Twitter/X user
The thread received over 4,000 reposts and 6,300 likes. The idea of a civilizational conflict also rests on the idea that Muslims in the UK and the West are loyal not to their current countries or societies but rather to other Muslims. The assumption is that Muslim people in the UK are not an integrated part of society, but rather invaders, secretly loyal to external powers.
The narrative taps into current tension and re-armament in Europe following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. By framing the discussion around a potential global conflict, these posts tap into broader anxieties about national security and cultural preservation. These posts also tie into conspiracy theories of world elites orchestrating war and conflict for their own gain.
Hate against British Muslim political figures
Sadiq Khan and Humza Yousaf, then First Minister of Scotland, were two of the most frequently targeted public individuals in the days after the October 7 attacks and some of the most frequently mentioned individuals in Britain during the time period in our dataset.
Khan and Yousaf were both accused of supporting Hamas despite both of them condemning the group’s attack. Both leaders were also frequently targeted with an increased amount of anti-Muslim racism in the weeks following the attack. The accusation of disloyalty is also frequently found in these posts.
“I’m not saying the Jews are angels, stereotypes don’t materialise from nothing, but Muslims are worse by an order of magnitude, once the Muslims become the majority or weasel there [sic] way into power like humza yousaf or Leo varadkar they serve only themselves”
– Post which contains both antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism targeted at Yousaf
Khan was frequently accused of favoring Muslims over Jewish Londoners because of personal loyalty and applying different levels of policing towards pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations. This narrative also has a conspiracy theorist element; “Don’t forget Sadiq Khan is in charge of the Met Police & he is a Muslim,” one user wrote.
Far-right response
Far-right chat groups are ordinarily overwhelmingly anti-Muslim. Mentions of Muslims or Islam are rarely used in a positive way. It is therefore unlikely that the events of October 7 significantly changed or impacted views on Muslims within this milieu to a significant degree. However, the events caused an increased focus on Muslims, which can have real-world consequences.
There is an exceptional spike on October 7 and the days immediately after the attack of messages mentioning “Muslim(s)” or “Islam.” Whereas the time period from March to October had an average of approximately 4,500 messages per week across the far-right chats tracked, with smaller peaks reaching 9,000, the week of October 7 saw a rise to 24,000. Since the attack occurred on a Friday, this also does not fully take into account the magnitude of the increase. The following week counted 37,000 messages—an approximately 820% increase. The levels stayed significantly elevated for the rest of the year.
The data shows how the far right’s interest was affected significantly by this external event and that it is reframed towards pre-existing issues. In this case, most messages mentioning Muslims or Islam use existing racist tropes and conspiracy theories in mostly two categories: they are anti-immigrant and focus on the danger and violence of Muslims, and they purport the anti-Muslim conspiracy theory of the Great Replacement, which holds that Muslim immigration into Europe is orchestrated in order to change the demographic makeup of European countries and make Muslims the majority population.
This is notably similar to the language used on the mainstream platform Twitter/X, where these narratives are among the most popularly espoused in the dataset, with the exception that Twitter/X also has a significant amount of support for Palestine and neutral messages reporting on the events of October 7, both of which are less prevalent in the Telegram dataset. The content on Telegram is, however, more explicitly violent.
Mainstreaming anti-Muslim hate online
The events of October 7 had an immediate effect on the social media conversation in the UK. It opened a valve for anti-Muslim racism and amplified an already harsh atmosphere against Muslims. Notably, the dataset shows that only a minority of anti-Muslim messages directly relate to Israel-Gaza; rather, it helped to amplify well-trodden conspiracy theories and racist narratives.
The difference between our far-right Telegram dataset and the more mainstream Twitter/X dataset is notably small. Both mainstream and far-right platforms focus on similar issues, and the way they are expressed is only marginally different. It indicates that those who spread it feel that they are within the bounds of acceptable debate.
Speaking after a Cobra meeting on October 30, 2023, then Home Secretary Suella Braverman called a planned demonstration in support of Palestinians a “Hate march,” arguing that it called for the “erasure of Israel from the map.”1
The demonstration was supposed to be held on Armistice Day, which further helped fuel discontent. Later that week, on November 3, Braverman tweeted a similar message reiterating that the demonstration was a “hate march” and that it was “unacceptable to desecrate Armistice Day.”2
The comment caused an immediate reaction from far-right chat groups on Telegram, which shared and reiterated Braverman’s comment immediately. Having not used the phrase previously to any significant degree, it resonated with the far-right, which were both overwhelmingly anti-Muslim and agreed with the framing that holding the march on Armistice Day was an insult.
The framing of the protest as not just illegitimate and violent but as an insult against Britain resonated in far-right contexts and helped spur the narrative that Muslims and Islam were incompatible with life in Britain. One Twitter/X user posted on October 31: “The reason why muslims & immigrants want to disrespect Remembrance Sunday is because they have no connection to our history, culture or sacrifices.” In a similar vein, Stephen Yaxley Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson posted on his Telegram ahead of the demonstrations, “Our Government is against us. Allowing pro Hamas Islamists to protest on the most sacred day in the British calendar is of course an example of that.”
The amplification of Braverman’s message shows how far-right narratives sometimes originate in the mainstream and how national leaders have the ability to insert narratives into fringe far-right environments. The language Braverman used aligned with what far-right activists already thought, and through her position as Home Secretary, she gave legitimacy to the view.
Doubling down on division looks at anti-Muslim hatred in the UK since 7th October, and both the causes and impacts of it. Download the report today.
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