• Social media users have inundated the comments section in response to Alexandra Phillip’s recent claim that she found Muslims praying in her front garden.
• She reported discovering a rucksack left behind by one of them and feared “it was going to blow.” Many online, question whether the incident actually occurred.
Alexandra Phillips, a journalist, I must emphasise, recently claimed in a broadcast that she returned home one day to, “find a load of people on prayer mats” in her “front garden.” She went on to say that they were engaged in what she described as “doing the whole touching their head on the floor thing.”
This allegation has sparked a wave of skepticism on social media, with many users expressing doubt about her account.
It begs the question: why didn’t Phillips document the incident, take a photograph or report the individuals for trespassing? Surely, anyone in such a situation would have done so.
Phillips concluded the segment with, “One of them left a backpack outside my front door and I thought blimey, is it going to blow?”
She went on to describe how, upon opening the rucksack, she discovered numerous pamphlets, an energy drink, and a flag. Mockingly, she remarked, “They do love a pamphlet.” Phillips said that she discarded the rucksack in a skip outside a nearby restaurant. “I think, for everyone’s safety, that was probably the best thing you could’ve done,” her guest replied.
The Muslim community is concerned regarding why this kind of Islamophobic rhetoric is allowed to persist in public discourse. Its unchecked presence raises important questions about the standards of accountability in both media and society. Permitting such inflammatory language only deepens societal divisions, particularly following the recent riots in the UK. Sufficient safeguards evidently do not exist in order to prevent the normalisation of discriminatory and fear-mongering hate speech towards the Muslim community.
Notably, the ISD reports a 276% surge in online anti-Muslim Hate after the Southport attack.
Islamophobic hate crime in the UK has surged more than three times in the four months since October 7, according to Tell Mama. UK based charity, Tell Mama reported 2,010 Islamophobic incidents between October 7 and February 7—a significant increase from the 600 cases documented during the same period the previous year.
The charity also recorded numerous instances of physical assault, abusive conduct, threats, and vandalism, with London accounting for the largest share of incidents—576 in total. Additionally, Muslim women were disproportionately targeted, comprising two-thirds of the recorded incidents, the charity revealed.
