We spoke to people worried by the direction politics is taking (Picture: Metro)

Last night, a man with a knife allegedly boarded a train in London and stabbed a passenger, shouting that he ‘wanted to kill Muslims’.

Police are treating it as a hate crime, and it will be logged as one of thousands this year, including a sharp increase after the EU referendum.

‘Muslim-owned’ restaurant wants to ensure no one eats alone on Christmas day

It’s just one example of a rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment in America and the US, fuelled by political campaigns focused on religion and immigration.

Across the Atlantic, Trump’s victory despite his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the country has brought racism into the mainstream with a huge rise in hate crimes reported since November 8.




A month after he won the election, we spoke to some Muslims in both the US and the UK about whether they’re worried about the years ahead.

Ali Imdad, runner up in Series Four of the Great British Bake-Off

‘Punishing a minority is so 70 years ago’ (Picture: BBC)

Ali, who now runs a bakery in Birmingham, said that the only people who have the luxury to imagine ‘riding out’ a Trump presidency are those who haven’t been singled out by his rhetoric.

‘This whole idea of ‘riding it out’ is nonsense and always supported by those people that Trumps policies aren’t targeted against,’ he told Metro. ‘Of course white Americans would want to say, ‘Well he’s our President now, deal with it’, but they don’t get to say that!

‘They’re not who Trump is targeting. They don’t get to ‘ride it out’ on the expense of Muslims or Latinos or the LGBTQ community.

‘Put it this way. If I were American, I would refuse to accept him as my President until he apologises for his threats against minorities.

Ali said he has witnessed the increase in racist incidents, documented post-Brexit and post-Trump, himself, ‘almost weekly’.

Taking one recent example, he said: ‘I’ve seen a white man say in the middle of the city centre, ‘It’s these immigrants that have caused our country to be crap’.

‘People are afraid, I get it, but blaming a minority, punishing a minority is so 70 years ago.’

Rumin Sarwar, 27, a health policy analyst in Washington DC

(Picture: Rumin Sarwar)

Rumin, who volunteers as managing director of Green Muslims environmental group, said Trump’s win left her unsure about what kind of country she lives in.

‘The election paralysed and shocked me,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t even go into work the day afterwards, and instead spent the day trying to understand how people who I thought were alright could vote for Trump.

‘How can you support someone who rose to power by being xenophobic, homophobic, racist, and misogonist? It is scary to think that half of the country cares more about maintaining their economic and social power at the expense of the lives and dignity of people who have so much more to lose.

‘I can’t believe that my very existence, as a Muslim woman and child of immigrants, matters so little to people I know who voted for Trump. This is the sentiment I hear from people who also feel debilitated by the outcome of the election. How come I don’t matter?

Since the election Rumin, from Kansas, says she has witnessed a surge of activism, ranging from people donating thousands of dollars to vows not to have children as long as Trump is in power.

The vote could galvanise people to work together better and find ways to fight back, she said. ‘But I can’t help but feel anxious that the energy and empathy will dissipate eventually or even soon.



‘What doesn’t work is saying not to worry and that we made it through eight years of George W Bush,’ she said. ‘I think those comments are out of touch because maybe YOU made it through relatively unscathed, but there are people whose families were torn apart and their lives otherwise destroyed because of Bush’s administration.’

Umm Yusra, blogger at Gilded Dunya

(Picture: Gilded Dunya)

Umm Yusra (a pen name meaning mother of Yusra in Arabic) wrote an open letter after facing abuse in the street for wearing a veil. She said that this year, she has noticed increased tensions brought into the open by the two key votes.

‘I wear my hijab with conviction and confidence, so Brexit and US votes haven’t impacted my decision at all but I do fear the increase in hatred the votes have caused,’ she told Metro. ‘Votes like these allow people who misunderstand Islam free reign to express their feelings publicly.

And I do fear my children will be growing up in a different world to the one I did, one that doesn’t want to understand us.

Describing the day of the election results, she said she told her husband over breakfast, ‘There was a part of me that thought Trump could never win’.

‘That was the day we found out that the world’s leading nation will now be lead by a Islamaphobic, racist, sexist (long list of anti-human isms) man.

‘As a Muslim woman I was worried and a bit scared. Scared that wrong has won. Scared that things will get from bad to worse for Muslims, not just in the US but even here in the UK.

‘Worried about how things would turn out for anyone that doesn’t fit a fascist’s criteria. Whenever hate-filled people have got into power, they’ve always managed to incite more hatred and spread it into society.’

‘But I soon also understood that it’s the relationship the UK has with the Trump government that will impact me. And it seems like UK isn’t changing its loyal friendship just because I think an incapable person is in power.


‘We might think our friends across the Pacific have it worse than us, but as a Muslim woman living in the UK, I fear what May’s government thinks of people like me, because I’m pretty sure it’s not much different to the orange Donald over there.’

Trump's 'racist' policies Trump won over millions of voters by telling them that America was no longer ‘great’ because of immigration and global trade. He has been openly endorsed by white supremacists and the KKK, although he has disavowed these supporters. Here are just some of his comments and policies criticised as xenophobic He has talked about a national database for immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, deemed ‘high risk’

He has never apologised for his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country, although it has been toned down to be less blatantly unconstitutional

He attacked the Muslim parents of a soldier who died in Iraq after they appeared at a campaign rally, speculating that Ghazala Khan was not allowed to speak due to her faith: ‘If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.’ (Mrs Khan later said she did not speak because she was overcome with grief)

He claimed judge Gonzalo Curiel would be biased against him ‘because he’s a Mexican’

He has pledged to deport three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records as soon as he takes power

Soltan Bryce, 27, a consultant in Massachusetts

(Picture: Soltan Bryce)

‘As a queer and trans Muslim raised in rural North Carolina, I was not surprised by the results of the election,’ Soltan told Metro.

‘Throughout the campaign, intensifying in the weeks leading up to the election, a sinking feeling slowly overtook me. I felt surprised by the overwhelming falsity of most predictions for a Clinton presidency.

‘The President-Elect has made many statements that have negative implications for communities of color, LGBTQ+ communities, women, and many others. As a person with a few of these targeted identities, it is important not to lose hope, but to take care of myself and to continue to plan for collective liberation.

‘As a Muslim-Buddhist, I also believe it’s never too late for learning or liberation, even if the future now seems scarier and more uncertain for people like me.

‘I believe America is at this point due to a persistent lack of understanding and empathy and that it is worsened by the ever-widening conflict fueled by the spectacle of modern media.’

Soltan said there was an irony in the ‘fragile’ reaction of white Americans when presented with examples of discrimination, when minorities were dismissed as ‘offended’ if they spoke up – word which doesn’t do justice ‘the hurt that happens when the worth of a human existence is so easily disregarded’.

Zara Abbas*, aged 26

Zara (not her real name), is a Pakistani-American woman working for an organisation in Washington DC promoting workers’ rights in the Global South.


She said that since the election, she feels nervous about the future given Trump’s negative focus on Muslims.

However, she said her family in Texas are less concerned on a day-to-day level, telling her to relax and: ‘Nothing’s really going to change, he’s already gone back and forth on so many things. He’s not really going to do most of the stuff he said to Muslims or immigrants.’

‘My community here in DC is very scared about the future and very committed to organising the community and partnering with interfaith groups, trying to work with people who did vote to Trump to try and bridge the gap,’ she said.

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Ryan Storm, 30

(Picture: Ryan Storm)

Ryan converted to Islam in 2002 after reading the Quran out of curiosity in high school, finding that ‘something stuck a cord with me and resonated inside me’.

In almost 15 years of practising his religion, he says the last month has been the first time he felt fearful about people’s attitudes.

‘Even though I belong to a minority faith, because of my race I’ve very seldomly had to deal with prejudice,’ he said.

As a white Muslim convert this is the first time living in the US that I personally feel scared for both myself, my wife and my Muslim friends.

Finding out that his family voted for Trump, despite being ‘a strong Democratic vote for years’ before this, was not an easy period, he said.

‘My family overall has supported me, though not without some difficulty originally,’ he said. ‘Discovering that many voted for Trump has in some ways felt like a repudiation of our relationship and me personally.

‘Though mostly they voted for a change in politics and for economic reasons, it is hard to see that they were so willing to forgive or ignore many of his hardline policies and beliefs towards minorities.’

Despite his apprehension about the future, however, he said the response and solidarity from non-Muslim friends has been uplifting, ‘which gives me strength to get involved with my country’s political future even more.’

Pri, 26

Law student Pri, a Muslim American, was born and raised in New York.

Speaking to Metro after the vote, she said: ‘This election has put me and a lot of people on edge. We were worried that all of the progressive steps that we had taken as a nation would be eradicated in one day.

‘And now that the day has come, our fears have amplified, because we don’t actually know who we elected or what he will do.

‘We did not elect Donald Trump on policy issues, we elected him on face value. We elected a loud, insensitive megalomaniac.

And now we’re worried that he’s going to deport us, take away our healthcare, put us on a registry for the religion we practice, and push the glass ceiling higher than we can reach.

‘The shock and fear is that in this decision we’ve effectively stated that we do not care about the other America, the America of minorities, non-christians, LGTBQ, progressives and the like, and as a member of that other America I am saddened.

Also, the reason I keep using ‘we’ is simply that I too am an American. And even though I wouldn’t be considered an American by the people who voted for Donald Trump, I will always be an American. No one can take that from me, and all I can try to do now is fight for that.

What to do if you witness anti-Muslim harassment Cartoonist Maeril created this guide of practical steps you can take if you witness Islamophobic harassment in the street or on public transport. She advises giving support to the person targeted, rather than engaging the perpetrator which could escalate tensions. Click to enlarge (Picture: Maeril/The Middle Eastern Feminist) Other things which may help include taking video evidence of what is happening and contacting authorities if possible, calling 999 in an emergency. The organisation TellMAMA gives support to victims of hate crimes and records instances of Islamophobia in the UK. Contact them on 0800 456 1226 or by emaiing info@tellmamauk.org.