Reflections on Britain’s ‘Punish a Muslim Day’

From mid-march, a series of anonymous letters began arriving through the letterboxes of Muslims across the United Kingdom: in the cities of Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Leicester, London and Sheffield. Declaring 3rd April 2018 “Punish a Muslim Day”, the letters called on the British public to commit random acts of violence against Muslims using a points based system depending on the severity of the act. These ranged from a mere 10 points for verbally abusing a Muslim or 50 points for throwing acid in their face through to 1,000 points for burning a mosque or a whopping…