Britain is witnessing the most serious resurgence of antisemitism in decades. Jewish schools require guards, synagogues need permanent security, and many British Jews no longer feel safe expressing their identity openly in public. Violent attacks and open displays of antisemitic hatred have become disturbingly commonplace since October 7.
That should alarm us all, because antisemitism is a threat not only to Jews, but to the liberal and pluralist society that makes freedom possible for everyone.
It’s one of the world’s most enduring hatreds. Its underlying assumptions remain strikingly consistent, but its language adapts easily to the political fashions of the age, allowing old prejudices to present themselves as new moral causes.
Today, we’re witnessing a particularly dangerous convergence. Elements of the far left and Islamist movements, despite their sometimes otherwise incompatible worldviews, have increasingly united around hostility to Israel in ways that too often blur into antisemitism – and, in some cases, provide cover for it. The Gaza war has intensified this convergence, creating a “perfect storm” for British Jews.
To its credit, the moderate left in Britain has made efforts in recent years to confront antisemitism within its own ranks. But many political and public institutions have found it far harder to confront religiously inspired antisemitism or sectarian extremism for fear of being accused of intolerance or “Islamophobia”.
That reluctance has broader consequences in a society where the state grants religion privileged legal and political status. Charity law, for example, continues to treat the advancement of religion – any religion – as inherently beneficial and therefore presumptively worthy of charitable status and public support. In practice, that has sometimes allowed institutions promoting sectarianism, extremism or hostility towards minorities to acquire public legitimacy and taxpayer subsidy while advancing values fundamentally at odds with a liberal and pluralist society.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer was right to say that the fight against antisemitism is one for all Britons, not just the Jewish community. A society in which Jews are intimidated, abused or attacked is a society in which freedom itself is under assault. Antisemitism corrodes democratic life because it normalises the idea that minorities can be collectively blamed, dehumanised or excluded from equal citizenship.
The National Secular Society condemns the alarming rise in antisemitism in the UK and stands in solidarity with Jewish communities facing intimidation, hatred and violence. Political or religious grievances can never justify hostility towards Jewish people. Nor should anyone avert their eyes from the reality that much contemporary antisemitism is being inflamed by Islamist ideology, sectarian politics and online radicalisation.
Jonathan Hall KC, the Government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, recently described attacks on Jewish people in the UK as “the biggest national security emergency” in almost a decade. He warned that many British Jews now feel unable to live a normal life. That is an extraordinary and shameful position for a liberal democracy to find itself in.
Faced with a surge in antisemitic incidents, the Government recently announced an extra £25 million in funding to protect Jewish communities, taking total government funding for their protection to £58 million. But we should recognise what this says about the state of our society. A country in which Jewish schools and synagogues require permanent security protection is a country in which antisemitism has become dangerously normalised.
The NSS has been warning about this for some time. Following the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, we reported more than 40 Islamic charities to the Charity Commission over concerns relating to antisemitism, extremism and anti-Western rhetoric.
We have repeatedly highlighted sermons and online content from Muslim preachers associated with Islamic centres who have spouted hate against Jews, promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories or glorified violence.
This problem is not confined to a handful of fringe figures. Islamist activists and campaigners have increasingly used support for Palestine not simply to advocate for Palestinian civilians, but as a vehicle for a broader ideological agenda – one that too often includes hostility towards Jews, sectarian identity politics, and support for movements fundamentally opposed to liberal democratic values.
None of this means that criticism of Israel, outrage at the actions of its government, or support for Palestinian rights is inherently antisemitic. Nor does opposing antisemitism require silence about religion. In a free society, people must remain free to protest, campaign passionately for political causes, and robustly criticise religions and religious practices. Liberal democracy depends upon the principle that no belief or religious practice is beyond scrutiny or criticism.
But treating Jewish people collectively as responsible for the actions of the Israeli state, excusing intimidation or violence against them, or glorifying terrorist movements targeting them crosses the line from legitimate political expression into antisemitism.
We also have to acknowledge that some of the most visible and aggressive antisemitism seen since October 7 has emerged from Islamist networks, extremist preachers and sections of Britain’s Muslim community shaped by sectarian politics.
Acknowledging this reality is not ‘Islamophobic’. It is a necessary precondition for confronting the problem honestly.
At the same time, it is important to distinguish clearly between Islamist extremism and the overwhelming majority of British Muslims, who reject hatred and violence and contribute enormously to national life. Opposition to antisemitism must go hand in hand with opposition to all forms of racism and bigotry.
Fiyaz Mughal, founder of Tell MAMA which monitors anti-Muslim hatred, has spoken clearly and courageously on this issue. He recently warned that “unless we have a root and branch rejection of Muslim antisemitism, calls for commiserations with British Jews are futile”. He has also argued that “the anti-Semitism that has infected British Islam” has been spread by Islamists who have used the Palestinian issue as a recruiting tool to foster hostility towards Jews.
Recent polling ahead of the May local elections also highlighted the extent to which overseas conflicts are reshaping communal politics in parts of Britain. A Policy Exchange survey of voters in selected constituencies with large Muslim populations (rather than a national sample) found a quarter of Muslim voters said the Gaza conflict would determine their vote. Pro-Gaza independents subsequently made significant gains in Muslim-majority areas like Waltham Forest, Newham, Blackburn, Dewsbury and Batley – and also in Birmingham, contributing to Labour’s overall loss of the largest local authority in Europe.
More concerningly, the survey also revealed substantial minorities expressing favourable views towards Hamas or Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while smaller but still troubling numbers expressed favourable views of Islamic State or al-Qaeda.
That foreign conflicts are increasingly driving sectarian political mobilisation in Britain points to a deeper failure of multiculturalism and integration policy.
For too long, successive governments have outsourced community relations to self-appointed “community leaders”, tolerated parallel social structures such as sharia councils and religiously segregated schooling, and been reluctant to challenge reactionary or sectarian currents within religious communities for fear of causing offence.
This is where secularism matters. A secular state neither privileges nor defers to religious authority. It does not treat religious identity as the primary basis for political representation. And it does not excuse extremism or sectarianism because it is expressed in religious language.
The Charity Commission too has often appeared hesitant. Organisations that platform antisemitic speakers or extremist rhetoric have frequently received little more than “advice and guidance”. Stronger powers to investigate and, where necessary, shut down charities that promote antisemitism or religious extremism should now be seriously considered.
A secular society does not ask citizens to abandon their religious or cultural identities. But it does insist that everyone is bound by the same civic principles: equality before the law, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and belief, and the rejection of collective hatred.
As Stephen Bush recently said in the Financial Times, the best way to defeat racism is to uphold “equality before the law, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the general anti-racist principle that individuals, not groups, bear responsibility for their actions”. That is exactly right.
The struggle against antisemitism is not simply about protecting one minority community, important though that is. It is about defending the liberal, secular and pluralist society that makes peaceful coexistence possible in the first place.
A society that cannot protect its Jewish minority cannot credibly describe itself as open or liberal.
Too many have ignored the sectarianism, extremism and antisemitism that have flourished in plain sight for years.
The defence of a secular liberal society requires moral clarity. That means opposing antisemitism consistently – whether it comes from the far right, the far left or Islamist movements.
That responsibility belongs to all of us.