Woolwich murder; the Islamophobic backlash

Following the murder of a serving British Army soldier in Woolwich, London, the UK's Muslim population has been subject to a wave of racist hate.

The BBC's Nick Robinson led the way, saying that the attackers were "of Muslim appearance". This was immediately picked up by multiple media outlets. To his credit, Robinson has written a piece apologising for using the phrase.

The EDL immediately mobilised and skirmishes with police on the streets of Woolwich were reported late into the night, Daniel Trilling has a piece here documenting events.

The print media has received widespread criticism of the way they handled the attack in the following day's newspaper front pages. Sunder Katwala has written a piece for the New Statesman examining the coverage.

The anti Muslim hate crime reporting group Tell Mamauk estimated that 24 hours later there had been 6 mosques across the UK attacked, multiple incidents of vandalism and innumerable reports of threats of violence against Muslims online. There is an article on the BBC website documenting some of the incidents. 

Sunny Hundal documents attempts by the EDL to claim that Muslims in Oldham were celebrating the murder.

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