Staff at Islamic Relief have told of the impact of moderating hundreds of abusive messages directed at the charity each month, saying a rise in misinformation and Islamophobia has left workers spending hours each day reviewing hateful comments while also dealing with attacks on its billboards and Tube poster campaigns.

Islamic Relief is one of the UK’s largest Muslim-led charities and provides humanitarian aid nationally and overseas — but the organisation says its visible Muslim identity has increasingly made it a target for abuse and misinformation.

The charity says the hostility has intensified since the Southport riots in 2024 and described Ramadan 2025 as the worst period it has experienced for Islamophobic abuse. Alongside a surge in online hate, it says its Tube posters and billboards have been repeatedly vandalised because they prominently display the word “Islamic”.

The charity said online abuse often worsens during major fundraising campaigns when its advertising is more visible.

Shazia Arshad, the charity’s head of communications, said the rise in abuse had been fuelled by misinformation about the organisation spread on social media. She said the charity experienced a surge in abusive comments last year after Elon Musk shared a post relating to USAID that accused Muslim-led charities — including several of Islamic Relief UK’s global sister organisations — of being “terrorist organisations”. 

Messages exemplifying the abuse received by the charity include: “Ban Islamic relief… they steal British money and only help terrorist Muslims,” posted in March 2026, and: “Islamic relief a racist apartheid charity that steals money from the British and give only to Muslims,” posted in April 2026. 

Arshad warned that hostility towards Muslim charities was distracting from the work they do to support vulnerable communities. 

“Our work here in the UK is to raise funds for communities that we support both abroad and here at home. That’s our primary aim and it feels like the objective of that sometimes gets lost because people see a Muslim organisation with a very bold Muslim identity and use that as an opportunity to lean into an Islamophobic mindset,” she said.

Resist comment.  We would not advocate abuse and minor vandalism.  However, at the side of muslim terrorism, muslim subjugation of women, and gang-rape of under-aged girls by muslim men. these acts against islam pale into insignificance.

These are just some of the islamic acts of terrorism in the UK in the past 20-years:

7 July 2005: 7/7 central London bombings conducted by four separate Islamist extremist suicide bombers - 52 killed

14 May 2010: MP Stephen Timms was stabbed during his constituency surgery by Roshonara Choudhry, a British Islamic extremist

22 May 2013: A British soldier, Lee Rigby, was murdered in an attack in Woolwich by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, two Islamist extremists

18 February 2016: Jalal Uddin, a Muslim imam in Rochdale, was bludgeoned to death by supporters of the Islamic State

22 March 2017: 2017 Westminster attack – Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Islamist, drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing three and injuring almost fifty, one of whom died two weeks later. He ran into the grounds of the Palace of Westminster and fatally stabbed police officer Keith Palmer,

22 May 2017: Manchester Arena bombing – An Islamist suicide bomber, 22-year-old Salman Abedi, blew himself up at Manchester Arena as people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 and injuring 1,017. It became the deadliest terrorist attack in Britain since the 7/7 London bombings in 2005. Many of the victims were children or teenagers, the youngest being an eight-year-old girl.

3 June 2017: 2017 London Bridge attack – Three Islamists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in and around pubs in nearby Borough Market. Eight people were killed, and at least 48 were wounded

29 November 2019: 2019 London Bridge stabbing – On 29 November 2019, police were called to a stabbing near London Bridge, in Central London, England, at 1:58 pm. A statement said that one man was detained, and "several people" were injured. Two people were killed in the attack, and three were left injured.

20 June 2020: 2020 Reading stabbings – On 20 June 2020, Khairi Saadallah, shouting "Allahu Akbar", attacked two groups of people socialising in Forbury Gardens, a public park in the centre of Reading, killing three and injuring three others. 15 October 2023: Ahmed Ali Alid stabbed 70-year-old Terence Carney to death in Hartlepool and seriously injured another man, who survived.

2 October 2025: Manchester synagogue attack – Jihad al-Shamie attacked worshippers outside a synagogue in Manchester. Two people were killed before al-Shamie was fatally shot by police. Investigators suspected the attack to be motivated by religious extremism.

And muslims complain against minor vandalism and telephone calls . . .