With the rise of Isis, Muslims are being called ‘beheaders’. This has to end

Muslims have been ejected from public transport and harrassed in the streets - just a few examples of the rise in anti-Muslim hate incidents across the UK

Members of the Al-Imdaad Foundation help remove furniture from a house in Carlisle (Colin McPherson)

Last night, a Muslim man was forced off a Tube train in north London after a commuter complained he used an iPad "suspiciously". On Monday, a Muslim man on a National Express coach in Bristol was allegedly removed because fellow passengers felt uncomfortable as he was looking “shifty”. National Express have stated that he as ejected on the grounds that he was rude to staff. In June, student Yusra Ahmed, alleged that a National Express driver berated her for bringing ‘smelly curry food’ onto the bus.

After the murder of Lee Rigby, the huge spike in anti-Muslim hate incidents that were reported to us, had three key terms associated with them: 'terrorists', 'the Taliban' and 'Al Qaeda'. Following the rise of the so-called Islamic State, terms such as 'beheaders', 'cult followers' and 'ragheads' found themselves in the lexicon of anti-Muslim rhetoric. In the light of the Paris attacks, the term ‘terrorist’ has come back with a vengeance. One Muslim family, having dropped off their children at school, came home to find a cut out picture of a bomb placed against their door.

These events are not isolated and time and time again, we have incidents reported to us at Tell MAMA, where Muslims are have been subjected to hate speech and humiliating treatment.

There is no doubt that anti-Muslim hate incidents are on the rise. Reason and moderation are needed more than ever before from politicians and the media. No longer can we allow inflated and misguided headlines suggesting that one in five Muslims support Isis, to percolate through communities. No longer can we have politicians asking for Muslim communities to sign a ‘special code of conduct’. No longer can we regard our own citizens as ‘fifth columnists’.

If we do not challenge such pre-conceptions and wild statements, we hand the so-called Islamic State a success that they could not have dreamed off. Isis cannot beat the West militarily. It knows that, yet, each time we target a Muslim man or woman and make them out to be outsiders within our communities, we hand over a small victory to IS.

Finally, anti-Muslim prejudice or Islamophobia cannot be regarded as something that does not affect wider non-Muslim communities. It does and it should be viewed as an indicator of the health of our society. Right now, Britain is infected. We either deal with the disease now in its early stages, or we will have a full blown infection where hate and intolerance burrow in the core of our communities. We cannot let this take happen.

Fiyaz Mughal OBE is Director of TELL MAMA