Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department took to mark Islamophobia Awareness Month 2021.

Islamophobia awareness is vitally important. Our commitment to tackling the discrimination and intolerance in Muslim communities is consistent throughout the year, as every community should be able to practice their faith in freedom and security.

We already have some of the strongest legislation in the world to tackle hate crime and, where groups incite racial hatred or are engaged in racially or religiously motivated criminal activity, we would expect them to be prosecuted. We have continued to show our commitment to this by supporting Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) with over £4 million between 2017 and 2022 to monitor anti-Muslim hate crimes and support victims, as well as providing almost £5 million to protect and secure mosques and other places of worship through the Places of Worship Security Grant.