No need for Muslims to get special treatment but they should be treated fairly - Yorkshire Post Letters

Paul Morley (Letters, January 29) raises several points. On his question regarding shouldn't antisemitism (racism towards Jews) be a priority for this government; he does not seem to be aware that:

(1) The UK government published a 16-page Antisemitism Action Plan in December 2025. However, no such action plan yet exists for the racism faced by Muslims or for that matter other minority faiths.

(2) The UK government convenes a quarterly Antisemitism Working Group of Jewish community organisations with civil service support for many years. However, no comparable Islamophobia Working Group exists for Muslim community organisations.

(3) On definitions, in December 2016 the UK government was the first in the world to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism as a non-statutory working definition.

However, almost a decade later in 2026, the UK government has not yet adopted any form of non-statutory working definition for Islamophobia or anti-Muslim hostility.

(4) In terms of public funding for security of places of worship, the funding available via the Home Office per synagogue or Jewish faith school, is currently about double the amount of funding available and allocated per mosque or Muslim faith school.

In recent years due to a rise in racist incidents, some Sikh Gurdwaras are bolstering their security too, but there is an even smaller pot of grant funds available for them to apply for.

I strongly agree with Paul's assertion that "their (the government) main role is to treat us all as equals with the same levels of respect and safety."

However, the above facts suggest the safety of Muslims, and other minority faith groups like Sikhs, is considered of less - not equal - importance by the UK government compared to the safety of our Jewish friends.

Finally, in terms of the law in England and Wales, Paul may be aware that whilst Christians, Muslims, Hindus and other minority faith groups are considered religions, Jews and Sikhs are considered both a religion and race (and thus have additional protections).

The Law Commission published a detailed report in 2021 (at vast taxpayer expense) called ‘Hate crime laws’ which says our current legal system "reinforces the idea of a ‘hierarchy of hatred’" and "sustains an unhelpful division between ethnoreligious groups [ … ] and other religious groups".

They made 34 recommendations for reforming hate crime laws in England & Wales, including equalizing protections between race and religion. However, to date most of these recommendations have not been implemented and over four years later, the Law Commission is still waiting for the government to fully respond to its report.

In response to the current review of Public Order and Hate Crime Legislation by Lord Ken Macdonald, the Muslim Council of Britain recently called for full support and implementation of the Law Commission's recommendations.

I don't want special protection; I want fairness for all. I do hope Paul would agree with me on that point.