How UK’s anti-extremism laws criminalise dissent while failing to address systemic Islamophobia’s roots

This case echoes the 1930s–40s British Union of Fascists (BUF), whose leader Oswald Mosley was briefly imprisoned for sedition but whose rallies were met with police inaction until Jewish communities organised mass resistance. Similarly, the 1970s–80s National Front’s anti-immigrant campaigns were often ignored by authorities until working-class protests forced accountability. The selective enforcement of laws against far-right figures today mirrors this historical pattern, where institutional power determines who is criminalised and who is accommodated.