London [UK], October 5 (ANI): A mosque in Peacehaven, a quiet coastal town near Brighton, was deliberately set ablaze late Saturday night in what police are treating as a suspected hate crime. Two people inside the mosque escaped without injury, CNN reported.
The suspected arson comes amid a tense summer in the UK, marked by a rise in both Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents. It follows a deadly attack outside a synagogue in Manchester days earlier, in which two Jewish worshippers were killed in a car-ramming and stabbing attack on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.
Emergency services responded to the scene just before 10 p.m., after flames broke out at the entrance of the small mosque, which has served a local group of 10 to 15 worshippers for the past four years.
A volunteer mosque manager confirmed that two masked individuals wearing balaclavas were seen on security footage attempting to force the main door open. They then poured gasoline across the steps and set it alight.
Inside the mosque at the time were the mosque’s chairman and another volunteer, both in their 60s, who had stayed behind after evening prayers for tea. The manager said, “They heard a loud bang outside and fled the building as flames curled across the main entrance… They could have easily died.”
The chairman was visibly shaken, the manager said, adding that a neighbour came out in tears. The attack also damaged the chairman’s vehicle parked outside, which he relies on for his livelihood as a taxi driver. Police confirmed the fire damaged the front of the mosque and the vehicle.
The manager noted this was not the first attack on the mosque. “Last August, the mosque was targeted twice overnight with eggs thrown at the building, and people have shouted curse words and racial slurs when passing by… But we never expected an attack on this level.” He said the community now feels unsafe and on edge.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the attack, stating that hatred “is rising once again, and Britain must defeat it once again.” Police investigations into the incident are ongoing.
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