Record racist and religious hate crimes in England and Wales have risen for a second year running, anti-Muslim offences up 15%, antisemitic offences up 10%, as Tell MAMA and the British Muslim Trust warn of a sustained crisis fuelled by political scapegoating, street-level aggression and mosque-targeted violence. With undercover footage of Reform UK officials and repeated controversies involving Reform MPs raising questions about the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim rhetoric, and with Azerbaijan’s headscarf row showing that the policing of Muslim girls’ bodies remains a transnational contest over education, identity and rights, the evidence points to a failure of political leadership and the urgent need for a comprehensive hate crime and community cohesion strategy.