August 1. Nearly 900 Syrians in Britain were arrested in 2015 for crimes including rape and child abuse, police statistics revealed. The British government has pledged to resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK by the end of 2020. "The government seems not to have vetted those it has invited into the country," said MEP Ray Finch.
August 1. Male refugees settling in Britain must receive formal training on how to treat women, a senior Labour MP said. Thangam Debbonaire, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees, called for a "refugee integration strategy" so that men "understand what is expected of them." She said it could help prevent sexual harassment and issues "including genital mutilation."
August 3. Zakaria Bulhan, a 19-year-old Norwegian man of Somali descent, stabbed to death an American woman in London's Russell Square. He also wounded five others. Police said Bulhan was mentally ill, but HeatStreet, a news and opinion website, revealed that he had uploaded books advocating violent jihad on social media sites.
August 4. A public swimming pool in Luton announced gender-segregated sessions for "cultural reasons." The gender-segregated sessions are named 'Alhamdulillahswimming,' an Arabic phrase which means "Praise be to Allah."
August 5. Egyptian members of the Muslim Brotherhood may be allowed to seek asylum in Britain, according to new guidance from the Home Office. The new guidance contradicted previous government policy, which stated that Britain would "refuse visas to members and associates of the Muslim Brotherhood who are on record as having made extremist comments."
August 5. Stephen Bennett, a 39-year-old father of seven from Manchester, was sentenced to 180 hours of community service for posting "grossly offensive" anti-Muslim comments on Facebook. One of the offending comments: "Don't come over to this country and treat it like your own. Britain first." He was arrested under the Malicious Communications Act.
August 9. Tanveer Ahmed, a 32-year-old taxi driver from Bradford, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the "barbaric, premeditated" murder of a shopkeeper in Glasgow. Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim, admitted to repeatedly stabbing Asad Shah to death outside his shop in March 2016 in a sectarian attack motivated by hatred of Shah's religious views. Shah belonged to the Ahmadi branch of Islam, which believes Mohammed was not the final Muslim prophet.
August 11. Kadiza Sultana, one of three British schoolgirls who left their homes in east London to join the Islamic State, was killed by a Russian airstrike in Raqqa, Syria.
August 11. Muslim women are the most economically disadvantaged group in British society, according to a report by the House of Commons. The report also found that jobless rates in the Muslim community run at more than double the rate of the general population.
August 12. Voter fraud has been deliberately overlooked in Muslim communities because of "political correctness," according to a government report. The investigation began after a scandal in Tower Hamlets, London, where Mayor Lutfur Rahman was removed and his election declared void after he was found by a court to have committed electoral fraud, including vote-rigging.
August 13. British schoolchildren should be required to make a regular US-style pledge of allegiance to the British flag, according to Khalil Yousuf, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. He said: "Not only should we raise the flag, but everybody in the Muslim community should have to pledge loyalty to Britain in schools. There is no conflict between being a Muslim and a Briton."
August 14. London Police announced a £1.7 million "Online Hate Crime Hub" to investigate offensive comments on Facebook and Twitter. The so-called Twitter Squad, created by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, will identify online abuse and report it to the appropriate police force. Civil liberties groups worry the new unit could stop people expressing opinions for fear of arrest.
August 20. A British asylum judge revealed that only a tiny proportion — between five and ten percent — of the people whose asylum applications are denied are actually deported.
August 22. The Justice Ministry announced measures to combat Islamic extremism in British prisons. The move came after an official inquiry concluded that inmates acting as "self-styled emirs" were exerting a "radicalizing influence" over fellow Muslims.
August 23. Scottish Police announced that the hijab will become an optional part of its uniform. The move was aimed at encouraging more Muslim women to join the force.
August 24. Michael Coe, a 35-year-old convert to Islam and a close associate of Anjem Choudary, was found guilty of assault and battery after knocking a 16-year-old boy unconscious in East London because he was hugging a girl. Coe, also known as Mikaeel Ibrahim, left the boy unconscious and bleeding after kicking his head.
August 26. The BBC reported that the number of minors detained under the Terrorism Act more than tripled over two years. Forty-six were detained in 2015, compared to 13 in 2013, with the youngest aged only 13. The threefold rise is believed to be the result of police stopping unaccompanied minors on outbound flights to Syria.
August 27. A close associate of Anjem Choudary ran a series of front companies that received more than £1 million of taxpayers' money to run computer training courses in libraries and job centers. That money was then transferred to key members of Choudary's banned Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun (ALM). Even after the government learned about the associate's links to Choudary, it continued to grant him money for another four years.
August 27. Police in Telford — dubbed the child sex capital of Britain — were accused of covering up allegations that hundreds of children in the town were sexually exploited by Pakistani sex gangs.
August 31. A YouGov poll found that a majority of Britons favor a burka ban: 57% support a ban; 25% are opposed. The only age group to oppose a ban was 18-24 year-olds; by contrast, the 65+ group supported a ban 78% to 12%.
August 31. National Churchwatch, a multi-faith organization dedicated to reducing crime in places of worship, issued a security warning for British churches after jihadists murdered a Catholic priest in France. The group sent a 12-page security guidance — Counter Terrorism Advice for Churches — to every church in Britain.
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