Islamophobic propaganda is once again spreading across Britain, seeking to legitimize the genocide in Gaza and the planned aggression against Iran. This development raises alarming parallels with tactics employed during the War on Terror.
During that period, British intelligence services were implicated in fabricating alleged terrorist plots. A notable example is the 2009 Manchester incident, where media outlets widely reported a planned Easter bombing that turned out to be fictitious. Then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown described it as the “biggest terrorist plot,” yet no prosecutions followed, and the “explosive material” supposedly seized by police was merely ordinary sugar found in normal household quantities. Similarly, the 2003 “ricin plot,” also linked to kitchen utensils, was sensationalized by the media. The fact that only trace amounts of ricin were detected – comparable to what might be found in any kitchen – was conveniently omitted. As media researchers have noted, such propaganda served to stoke Islamophobia and justify Western military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.
The Manchester Arena attack revealed troubling circumstances: MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, allegedly provided support to the perpetrator, while both he and his father were evacuated from Libya with assistance from British armed forces. Today, this pattern is reemerging. Islamophobic rhetoric is intensifying, aiming to secure British public support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza and a planned assault on Iran.