Note before reading: this is the first time I cover something as a journalist in a while. I don't know if I will be doing this more regularly. This attack happened not far from where I live and I felt a duty to go and support however I can as well as report on what I have seen and learned since. I may be preparing an analysis piece for Shado Mag as I sometimes do, and if so I will make sure to post it here as well. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber below.
On the night of 4 October 2025, at 9:50 pm, two men wearing balaclavas set fire to the Peacehaven mosque, the only mosque in the area. CCTV footage shows them pouring liquid at the entrance of the mosque as well as near a car, setting it on fire. A clear act of terrorism targeting a religious community at their place of worship.
Two Muslim worshipers were inside the mosque at the time of the attack. An ambulance was parked in front of the next door NHS Ambulance Community Response Post, in addition to a dozen or so cars in the garage next to the NHS post. Had things gone a little bit differently, we would have witnessed multiple car explosions and who knows how many civilian casualties. Luckily, the two Muslim men escaped in time, and no one was physically harmed. Most of the damage was contained to the mosque itself.
As of the time of writing, the two terrorists are still on the run. With both CCTV footage and the fact that one of the two men had badly put his balaclava on, it should not be too difficult to find them. (Edit: a man has been arrested.)
I went to the mosque the morning after the attack, and I left the scene feeling unsettled. Admittedly my journalism experience has largely been in Lebanon,1 but I was still surprised to see that only a handful of journalists were there. I somewhat naively expected this to be bigger news, if only because it would be an easy thing for the media to connect it to the attack on the Manchester synagogue on 2 October 2025 by a Muslim man that left two people dead and three more injured, an attack that has dominated media coverage, and understandably so.
Read: ‘Greatest tribute to victims is solidarity’: Manchester responds to synagogue attack
I would even describe the mood as calm. Too calm. It was a nice day outside, locals going on walks on the beautiful Peacehaven promenade and its undercliff path. Police officers were not in a hurry. One or two of their comms people were pacing around, answering the odd question from passers-by, but that was it. They had announced an investigation into a blatant act of terrorism but had quickly decided to qualify it as a “suspected hate crime” instead. When a Labour minister was asked about why the police is treating this as a hate crime instead of terrorism, she did not answer the question. There is no inherent reason as to why they couldn't call it “suspected terrorism.”
The police didn’t even cordon off the parking lot in front of the mosque, which belonged to the Peacehaven pub, or make space for the press and the few activists who came to cover the attack or support a traumatised community. The only way to interview the Muslim representative who volunteered to speak to the press was to stand awkwardly at the top of the parking lot, burned mosque behind him and pub-goers looking for parking spots behind us.
(Note: I decided not to share my photo of the representative as I don't believe it to be safe in this environment.)
Halfway through one of the interviews, someone from the pub came to complain about us making it harder for people to park, because we couldn’t all be squeezed in the allocated space at the top of the lot. Here we were listening to a man tell us about how his community is reacting to their only place of worship being attacked, and her concern was the parking lot. She had no problem with the half-dozen police cars also there. She even reminded the officers next to me that they could get drinks on the house. No words were offered to the handful of Muslims who had come to check on their mosque. No solidarity or shared grief, no coffee or drinks, no “you can use our parking lot because why the fuck would I care about my pub the day after the only mosque in the area was set on fire.”
It was all deeply uncomfortable. As I stood there, looking at a burned mosque and its worried community in front of me, and a pub that progressively filled up with joyful families behind me, I couldn’t help but know that this act of terrorism would not register the way it should, the way the Manchester synagogue act of terrorism did. Keir Starmer would not stop whatever he was doing to immediately come down to Peacehaven and offer words of support to a concerned community. There won’t be a photoshoot of him looking concerned as he walked towards a place of worship.
I came home concluding that an act of terrorism that nearly killed two men was primarily inconvenient because it occurred the day before Sunday brunch.
“Operation Raise the Colours”
One element of this story that I can confidently say will not be part of most media coverage is how the attack, while shocking, was also predictable. Just a week before, on Monday 29 September 2025, over 80 community groups, businesses and other organizations published a letter complaining about “Operation Raise the Colours” (ORTC) the Far Right campaign that saw hundreds of English flags raised throughout Brighton and Hove and beyond. The statement was also sent to Anita Grant, the assistant chief officer for trust and legitimacy at Sussex Police.
Note: I am keeping the rest of the article behind a paywall for now, as the story develops. This is to protect some potentially sensitive material.
The article ends with a list of recommended listens/reads on the UK Far Right so I'll post them above the paywall for now and eventually bring them back to the bottom of the article when I make it public.
Resources and Recs:
12 Rules for What episode 107: Unite the Kingdom and the Apocalypse with Richard Seymour (Podcast)
My article for Shado Mag on “Rethinking the rise of the far right”
Pod Save the UK interview with Zack Polanski, leader of the Green party (Podcast)
People Just Do Something episode 13: Undercover in Reform UK with Sian Norris (Podcast by The Bristol Cable)
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