LONDON (Dispatches) – British counter-terrorism police are investigating an apparent transatlantic anti-Muslim campaign after hate mail and suspicious packages were sent from a location near Sheffield to mosques in London, South Yorkshire and the U.S.
Handwritten notes were received by three mosques and other addresses across London in July, the Guardian reported on Saturday. They all bore a Sheffield postmark, as did hate mail received by at least four U.S. mosques earlier this year, and by three UK mosques in July last year.
Forest Gate mosque, Coventry Cross mosque in Bromley-by-Bow, and Shacklewell Lane mosque in Dalston all received letters last month saying the sender would be visiting the mosques.
In July 2016, packages containing white powder were sent to the parliamentary office of Nazir Ahmed, an independent peer, and three mosques in Leyton, Finsbury Park and Tottenham, as well as the Bank of England.
"In 2016 this person targets three mosques in London, in 2017 also three mosques,” said Steve Rose, who is responsible for content at Faith Matters, a community action group working to counter extremism.  
The letters contained offensive language directed towards Pakistani Muslims.
A letter sent to a New Jersey mosque threatened to kill Muslims and featured an offensive cartoon. According to TellMama, a reporting service for cases of anti-Muslim abuse, similar letters targeted mosques in New York, Georgia, and Kentucky this spring.
The Guardian said it has seen letters with the same pseudonym received by mosques in Washington DC, New Jersey and Alabama, all sent in February, with the latest letter received by the Islam Center in South Dakota in mid-June. "Maybe other mosques got them but didn’t report it,” Rose said.
On February 28, the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, received a letter that contained threats of violence and offensive cartoons. It was sent with two first-class UK stamps.
The police were exploring the possibility that the letters were linked to the earlier suspicious packages and letters reported in London, South Yorkshire and the U.S.
Rose urged people attending mosques to remain vigilant and report any threats to the police.