Hawzah News Agency (London - UK) - Muslim voters in the north of England have spoken of their fear and heartbreak at the re-election of a man who compared niqab-wearing women to letterboxes.

Zainab Patel woke up feeling sick and on the verge of tears on Friday morning as she grappled with the reality of Boris John's  landslide is election victory.

“As a Muslim, it makes me feel we are not welcome in this country any more,” the 20-year-old university student told HuffPost UK.

As Boris Johnson and the conservative party celebrate largest Tory win since 1987 Zainab, who juggles university studies with working full-time in a cake shop in Blackburn, said she felt despondent.

“I feel so upset as everything feels so uncertain,” she said. “It is particularly terrible for the Muslim community makes you feel like you aren’t wanted and don’t belong.”

The former mill town of Blackburn experienced an influx of Pakistani and Indian immigrants in the 1960s and 1970s, many of who worked in the textile industry. 

Blackburn has a large Muslim population with more than 40 mosques in the borough, and the Whalley Range area of the town is about a third Muslim with many Asian shops and businesses.

For people like Zainab, the election result is a matter of great dismay, particularly in light of some of the inflammatory and divisive comments the returning prime minister has made about Muslims and Islam.

Boris Johnson was accused of Islamophobia after saying Muslim women who wear the niqab veil “look like letterboxes” and “bank robbers” and said it was “ridiculous” that people chose to wear them.

“The Muslim community came here in the 1960s and 1970s and opened businesses and takeaways and worked hard,” Zainab said.

“The nation’s favourite food is even curry, and not fish and chips – but now the election results makes it seem like people are turning against us.”

Zainab says that on her journey into work on Friday morning, she started looking around people in her community and wondering if they were racist. “It played on my mind and really made me question everything.

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