The recent far right demonstrations should worry us all. The speed, scale and organisation and the level of violence and hate they showed in their targeting of asylum seekers and mosques was deeply concerning.

About a week ago, I was asked by LBC to provide a comment on the riots. As someone who has worked on challenging anti-Muslim hate for over a decade, and who was asked by the previous Conservative government to be their national adviser on anti-Muslim hate, it was a topic I felt very comfortable speaking on.

I was happily listening away when a Muslim caller started to speak about the fear that the riots had generated within Muslim circles. He talked about how many Muslim women felt afraid to go out and how some had even talked about developing their own car sharing journeys to work. The presenter and I listened, but were both suddenly taken aback when the caller said that those who did not want Palestinian protests to continue were behind the co-ordination of the far right riots.

Immediately my antisemitism radar kicked in and I knew where he was going to take this line of argument. The presenter, Ben Kentish, also recognised who was going to get the blame, so he immediately asked the caller who he meant. He repeatedly asked this and then, about ten seconds later, out it came. The caller blamed Zionists and Israel because they wanted to break the Palestinian demonstrations and they were therefore supporting the far right riots.

What started as a genuine desire by the caller to explain how British Muslims felt ended up with the promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories. The problem was further compounded when the caller suggested that this very conspiracy theory was being circulated through WhatsApp messages, and he reconfirmed this when Kentish said he was not going to put up with antisemitic conspiracy theories on his show.

I could have cringed and melted away since it was embarrassing and distressing to hear a fellow Muslim explain the impact of the riots on British Muslim communities, whilst openly promoting intolerance and prejudice against another section of our society.

I came away from this experience deeply troubled that someone would feel so comfortable spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories in such a public fashion on the radio.

Then again, maybe I was just being naive. Either way it confirmed one thing to me: These antisemitic discussions are taking place in significant enough volume for someone to feel that confident in repeating them in such a public fashion.

Fiyaz Mughal is the Founder of Faith Matters and Muslims Against Antisemitism