FROM Donald Trump’s notorious Muslim travel ban, through the recent assault outside the Finsbury Park mosque and acid attacks on Muslims by right-wing terrorists, Islamophobia has been in the news far too often, with a 13 per cent spike in such hate crimes in Britain over the past year.

In this country and the US, those incidents and statistics are galvanising many to rethink the way we understand and fight against Islamophobia and one young Kurdish dancer is setting an intriguing example of ways to raise consciousness through dance.

Hussein Smko, 24, was born in Erbil, Iraq. The story of his life has been one of war and conflict but it’s also been one of a passion for dance, which started when a US soldier showed him dance clips on his iPhone.