So let us look at the facts. The Iftar and end of Ramadan event in Trafalgar Square was pre-planned, lawful and in line with other events that were held to celebrate religious celebrations like Diwali and Vaisakhi. Whilst the form of celebration may have been different and involved prayer, nonetheless, the celebrations were generally in line with previous religious events around different faiths and cultures. The political furore over this event was over the call to prayer or ‘Adhan’ and people collectively praying.

In light of this, it is important to explain what the Adhan is.  The Adhan or call to prayer is not a symbol of domination over other cultures. In the context of the Trafalgar Square event, it was simply to mark the prayer time for the celebrants in the square and this was followed by a mass prayer event. Some Muslims pray five times a day and these are marked by specific times in the day and the Adhan is a reminder that the time for prayer has come.

Prayer in Islam is seen as a communal act, an act of togetherness and where mass prayer is seen as a common activity rather than being associated with promoting a sense of domination over others. To suggest that those praying were seeking to push forward a dominance of Islam over others is to misread the context of this specific event and to project a view on all those who attended that simply does not reflect the reality of people simply wanting to pray together.

Furthermore, we are not naive to the fact that some Muslims seek to interpret and live a form of Islam that is far more brittle and non-accepting of other faiths. There are numerous examples of this and we will always challenge and stand against those who seek to divide and spread intolerance, irrespective of whatever faith they are from. In the context of the Trafalgar Square event, there was no evidence of any group being involved and this is important to stress. We within Tell MAMA are always led by the evidence and there was no evidence to indicate that such groups were involved.

Finally, this statement from Iman Atta OBE, the Director of Tell MAMA summarises our position on the furore around the Ramadan and Trafalgar Square event:

“We are deeply concerned at the political language and furore that has been whipped up against people simply praying in Trafalgar Square. The prayer was spontaneous and there were people simply celebrating the end of Ramadan. The Words have consequences and the dehumanising of Muslims simply praying is sickening. It needs to stop and be called out.”

The post Trafalgar Square, Prayer and Subsequent Anti-Muslim Abuse appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Now, Muslim women interviewed are pushing back against the idea that they did not choose to wear the headscarf.

“My hijab is completely my own choice. My religion, the way I practice it, is completely my own choice,” university student Unaizah Ahmad, 25, told the press as she urged understanding and dialogue “instead of giving in to preconceived biases.”

The YouGov poll, commissioned by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community ahead of their Jalsa Salana (annual convention), surveyed 2,130 adults in Britain between 16 and 17 July.

The first question asked: ‘Do you think the following groups of immigrants to the UK generally have a positive or negative impact on the country?’ broken down by religion – Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Jewish.

Whilst the total negative impact of Muslim migrants in the polling understandably made headlines, totalling 41 per cent, the figures also revealed that Reform voters, above all other parties, proved far more likely to agree that Muslim immigrants had a “fairly negative impact” (34 per cent) and a “very negative impact” (54 per cent), respectively. And yet, across those voters from the other major parties in the 2024 General Election, 52 per cent of Conservative voters, 29 per cent of Labour voters, 19 per cent of Liberal Democrat voters, and 22 per cent of Green voters took a net negative view.

Conversely, just over one in ten Conservative voters (13 per cent), 35 per cent of Labour voters, 36 per cent of Liberal Democrat voters and 42 per cent of Green voters held a net positive view (when combining answers for a “very positive impact” and “fairly positive impact”, respectively). Just three per cent of Reform voters polled agreed that Muslim immigrants provided positives.

Whilst some news analysis did highlight the greater levels of negativity towards Muslim immigrants than other faith groups, there are two caveats to consider: those who answered “don’t know” and “Neither positive nor negative impact”. Across each faith group, just over one in ten polled answered “don’t know”. And while Muslims scored slightly lower than other faith groups, with the latter example, almost one quarter of those surveyed (24 per cent) agreed with the “Neither positive nor negative impact” answer (a figure that rises to more than one-third with the other faith groups).

When asked, “Generally speaking, do you think Islam is or is not compatible with British values?” 93 per cent of Reform voters said no, compared to 69 per cent of Conservative voters, 41 per cent of Labour voters, 35 per cent of Lib Dem voters, and 22 per cent of Green voters. In comparison, one-quarter of voters polled agreed that it proved compatible with British values, as just over one in five (22 per cent) answered “Don’t know”.

The next question saw bigger splits between voters and perhaps reflects more on how the question was framed, as it asked, “From what you know, do you think Islam encourages or discourages Muslims to carry out acts of violence against non-Muslims, or does it neither encourage nor discourage this?” Just over one-third (31 per cent) agreed that it did, as almost an equal number of voters disagreed that it did (27 per cent), with almost one-fifth agreeing that Islam neither “encourages nor discourages this” as 24 per cent answered, “Don’t know”. Again, Reform voters (70 per cent) agreed that it did, compared to 40 per cent of Conservative voters, 18 per cent of Labour voters, 17 per cent of Lib Dem voters and nine per cent of Green voters.

The final question asked, “Thinking about the reasons why British Muslim women might decide to wear a hijab, which of the following comes closest to your view?” Labour and Liberal Democrat voters showed a clear split on the choices of personal choice (36 per cent) or family/community pressure (39 per cent), as Conservative voters (65 per cent) and Reform voters (74 per cent) agreed with the second choice (pressured to do so). It is worth noting also that just over one-fifth (21 per cent) selected “Don’t know”.

Reacting to the poll findings, Farooq Aftab, a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, called for wider societal change and improving community cohesion, making clear that: “We recognise that concerns about integration and social change exist in society — but these cannot be allowed to turn into hostility or alienation. We call on leaders, institutions, and communities across the country to work together in strengthening cohesion, promoting dialogue, and standing against division.”

At a time of rising anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobic sentiment, there is a great need across government to improve social cohesion, encourage and foster improved dialogue between communities, whilst ensuring that those who are targeted for their faith or belief can get the support they need. That Muslim communities can have their voices heard in meaningful ways across society more generally, beyond discussions on hate crime, but on everyday matters, of structural biases and allow for misconceptions and stereotypes (whether in sections of the media or politics) to be challenged in a manner that upholds the fundamental rights of all.

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Correspondingly, we have seen anti-Muslim sentiment on some social media platforms, notably ‘X’, where disagreement with such a day, has led to anti-Muslim tropes and sentiment. Sadly, in today’s world, discussions about Hijab and Muslims in general, leads to the circulation of toxic tropes about Muslims. It has become a tedious cycle where themes and topics of discussions about Muslims, turn into racist and anti-Muslim tropes.

Tell MAMA does not take a public position on the ‘World Hijab Day’. Our work is fundamentally based on supporting the victims of anti-Muslim hate, whether that be online or offline, and in monitoring and mapping anti-Muslim hate in the U.K. This work also involves working with police forces across the United Kingdom so that victims can receive access to justice.

We are also mindful and aware that Muslim women who do not wear the Hijab and those perceived to be Muslim, also suffer anti-Muslim prejudice and hate. It is also to be noted, that many of the cases that we received from British Muslims, are from individuals who are visibly Muslim and who wear the Hijab, the Niqab, Muslim prayer caps and cultural clothing such as ‘thobes’.

What we wanted to add is that the volume of anti-Muslim sentiment on platforms such as ‘X’ has worryingly grown and is taking a sharply upward trend. Ultimately, what Muslim (or any) woman wants to wear, is not of anyone’s concern and it is up to the woman’s choice as to how she covers her body – or not.

We are also mindful that some Muslim women in other countries in the world may feel political and social pressures to wear the Hijab, such as in Iran. However, Britain is not Iran and Muslim women in the U.K by enlarge have a choice as to whether they wear the Hijab or not. Which goes back to our central point, that what women choose to wear, or not, is their choice.

Sadly, armchair pundits who sit on platforms like ‘X’ fail to see this basic tenet and some in their defence of ‘saving women’ from wearing the Hijab, spread anti-Muslim tropes and prejudice. We just wish that people think and take a step back before posting comments on social media platforms.

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Our report details the rise and fall, trigger points, gender impacts, locations, national incidents and global actions that lead to anti-Muslim hate. The report also focuses on the lived experiences of Muslims who have been targeted by such hate. It is a resource that politicians, academics and social scientists may find useful, given the depth of the data and the ten year period covered from 2012-2022.

Sadly, few politicians and Members of Parliament have spoken out against anti-Muslim hatred and the numbers seem to be growing smaller. Whether this is because they perceive that speaking up on this issue may be politically damaging for them through the eyes of sections of their electorate, or that they may be subjected to online abuse, the fact is that this area of work does not attract the political shouting and push back that other forms of intolerance attract, with a desire to reducing them.

More than ever, at a time of financial uncertainty, politicians need to be speaking up against intolerance and those who seek to blame fellow citizens for the ills that they find or experience. Anti-Muslim hate and the tentacles of such hate need to be vociferously challenged and curtailed by policy makers who carry with them, the trust of many of their electorate. Surely saying something on this issue is the moral and right thing to do? Or are the voices who seek to paint pluralism and diversity as being dirty words, shaping the actions of political leaders through their silence? We truly hope that this is not the case.

Read more: ITN news and Tell MAMA launch survey on mosque safety in the U.K.

The post More Politicians Need to Speak Up & Counter Anti-Muslim Hate appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Today marks the first International Day to Combat Islamophobia – a United Nations initiative that began in 2021, two years after a white supremacist terrorist murdered 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand.

With any anniversary, we stop to honour and remember those lost and those living with injuries and traumas.

We also stop to reflect on how, in the spirit of mutuality, we, as individuals and groups, can change the conditions in society for the betterment of Muslims and other minorities.

For the UN Secretary-General António Guterres to “stamp out the poison of anti-Muslim hatred”, we must re-assert our common ground and our common humanity in opposition to those who seek to divide. The inaugural launch of this day in 2021 saw links between rising anti-Muslim hatred globally with a “resurgence in ethnonationalism, neo-Nazism, stigma and hate speech targeting vulnerable populations including Muslims, Jews, some minority Christian communities”.

Secretary-General Guterres recognises that anti-Muslim hatred is not just an interpersonal bias or form of violence but a structural problem, “Beyond structural, institutional discrimination and the wholesale stigmatization of Muslim communities, Muslims suffer personal attacks, hateful rhetoric, and scapegoating,” with Muslim women facing a triple prejudicial penalty (gender, ethnicity and faith).

At Tell MAMA, our work prioritises the support and care of Muslim communities – with holistic support,  advocacy and access to free counselling services amongst other services. We prioritise and centre the voices of those we support; inform government, civil society and others about the issue and advocate for change; challenge bystanders to do more and stand up for others; and let our research bridge the gaps between theoretical ideas and the real-world impacts anti-Muslim hate has on society, within the UK but also beyond.

Let’s collectively work to stamp out and challenge anti-Muslim hate and bias where we see it – on our streets, inside our institutions, online and beyond.

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The teenagers came dressed up in the sort of clothes that were not just walking political statements but there to trigger anger. Beyond the anti-abortion slogans, they stopped the Native Americans at the Indigenous People’s March by the Lincoln Memorial. It was heated and tense, and what particularly inflamed anger was the teenager who blocked Nathan Phillips, standing almost serenely but all the while sporting a goading smug grin, supported by his friends.

This is Trump’s America and we should not be deceiving ourselves to think otherwise. He began the week by mocking one of the worst massacres of Native Americans and now it has finished with this. As usual there were conservatives looking for any angle to humanise the teenagers and remove some sense of guilt and offence from him. Videos that emerged later were even more damning of the teenagers, showing them to be almost mobbing the Native American, taunting and laughing.

Firstly, what does it say that a school decided to take their children to a political march? America is embroiled in a time of fierce racial tensions. Why were these, ultimately, children exposed to this? They did not come neutrally but came wearing symbols expressing allegiance to Donald Trump. What might have happened had violence erupted? The teenagers would have become victims and further cemented the far-right narrative that an anti-white genocide is taking place. The school risked their safety by allowing them to enter a potentially dangerous situation.

Secondly, those of from backgrounds of socialism, liberalism and humanism would do well to remember that this was ultimately a teenager. One absolutely soaked in the privilege of being exempt from historical discriminations on race, class or gender, but still a child. Knowledge and deciphering what is morally correct is a process, cultivated carefully from a mixture of inherited values but also exposure to different environments and experience. He is a product of what he was raised in and is still fleshing out his moral compass. Now, anyone with a basic sense of family values would never obstruct an elderly man, nor smirk in his face, but that is another issue altogether. The teenager was maddeningly disrespectful, but we should be hesitant to calling for the destruction of his career or social life. His face is now plastered on social media, circulated globally. He will live with the consequences of his behaviour. But he should be allowed to learn and grow from it too. Brokering a sense of common good and mutualism between different groups can only be nurtured from accepting mistakes in human interactions and wishing to learn from it.

But lastly, what was chilling about this was the brazen display of arrogant, triumphalist rudeness on the part of these teenagers. They racially taunted whilst wearing pro-life slogans. They harassed Native American elders, and they showed that they could do it not just because they wanted to, but they were in power, they were in control. The smirk infuriated many people because it signalled the privilege these teenagers had as affluent white boys which protected them, unburdened by the experiences of being a Native American elderly who would have seen and felt much racism and prejudice throughout his life. They treated him as undeserving of respect and dignity, and that is how you know it is Trump’s America because these are the values he instilled in his campaign when targeting minorities. In the era of toxic identity politics, white nationalism remains cancerous to the advance of liberty, human rights and further democracy.

He has emboldened those harbouring prejudiced views to feel more confident in their bigotry and to wear in literally on their sleeves and head. To don a MAGA cap and racially taunt someone like Nathan Phillips. This is Trump’s America.

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Today, these two countries are changing unquestionably. It would be the height of disingenuity to ignore the sweeping racism that always dogged somewhere like Britain. For much of the last century the far-right were a presence in the streets, a manifestation of Enoch Powell’s dark prophecy that promised blood on the streets amidst a race war. But they were pushed back by the solidarity between minorities and the natives. Britain was not a post-racism society as many liked to dishonestly pretend, but by comparison to other countries in the west it had made incredible strides in becoming more socially liberal.

And yet today we have Brexit. We have increased rates of hate crime that followed it across places like Stoke, West Midlands, Wales and Sunderland. A sense of euphoria and legitimacy has emboldened the far right to not only peddle their hate but now attack groups. Brexit seemed to vindicate them, bring them from the margins previous generations spent blood and sweat to push them to. And why would they not feel like that? Brexit was the culmination of cultural and economic grievances boiling into a desire to rattle the status quo and the distant elites whose lives seemed wholly unconnected from those living in impoverished post-industrial towns. Give the tree a shake and see what falls down.

What does post-Brexit Britain so far look like? Increased hate crimes, uncertainty about the future of migrants, loss of jobs, shortage of medicines, the Yellow Vests, Tommy Robinson in UKIP and a whole lot more. Globalisation delivered rapid change and it would be mistaken to think this would not generate tensions between different demographics, especially in towns where a sort of self-imposed segregation born from fears of racism and extremism arise. People are social animals and long for a sense of cultural communion, the sort of which local councils have not sought to nurture enough. These cultural divides have made groups more vulnerable to extremists from both the far-right and Islamist backgrounds, who feed off the sense of social exclusion that can fester.

But this has been exacerbated by the profound sense of loss in many post-industrial towns and cities which have been tapped into, relentlessly, by both the far-right, populist parties like UKIP and the right-wing tabloids.

When Margaret Thatcher closed the mines during the eighties a terrible gale of depravity blew through many British communities. A sense of cultural identity, communal tie and belonging was lost to the forces of globalisation and the market. The shift to a more insecure labour market further eroded the sense of community that once existed. In these towns a rust has settled over and provided a fertile ground for hostility towards immigration and Islam to grow.

Research has shown that areas close to major cities and university towns have warm views on both while those from the more industrial towns have negative views. In particular, attitudes towards Islam had been somewhat softening between 2011-2016 but then grew again during 2017, which is likely tied to the spate of terrorist attacks. The consequences of this cannot be underestimated for how it undermines the social fabrics by fracturing the cohesion in communities. In areas where hostile views towards Muslims and immigrants exist, the potential for racially-motivated violence and abuse are never too far away. Data found that following Brexit, 33 out of the 44 major police forces across England and Wales reported a sharp rise in hate crime.

Key to challenging this growth in far-right extremism include listening to concerns over immigration and Islam but at the same time presenting a passionate defence of the contributions made to our country by migrants and Muslims.

Vital to this is also appreciating the economic anxiety gripping the country. In leaving behind the industries without a plan to regenerate well-paid jobs offering dignity and social status, successive governments have entrapped communities in a state of chronic poverty and unemployment. Opportunities have relocated almost exclusively to London and inequality has cut through the country starkly like a knife. It is sharp, and it is clear. While the wealth at the top multiplies, there are millions of working families toiling in poverty, reliant on food banks and unable to pay energy bills. The shortage of affordable housing coupled with abominably high rents, cuts to welfare and local council budgets have punished families relentlessly. Insecurity over housing and jobs is a strong aspect of anxiety regarding immigration. Many feel they are already priced out and unable to compete, and regard low-skilled immigration as another threat to their own economic security and interests.

Within this climate, populists and extremists present an enemy in the shape of the low-wage immigrant, who without voice, status and power, cannot defend their interests. They would ordinarily look to the institutions for protection but find government ministers demonising them and newspapers blasting them. This is the game of divide and rule that the far-right thrive upon. We comforted ourselves with the decline of UKIP thinking that populism was in its last embers, but they achieved their goal of Brexit, and one imagines that a populist right-wing party offering economic protectionism to post-industrial towns coupled with harsher stances on immigration and Islam could perform extremely well.

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Now there is also another debate which is subtly raging and that is to push prejudice against Muslims into the realm of racial protections and no-one has discussed this. These provide a lower threshold for, say public order offences, to have additional sentencing added on because there was a racial bias to the crime. It is clear that there are intersectional elements between race and anti-Muslim bigotry in some cases and that cannot be denied. It is a fact. However, in all of the nuanced, sometimes confrontational ideological and academic positions, the reality that the work is based on the fundamental protection of equality and human rights is overlooked.

Within criminal and civil law, anti-Muslim and intra-Muslim bigotry are covered. Whilst there is a real need for a definition to provide a working framework moving forward, let us not forget that at the root of work countering anti-Muslim bigotry, racism, and Islamophobia is the defence of basic human rights. These are universal and non-negotiable.

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Growing up in Huddersfield, I too faced and witnessed prejudice and bullying at school during the 90s. A devastating phenomenon that was even worse for my father’s generation in the 70s and the generation before him in the 60s.

As a British Muslim of Pakistani descent, who is proud to have been raised in Huddersfield, I and other Pakistanis were subjected to racial slurs, hatred and even violent attacks. The same was true for many black and Irish children growing up at the same time. There was no logic or rational basis to the prejudice we faced; it was pure hatred, based on generations of ignorance.

While children are the most cherished members of any society, they can also be a troubling and cruel reflection of the very worse aspects of society. A Primary School child is not genetically racist or prejudiced. He or she comes to discriminate between ethnicity, race and gender on the basis of their socio-economic environment or if they come across hateful material. Furthermore, if the spark of hatred and racism is struck up in the home, then it is large sections of the media and many public commentators who douse it with fuel.

There is ample evidence that media coverage of Muslims and Islam is disproportionately negative. Moreover, common sense tells us that hatred towards Muslims is only increased by headlines such as ‘Muslims’ Sympathy for Jihadis,’ ‘Muslims Tell us How to Run our Schools’ or ‘Muslims Tell British: Go to Hell!’. Despite this, the mainstream media will continue to influence playgrounds by providing platforms to hate preachers such as Tommy Robinson.

In my experience, it would also be fair to say that racism and prejudice are not exclusively a ‘white’ problem. For example, some of the worst hatred I faced was from fellow Muslim children and teenagers who would verbally abuse and assault me and others purely on the basis of sectarianism; because we were Ahmadi Muslims, a peaceful sect of Islam they disagree with.  Racism really does affect us all.

As a lawyer, human rights activist, long-time youth worker and grass root community activist and anti-hate campaigner, I have had the opportunity to work with thousands of young people in Huddersfield and across the breadth of the UK. One of the most powerful lessons I have taken from my experience is that children and even adults, if given the chance have the capacity to learn tolerance, acceptance and plurality.

By way of example, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community runs a series of community projects. These include tree planting, cleaning up fly-tip areas, visiting and helping the elderly, supporting World War II veterans through the Poppy Appeal, responding to floods and other natural disasters, and raising money for the most disadvantaged in British society.

In twenty plus years of carrying out this work, I have witnessed countless people embrace, thank tearfully and befriend young Muslims who took the time to help and value them. Even members of far-right parties have knocked on our doors not to abuse or assault us, but to thank us, shake our hands and tell us that our kindness has caused them to question and even shed their prejudice.

Experience has taught me that the fire of hatred that is raging across the UK and Europe can be extinguished by mutual love, compassion, understanding and kindness. For that to happen, we need to get up and pro-actively meet one another. Living in isolation will only breed ignorance, prejudice and racism.

Farooq Aftab is a member of the British Ahmadi community and works to ensure human rights and justice.

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Why is anti-Muslim hatred wrong?

The answer may seem obvious, but it is not. Some Muslims deserve to be hated.

If you do not hate Pakistani extremists who murder women for carrying out polio vaccinations, I worry about your sense of values. More personally, while I do not want to be hated by anyone, if somebody hates me because they consider me to be an insufferable elitist capitalist prig, I must acknowledge that they have the right to do so!

However, hatred becomes wrong when it is applied to entire categories. If a person hates all Muslims, regardless of whether they be murderers of polio vaccinators or research scientists seeking a cure for cancer, then that person is denying human individuality to Muslims. That person will inevitably treat badly Muslims who do not deserve mistreatment. That person may engage in violence against Muslims. Even if the person is not violent, they are likely to mistreat Muslims in other ways such as job discrimination. Such conduct is clearly morally wrong, as well as being illegal under UK law.

The key point is that as human beings, each of us, regardless of nationality, ethnic background or religious beliefs has the fundamental human right to be judged by others as an individual. All forms of bigotry, whether xenophobia against foreigners, racism against ethnic groups or bigotry against religious groups, violates this fundamental human right.

That is why anti-Muslim hatred is wrong.

What is Islamophobia?

Many people use the word “Islamophobia” as if it was a one-word exact substitute for “anti-Muslim hatred.”

Life would be simple if that were true. Sadly, it is not.

The closest one can get to a definition of “Islamophobia” in the modern era (ignoring historical usage, sometimes in foreign languages) is a report funded by the Runnymede Trust and published in 1997. When you read the report, it is clear that Islamophobia was defined by the report as an attitude towards Islam, rather than a way of treating Muslims, let alone more precisely as hatred of Muslims.

From the time the report was issued, many very decent liberal-minded people have pointed out that they are free to have any attitude towards Islam they wish without being accused of anti-Muslim hatred. As a result, endless confusion has been caused when a perfectly decent person such as Polly Toynbee chooses to self-describe as an Islamophobe. Some Muslims have then concluded that she has developed a hatred of Muslims, which is simply not the case.

The Runnymede Trust published a new report in 2017 with an “improved” definition of Islamophobia. While this 2017 definition is better than the 1997 definition, it has its own problems. Most importantly though, if when using the word Islamophobia, you need to specify whether you mean the word’s 1997 definition or the word’s 2017 definition, you will never get anywhere.

Accordingly, I believe the word “Islamophobia” should never be used except when debating the meaning of the word itself.

At its most fundamental, I do not care very much what other people think about Islam. While I would like as many people as possible to appreciate the many wonderful things about Islam that lead me to be a Muslim, I recognise that many people prefer to have other religions or to have no religion at all. If someone thinks that Muhammad was a false prophet who concocted the Quran using locally available Jewish and Christian textual sources, they are free to say so. I would prefer them to avoid using rude or abusive language, but if they are rude my key remedy is to cease to associate with them. The law should not get involved.

Criticising Islam as a disguised way of expressing anti-Muslim hatred

While people are free to criticise Islam as much as they wish, it is quite clear when you listen to some people that their professed criticism or hatred of Islam is actually a disguised way of expressing anti-Muslim hatred.

An analogy which has been much in the news in 2018 is the distinction between being anti-Zionist and being antisemitic. Some people argue that anti-Zionists are always antisemites. Others argue that anti-Zionists are never antisemites.

Both assertions are wrong. Some people hold very strong anti-Zionist views without in any way hating Jews. Conversely, when you listen to some other anti-Zionists, it is quite clear after a few moments that these people really hate Jews. It all depends upon the facts.

Similarly, there are some people who say very critical things about Islam as a religion who I am confident bear no malice towards Muslims as a general category of people. Conversely, when you read what others say about Islam, it is crystal clear that they despise or even hate all Muslims and deny Muslims their fundamental human right to be assessed as individuals. It all depends on the facts.

Mohammed Amin is Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum. He is writing in a personal capacity. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Tell MAMA.

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The campaign aims to bring in voices of the public who come from a variety of backgrounds and identities and united in a singular message: be upstanders, not bystanders.

During the filming and production of the campaign, participants were informed of the aims of the campaign led by Faith Matters, its partners & affiliates (including Tell MAMA, Galop, the CST, Tell MAMA, Trans Media Watch, and Dimensions), before consent forms were signed. All participants signed informed consent forms from Faith Matters, which allows Faith Matters, its affiliates, partners, and agents, to use their images and/or interview statements in its publications or other media activities. No objections were raised during the filming process or after its completion.

Before the campaign went live on Crowdfunder, participants were able to view the text and images (which included the logos of all partners involved, including Tell MAMA) to ensure they were happy with the final product. At this stage, no participant had raised any objections to how the campaign, its partners & affiliates used their images or videos.

One participant then tweeted a link to crowdfunding page on November 16, with the all campaign partners tagged in (including Tell MAMA). This participant favourited a tweet from Tell MAMA, a partner in the ‘No2h8’ campaign, a day earlier.

Tell MAMA, as other partners did, shared the campaign on Facebook on November 16. Subsequent comments confirm that on November 16 and November 18 this participant was aware of Tell MAMA’s use of their image in the campaign but raised no objections (privately or publicly) until November 21.

We even thanked them publicly for sharing the campaign in a tweet on November 16, but the participant has since deleted this tweet.

Tell MAMA takes any such allegation very seriously and spoke with the production team responsible and the participant.

The production team confirmed that consent forms were signed and that participants were made aware of the partners involved. Therefore, we invite this participant to reach out to us directly, and, if requested to do so, we will remove them from the campaign. We had hoped that such concerns were raised privately first before any such tweets were made.

Nor do we accept the characterisation of our work in the participant’s tweet on November 21.

Tell MAMA has continued to challenge examples of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia from politicians and members of the Conservative Party. We called for an inquiry into Islamophobia within the party following the London Mayoral election in 2016, and we have documented other examples of Islamophobia in the party, either in blogs, in meetings, or on social media. We, therefore, challenge the assertion that we have scapegoated Muslim communities when our annual reports continue to demonstrate a clear rise in Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred – be it in crimes, incidents, or acts of discrimination.

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We are aware that there has been a significant upsurge in hostilities in the region and with Palestinians and Israelis affected. Whilst we have no control over what happens in the Middle East, so we acknowledge that British Jews have no control or influence over the Middle East. They are simply bystanders who believe that they should be able to live without fear within our country and this is a right that everyone should enjoy.

We ask that we all remain vigilant against antisemitic and any forms of hate at this time. We owe our Jewish brothers and sisters the dignity and care at this time to ensure that they feel safe and secure as citizens and as people who form a core part of our local communities.

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Cllr Potts who sat on a religious education committee retweeted a number of highly inflammatory and anti-Muslim tweets and the fact that he retweeted a number of them is particularly troubling.

He was suspended from his own Conservative group in September of this year, though it has transpired that the Conservative Party have re-admitted him into the fold. This within 2 months of his suspension.

One of the tweets that Cllr Potts retweeted, included text saying that Muslims should be ‘deported and repatriated’. The text clearly marked out all Muslims.

Whilst we believe that individuals can apologise and genuinely learn from their mistakes, his re-admittance within 2 months of suspension, is too soon and shows a local Party detached from the impacts of his actions and how they tarnish the good work of so many other Conservative councillors. Furthermore, what assurances has Cllr Potts provided that he will not indulge in the promotion of such toxic material in the future? Additionally, what kind of guidance and supervision has he been provided to ensure that he truly realises what the impacts of his actions have been on wider communities?

Lastly, it is essential that Cllr Potts put out a statement on why he has changed or why he believes he will not carry out such actions in the future. The public elected him – they need to see him step up and show them that he will not follow the same path again.

The post Re-admittance of Cllr Jeff Potts to the Conservatives Is Troubling appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The abuse continued even when the victim’s daughter stands up to the abuser and says that her mother is disabled. His response was, “I don’t care whether shees f******g disabled or not – if I tell her to get out she gets out”.

The response from RyanAir staff was pitiful and ended up with the perpetrator remaining on the flight and the victim being moved out of her seat. At no point can staff be seen to challenge the individual and move him off the flight.

The incident re-enforces the need for RyanAir staff to feel confident enough to challenge and remove racist perpetrator’s off their planes. In this incident, it was the victim who was moved and the response was inadequate and re-enforced in the mind of the perpetrator, a view that aggression and racism leads to a result. We call on RyanAir to review their training and support to staff after this incident, so that they can feel confident in challenging racist customers on their flights.

The post Pitiful Response from RyanAir Staff Shows That Staff Need Training in Dealing with Racism appeared first on TELL MAMA.

We have previously highlighted how the grooming issues have created a backlash against ordinary Muslims and whilst there is a collective need to challenge the behaviours of predatory men, there have also been much wider impacts in areas such as Rotherham. Many Muslim women in Rotherham have voiced their experiences of being targeted for anti-Muslim hate.

The language of the Home Secretary, contained with the following tweet, is not acceptable. Whilst we believe that the Home Secretary meant that ‘no no-go’ areas equated to a desire to discuss anything – the terminology can be misread as re-enforcing ‘Sharia no-go zones’, which is an anti-Muslim trope. Such a tweet is therefore extremely confusing and further exacerbated issues by the use of ‘sick Asian paedophiles’.

Nobody disagrees with the facts. There have been a number of cases that have involved South Asian males and these cases have been used by far right groups to target innocent Muslims. Let us also be mindful that grooming is an issue across all communities, with the highest percentage of groomers being white males. Which is why as the Home Secretary, his tweet comments should have been more measured, given the position he holds and given that individuals will be influenced by the Home Secretary’s comments.

The current atmosphere in our country is polarised. The last thing we need is language that can be misread, abused or used to fan the flames of division. We agree with much that the Home Secretary does on tackling hate crimes, including anti-Muslim hate or Islamophobia, but on this matter, we disagree. We all need to ensure that communities feel accepted and respected at this time, whilst the victims of grooming should be first and foremost in our minds.

At this moment in time, our thoughts are with the victims and their families. That is where the focus should be and not to politicise this issue. We need an open debate on these issues, but not at the expense of other people and communities.

These sick Asian paedophiles are finally facing justice. I want to commend the bravery of the victims. For too long, they were ignored. Not on my watch. There will be no no-go areas https://t.co/cZGqDOxt4u

— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) October 19, 2018

Getting some accuracy on what is a deeply emotive issue:
1. Grooming gangs have damaged young innocent lives.
2. There seems to be an over-represention of South Asian males in grooming gangs. Worrying
3. Most people involved in grooming are white males.

— TellMAMAUK (@TellMamaUK) October 19, 2018

4. We need better safeguarding measures.
5. There are NO 'no-go zones' and this plays to anti-Muslim bigotry.
6. Our hearts go out to young people so damaged by grooming.
7. Unless we come to terms with what drives the grooming gangs, the far right will use such issues.

— TellMAMAUK (@TellMamaUK) October 19, 2018

8. We need to speak out about the grooming gangs. For the victims and to challenge the groomers and extremist groups using this issue.
9. Please, please realise that young lives are affected. Stand and empathise with THEM.

Thanks for your feedback. Stay well.

— TellMAMAUK (@TellMamaUK) October 19, 2018

The post Home Secretary Needs to Be More Measured in His Messages – Grooming appeared first on TELL MAMA.

We within Tell MAMA have become increasingly aware of ‘bot accounts’ that are well organised and whose language is based on promoting anti-Muslim hatred and in seeking to foment hate and amplify extremist messages against this faith community in the UK. The text circulated within these accounts also seems to be scripted to maximise fear and intolerance, just as the @SouthLoneStar account did just after the Westminster terror attack and which is highlighted in the Times article today.

We had highlighted the incident of the young Muslim female on a phone after the Westminster attack and how the @SouthLoneStar account was the nexus point for the promotion of anti-Muslim hate against the young woman who was pictured in the photo walking across Westminster Bridge just after the attack. The tweet from the @SouthLoneStar account was repeatedly circulated on social media and spawned a whole range of Nazi and anti-Muslim memes that mocked the Muslim woman, (herself a victim of the Westminster attack as she saw the carnage that had unfolded in front of her), leading to a heightened sense of fear and post-traumatic shock in the young woman. This led to us having to manage press sources for her and ensure that her voice was heard when she was at her most vulnerable.

Statement from Muslim Woman on Westminster Bridge After the 2017 Terrorist Attack

The @SouthLoneStar account, which had amassed 16,500 followers,  emanated from Russia and not from Texas which was the front cover used on the tweet. It was a deliberate attempt to stir up community tensions at a time of a major terrorist attack on our capital and the objective was to pit communities against each other. Another such account that sought to sew such hatred into the online space included @DavidJo52951945 . Responses to the rhetoric on this account, called for violent action against Islamic institutions and on August 30^th 2017, the Times reported that this bot possibly originated from Russia.

The @SouthLoneStar account used the major hashtags (#PrayForLondon and #Westminster) to post tweets which described Islam as a ‘cult of death’ and added the #BanIslam hashtag. An earlier tweet called for Islam to be ‘outlawed’. An archive of the @SouthLoneStar account in January 2017 revealed many pro-Trump tweets and how the account had followed a far-right account named @pepethetroll, which remains active on the platform. Nor was the anti-Muslim content specific to the United States or even Britain. Further archive research of the account reveals that the @SouthLoneStar had attempted to stir-up anti-Muslim views in other European countries. For example, on 11 March 2017, @SouthLoneStar used the ‘#BanIslam’ and ‘#Rotterdam’ hashtags in a tweet which shared an image of about Muslim conquests and the Crusades.

The Guardian first reported that the @SouthLoneStar account was the “creation of the Internet Research Agency, a Russian “troll army” based in St Petersburg who are paid to create modern disinformation campaigns.

We believe that whilst these are some examples of Twitter and social media accounts promoting direct anti-Muslim hatred, we need to maintain vigilance against foreign interference, in these cases, emanating from Russia, which seek to promote division and intolerance in the UK.

The post A Times Investigation Confirms What We Said: Russian Interference Involves Targeted Anti-Muslim Hate appeared first on TELL MAMA.

We have seen both political parties, Labour and the Conservatives, alienate both Jews and Muslims. Who would have thought that in 2018, we would have a situation where senior Conservative and Labour politicians would be making comments about the ‘burqa’ as women looking like ‘letter boxes’ and where antisemitism would be denied or reduced.

As Party seasons kicks into swing, let us hope that the politics of hope overcomes the politics of hate. The country is divided over Brexit and over how many see the future of our nation. These are turbulent times, but we need level heads and political discourse that brings people together, rather than dividing communities and religious groups.

The post To UK Political Parties: We need the politics of Hope and Not Hate appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The important paragraphs are below:

“Our initial proposal for implementing this, which we were slated to present to staff at the end of the month, focuses on addressing dehumanizing speech – that is, speech that treats or describes others as less than human. We’re focusing on this first for a few reasons, including: academic research has consistently linked dehumanization with violence, (Boris beware after your recent comments about Niqab wearing women being ‘letterboxes’.

“In the history of mass violence, dehumanization consistently precedes acts of violence; dehumanizing hate speech affects not only the direct targets of the speech, but also the wider society that witnesses the speech”.

This may prove to be a significant development but we will watch closely to see if Twitter does indeed make efforts to clamp-down on dehumanising language – be it against individuals or minority groups more broadly.

The post Twitter Seeks to Address ‘Dehumanizing Speech’ appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Three weeks have now elapsed and public confidence within sections of Muslim communities is being critically affected. This is becoming more and more vocalised within mainstream sections of Muslim communities. When this starts to happen, it is clear that inaction is interpreted as complacency or worse, as a disregard for their concerns.

It is essential that any political party be seen to act quickly and with vigour and determination to root out issues of bigotry or discrimination. The Conservatives have stated that cases have been at local levels and that people have been suspended, though, in some of these cases, final decisions on investigations have not been taken. Furthermore, this argument also misses a key point. That trust and confidence from Muslim communities are dropping and that will affect future potential candidates applying to be part of mainstream political parties. In other words, how representative will the Conservatives be in the next 5 years is a pertinent question and even more pertinent since they are in power.

We are therefore urging that the Conservatives set up a panel who can lead work for a ‘root and branch’ review of processes and systems to weed out candidates and members who subscribe to bigoted, racist, Islamophobic, and prejudiced views. There are further recommendations that we are willing to make if there is a seriousness to act. We believe that there is, though there cannot be any more delays in enacting this review. Time is seriously running out and each day brings a detachment of trust between the Conservative Party and Muslim communities. 

The post A ‘Root and Branch Review’ Within the Conservatives Needs to be Undertaken for Public Confidence appeared first on TELL MAMA.

At the start of this decade, it was virtually impossible for social media companies to even assist police forces with investigations, and they provided no help and assistance when postings originated from overseas. Even today, Twitter is unable to assist or even acknowledge fundamental problems on its platform. For example, Twitter cannot stop an individual from opening up new accounts when the individual has been banned or blocked from their previous account/s. Not only are they powerless to assist, they have made no effort to patch these huge weaknesses in their platforms that are impacting on the lives of many people across the globe. An independent regulator is therefore warmly welcomed by Tell MAMA and will ensure that social media companies can be further held to account within the UK. It is time that they realise that the ‘Wild West’ days of social media companies generating enormous profits whilst doing nothing to reduce hate, are well and truly over.

The post We Back the Call for a Regulator to Oversight Social Media Companies appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Our primary duty is to support those who have experience anti-Muslim hatred, racism, bigotry, or Islamophobia, whilst acknowledging and exposing how institutional and structural forms of this prejudice manifest which can harm the aspirations and life experiences of Muslims in the UK. This has been highlighted in the successive annual reports we publish each year.

Our Ramadan message, posted in May, stated that we will continue to acknowledge the lived experiences of those who use our support service, a consistent thread which drives our work.

But we have we have also called for an inquiry into anti-Muslim prejudice within the Conservative Party before. We made this recommendation following the London mayoral election campaign on May 6, 2016.

Two years later, on this same day, we called on Cllr Rosemary Carroll to be expelled from the Conservative Party if she failed to apologise for sharing a racist cartoon on Facebook.

Nor have we been afraid to criticise governmental policy – notably in 2015 when the Counter-Terrorism & Security Bill was debated in parliament. We have also raised concerns about a top-down, highly centralised implementation of the Prevent Duty. That year, we also called on the Department for Education to do more to combat anti-Muslim and racist bullying within schools.

We have also spoken out when praise is needed, as with the Hate Crime Action Plan. The government has also taken welcome steps to prevent anti-Muslim extremists from entering the UK – be it from the United States or Poland. And we praised the tightening of laws to combat social media trolling and abuse.

The news section of our website and our social media platforms have highlighted examples of where such prejudices have manifested within political parties (including the Conservative Party), and the swift action to suspend prospective candidates or councillors.

In fact, we even exposed more recent evidence of the anti-Muslim views expressed by the former Conservative councillor Mike Payne, which we forwarded to the Conservative Party to aid their investigation. Or when other Conservative councillors have been accused of spreading hatred online.

We criticised the decision to invite the anti-Muslim extremist Tapan Ghosh into parliament.

We are not reliant on government funding, contrary to reports. Several charitable trusts have recognised the quality of our work and provide us with the funds to deliver our services nationwide.

Our social media accounts have also drawn attention to this issue among politicians, peers, councillors, or prospective electoral candidates, and not just among Conservative candidates – as it extends to other political parties also.

We have spoken out and drawn attention to when Muslim politicians have been racially abused or threatened irrespective of their political affiliation.

Tackling racism and other forms of hatred requires coalition building, and we will continue with that ethos, as we also continue in our efforts to expose injustice where we find it.

Any inquiry into racism, antisemitism, or anti-Muslim hatred within any mainstream political party should be encouraged, and the government should embrace the chance to reassure Muslim communities that anti-Muslim prejudice is not welcome in the Conservative Party.

The post We called for an inquiry by the Conservatives into Anti-Muslim Prejudice in 2016, it’s now time to deliver appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Tell MAMA looks at how anti-Muslim hatred, racism, bigotry, and discrimination impacts on people, property, institutions and the mental, psychological and physical health of people. Which brings us onto the following – anyone suggesting that anti-Muslim hatred does not exist is playing fast and loose with the facts. The facts are clearly listed in the series of reports that we have put together on the back of hard data and evidence from victims which can be found here, here and here. These are just a few examples of the numerous reports that we have put out. Collectively, we have documented over 6 years of material in this area of work.

Tell MAMA stands up for Muslims in the UK facing hatred, racism, and prejudice. Our work on quantifying this problem and bringing it into public debates remains necessary and unrivalled in scope.

Undermining any form of prejudice, hatred, or racism must be challenged.

Criticism of religion (like freedom of expression) remains a fundamental human right, enshrined in Article 10, but so is the right to practise any religious belief free from bigotry, hatred, or violence (Article 9). This freedom extends to the right to wear religious clothing, the right to speak openly about your beliefs or to partake in religious worship.

We also note that our founder was cited around his comments on antisemitism within some sections of Muslim communities. His comments reflect a need to challenge all forms of hatred wherever they are found. His work in setting up Tell MAMA, have led to his harassment and targeting for years, simply for pushing back against anti-Muslim hatred. We also note how a handful of individuals and organisations use the politics of division by citing the reference and by-passing the years of work done by Fiyaz Mughal in challenging anti-Muslim hatred head-on and in ensuring that we can monitor and measure it, whilst supporting victims at point of need. 

The last thing victims of anti-Muslim hatred need are the politics of division, despair and cynicism. They need our support and our collective care.

The post Anti-Muslim Hatred Does Exist – We Are the Evidence appeared first on TELL MAMA.

As a body countering hatred, prejudice and intolerance,  we believe that it is important to state something that is patently obvious to us, though which is used to create hierarchies of hate today. For example, thirty years ago, within anti-racism campaigns and agencies, the issue of antisemitism and the need to counter it, was always discussed. Today, it seems that anti-racist organisations have dropped any real consideration of antisemitism as racism, as though Jewish communities are suddenly the ones ‘doing the oppressing’ and inadvertently this also plays to antisemitic tropes of ‘Jews being all powerful’. This is how toxic antisemitism has entered parts of the left in our country. 

The fact is this. Jewish communities have protections in law, as do Sikh communities, around religiously and aggravated offences. The bar for prosecution for the former is lower than the bar for the latter. Jewish communities are therefore covered by provisions by the Race Relations Acts. This was established in the judgement in Mandla v. Dowell Lee (1983), where Jewish and Sikh communities were regarded as distinct racial groups. So, you could factually say that antisemitism is racism. It really is as simple as that.

The post Antisemitism is Racism – Let’s Call It What It Is appeared first on TELL MAMA.

“To hear Jon Lansman go on the media and describe the demonstration outside Westminster as an ‘antiracist’ demonstration made my blood run cold.

“Because in that demonstration I saw again and again people who I knew who were absolute enemies of Muslims, enemies of people of colour, enemies of our tolerant society”

The quote is taken from a video which appeared on Facebook on April 4.

So, we have to ask, does Jackie Walker think that we are enemies of a tolerant society? Are we absolute enemies of Muslims when we have been working for over 6 years tackling anti-Muslim hate, instead of speaking to Facebook about challenging anti-Muslim hate, rather than challenging hate. Finally, many of the staff in Tell MAMA are people of colour and so how divisive is her language?

The fact is this. Where many members of a community feel the need to rally and demonstrate on an issue of key concern, we should be there. This is particularly the case when it involves something of central concern such as antisemitism. This is why the Tell MAMA staff and team attended the Enough is Enough rally and why we felt the need to stand in solidarity. 

We also take umbrage with the assertion that those who attended the rally are the enemies of Muslims, as though people who stand against anti-Semitism, must be anti-Muslim. This is toxic talk and we have had people approach us with this ‘them and us’ world view. It has not been easy to differentiate, particularly early on in our work, though we have learnt that not everyone approaching us has positive social action in their minds. There are some who seek to ‘help Muslims’ with other objectives in mind. We don’t need their help as we do not need people like Jackie Walker speaking on behalf of Muslims. 

The post Jackie Walker, if People Attending the Anti-Semitism Rally Are Anti-Muslim, What About Us? appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The racist and anti-Muslim nature of the attack on Mrs Hussein has left her with life-changing injuries. It has had a deep impact on her family, with the family supported by our service, which has included a letter of support for the courts, and providing ongoing emotional support.

We advocated on behalf of the family to ensure to Leicestershire Police investigated the attack as an anti-Muslim hate crime. And advocated for the attack to be investigated as a terrorist incident in November 2017.

Iman Atta OBE, Director of Tell MAMA, said: “This conviction will help bring closure to a truly shocking act of anti-Muslim violence where a person desired to kill an innocent woman for nothing more than the colour of her skin and religious identity. The road to recovery will remain but we will continue to offer our support to the family..

Moving forward, we also aim to work with Leicestershire Police to improve their understanding of anti-Muslim hatred and ensure that individuals and families get the support they need when they experience a hate crime.”

For press enquiries please contact info@tellmamauk.org

The post Tell MAMA statement on the Paul Moore guilty verdict appeared first on TELL MAMA.

“This was a terrorist attack. You intended to kill.

“Mr Ali’s family said they could not imagine the trauma he felt as he died.”

The Judge also said that Osborne had “planned a suicide mission” and that he believed that he would have been shot and killed in his attempts to kill as many Muslims as possible in a terrorist attack. The Judge went onto add that:

“(Osborne) had been rapidly radicalised over the internet by those determined to spread hatred of Muslims”. 

This though is telling. Justice Grubb said:

“Your use of Twitter exposed you to racists and anti-Islamic ideology,” she added.

“In short, you allowed your mind to be poisoned by those who claimed to be leaders.”

In short, if Twitter thinks it is business as usual after this case, it better think again. Tommy Robinson’s account need shutting and if not, Twitter will have crossed a line from no return and opened itself up to potential legal claims.

The post No Twitter – After the Darren Osborne Terrorist Attack, It is not business as usual appeared first on TELL MAMA.

In general, people would assume that someone who works in a position of this responsibility and with members of the public, might want to refrain from putting up bigoted and prejudiced statements, especially if they want to be taken seriously.

A translation of Facebook comments by Olinski show that anti-Muslim bigotry sadly pervades into people who have settled into the UK and in this case, from someone of Polish heritage. As we have highlighted before, we are concerned how far right groups are actively trying to engage and tout sections of settled Polish communities in the UK and within Poland itself. 

In a response to a report about a group of Muslims in Greece being beaten up by football hooligans, whilst they were in a procession trying to celebrate the Birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, (Milad un Nabi), Olinski, posted the following comments on his Facebook page:

“Well done. Chase those animals off the streets. Besides, any demonstrations require official registration. If you let ‘muzzies’ celebrate in the streets without any problems they will soon demand cancelling Christmas, banning mini skirts, removing crosses, etc. That’s what’s happening in Sweden at the moment. Swedes don’t even put up their flags anymore because they’re scared of offending those animals. It is a nasty, parasitical nation, regardless of their nationality. If you don’t believe me, get yourself a plane ticket to Malmo and spend some time among them.”

The “intro” on his Facebook page states:

“A therapist helping people to come out of emotional downs, frustration and lack of confidence!”

We are sure some of his patients may think different after reading this.

The post How Anti-Muslim Bigotry Percolates into Other Migrant Communities appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Whilst there is the real possibility of demonstrations and community tensions, the fact that the President of the United States has circulated far right material, means that it makes a mockery of the country’s counter-extremism strategy which has become one of the bedrocks of Government policy in the fight against extremism and terrorism. If we are hold people to account and standards, then the President of the United States, should also be held to account since in the end, no-one is above the law in this country.

We urge politicians to seriously rethink the invitation to Trump and we understand that the relationship with the United States is much wider than one President at a specific moment in time. Yet, the fact remains that the ‘special relationship’ with the United States will remain and that has lasted for many decades. It will last beyond Trump and irrespective of whether the invitation is withdrawn. At the very least, withdrawing that invitation will mean that we maintain the standards and the framework by which we protect our core values. One of these is that intolerance towards other faiths is not acceptable. By retweeting Britain First, the President has brought into question his adherence to this core value.

The post We Urge Politicians to Rethink the Invitation to Trump appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Tweets from our account last night were unbecoming of the standards we set for ourselves as an organisation dedicated to challenging this form of bigotry. The wording was unacceptable and we acknowledge how this has caused many a great deal of upset and in subsequent tweets. For that, we apologise profusely.

Muslims of all ages are at risk of discrimination in educational institutions, in the workplace, and near their homes when accessing public and private services. This goes beyond being passed over for roles, and often consists of ongoing ‘low-level’ abuse and mistreatment met with ignorance from those in authoritative and managerial roles when these issues are highlighted. In one report to our service, a woman was labelled a ‘troublemaker’ by management because she raised the racist bullying she had faced from a male colleague. We do support individuals on discrimination issues, be it in schools or the workplace, and in our 2016 annual report, we had 46 cases or 7 percent of verified reports we classified as discriminatory in nature.

Anti-Muslim hatred has the effect of limiting the geographic mobility of victims, meaning that they are frequently less willing to travel around particular areas they consider risky or become anxious about leaving their own neighbourhood for fear of victimisation. This would appear to intersect with factors such as Islamic visibility (i.e. the wearing Islamic clothing), meaning that often it is women whose geographic mobility is restricted. The impact of ongoing ‘low-level’ harassment and discrimination can have a serious impact on mental wellbeing as they are often less able to escape victimisation in their own neighbourhood, at school or in the workplace.

The impact of anti-Muslim incidents, whether violent or otherwise, can be very significant to victims. Police responding to reports of anti-Muslim incidents, and indeed any hate incident, need to consider the deeper mental and emotional impacts aggravated offences have on victims and further training in these areas may be required by forces.

There is evidence within our dataset to show how a casual reference to terrorism directed at Muslims can, on occasion, escalate to more serious, false and sometimes malicious accusations of extremism, which could have potentially serious repercussions for the individuals they are directed at. While there have been many cases in which young people needed safeguarding from extremist views, we have received numerous accounts of Muslim individuals being disingenuously reported as ‘suspected terrorists’ as a form of Islamophobic abuse.

The problem of anti-Muslim hatred and racism is not going away, but we have always prided ourselves on standing in solidarity with other minorities to ensure that all forms of racism, bigotry, and discrimination are challenged, and the individuals who experience it get the necessary support, be it emotional or through the mechanisms of the criminal justice service. Empowering minority communities, not demonising them is what we must always aspire towards and we fell short of that. We encourage dialogue and while we may disagree with some, this fight against racism and hatred requires mutuality, tolerance and respect.

The poorly worded tweets will now be reviewed internally as they were not appropriate or in line with the values of our work, and action will be taken to avoid such statements in the future.

The post A statement on our work and social media appeared first on TELL MAMA.

IPSO has dismissed complaints made by members of the public on the article, effectively saying that because Kavanagh did not target an individual for discriminatory speech and language, but rather a group, the article was not grounds for discrimination. The ruling cites the following:

“15. The Committee noted the complainant’s concern that the article discriminated against Muslims. Clause 12 of the Code protects identifiable individuals from discrimination; it does not relate to discrimination against groups or categories of people. The complainant’s concern that the article discriminated against Muslims in general did not breach Clause 12.”

Tell MAMA has issued the following statement on this ruling:

“IPSO’s ruling once again shows that it cares little about the intolerance that is shown to groups of people by some commentators and that unless a person is clearly targeted for discriminatory language in an article, it will not really act. So, suggestions of a “Muslim problem”, in IPSO’s eyes, mean that such language is not discriminatory and that since a group of people are being cited, there is no action that they can take. IPSO takes the view that people as a group who are maligned, have no right to protection through their complaints process, further undermining any real credibility in this group. Such decisions are also disengaging its relevance from many communities and making it slowly become the dinosaur it looks to be in a rapidly changing set of social dynamics.”

The post Tell MAMA Comments on IPSO Ruling on Trevor Kavanagh Article About “The Muslim Problem” appeared first on TELL MAMA.

We also recently highlighted the detention and deportation of former priest Jacek Miedlar who is active in Wroclaw and who has previously connected with and developed links with Jayda Fransen of Britain First. Miedlar was detained in February of this year as he arrived in the UK and sent back to Poland after an invitation by Britain First to march with them through the town of Telford.

Fransen, it seems, is happy to share a platform and call as a friend, the virulent anti-Semite Miedlar, who on the 11th of October 2017, made the following statement in the Polish city of Wroclaw. Mixing antisemitism and far-right nationalism with the commemoration of Polish Independence Day, Miedlar said:

“The fact that there can be synagogues here, on our Polish soil, the fact that Jews can revel in Talmudic hate inside them, is only a result of our tolerance bordering on lack of caution. Let them know that the streets are ours! Dear football fans, dear patriots, be merciless! Be radical in your fight against evil, against falsehood, against injustice, against lawlessness, against the destruction of Polish justice system and against Talmudism. We are at a war between good and evil and no Jewish Marxist horde will take away our flag or trample on Christ’s cross.”

An excerpt of the speech can be found HERE.

Such rabid antisemitism and threats against a very tiny number of Jews in Poland, should not only shock us, it should move us into action. Over 3 million Polish Jews were murdered in the country and from a population of 3.3 million Jews in Poland prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, it is estimated that about 300,000 survived, what was to become the mechanised murder of European Jewry on a scale never seen. Furthermore, Miedlar’s fascination with Fransen has extended into long drawn out statements from her which he has posted on his sites. An example of one is highlighted below where Fransen turns onto the issue of Muslims in Britain.

“With the Islamization of Britain, we meet in almost every corner of our country. Starting from the colonisation of our cities and our towns, and ending with the epidemic gangs who are ruthlessly raping and torturing our children. Islam is used as both a shield and a sword. What does it mean?  Shield to defend against Muslims accused in the case of child molestation and public unrest, which is translated as “cultural misunderstanding.” Islam is also used as a sword in implementating (sic) the culture and traditions such as the presence of Sharia Law and to use churches for Muslim prayer.”

Fransen was seen at the same event a few days ago with Miedlar on the stage and with affectionate grins towards each other before she starts to speak from the paper on which she has scrawled her speech. True to form, she picks on the strong sense of Polish nationalism that far-right activists like Fransen use to blur the lines between pride in national history and culture and outright hatred towards other groups in society. She said:

“Polish nationalism is like no other country I have visited………Whilst most of Europe has fallen to political correctness and Islam, Poland has remained a strong, traditional, Christian nation.”

“And as we celebrate Remembrance weekend back in Britain, we will pay tribute to the brave Polish Spitfire pilots who fought courageously to defend our skies during the battle of Britain.”

Shame nobody forgot to remind her that if the Polish pilots were alive today, their form of national pride would be far from the hatred and intolerance demonstrated by Fransen and her anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim friend, Miedlar. Of that, we can be sure.

The post Jayda Fransen Shares Platform & Friendship with Firebrand Antisemitic Former Priest, Jacek Miedlar appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The fact that marchers flew in from various parts of Europe – including Jayda Fransen who was pictured next to Marian Lukasik, the London based Britain First activist. Organised by a group called the National Radical Camp, many in the demonstration suggested to news agencies that they were not part of far-right groups, though the nationalistic themes promoted by far-right groups resonated with them. It was also co-organised by a Polish youth group called ‘All-Polish Youth’, with social media accounts of sympathisers of both groups promoting rabidly antisemitic and anti-Muslim sentiments. The banners that were carried during the organisation also promote a view that Jews, migrants and Muslims, for example, would not be welcome in a Poland shaped by such polarising and extreme groups.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, one of the handful of counter-protestors, who happened to be Jewish said,

“We are really in fear”

The comment was made as police ringed the 30 or so counter protestors for their own safety.

The National Radical Camp has also held events to mark a pogrom against Jews in 1936, showing roots based in Nazi ideology and one of their recent banners that they unfurled over a bridge in Warsaw read,

“Pray for Islamic Holocaust”

We simply cannot sit back and allow the history and future of Poland to be reshaped by those who hate and in a country where over 3 million Jews and Roma were murdered in concentration camps. Men and women in Poland continue to state that they were not responsible for the annihilation of Polish Jewry and blame the Holocaust solely on the Germans. The reality is that many in Poland also colluded and kept the Nazi war machinery working, including the murder of Jews and Roma. Now is the time to stand up and make clear that never again will far-right extremism, Nazi ideology or hatred against Jews and other communities, take root in this proud nation. We all must do what we can to ensure that the forces of light win over the forces of darkness – if not only for the safety and security of Europe but for the memory of those who are not with us today and who were murdered in the death camps in Poland.

The post Far-Right Polish March Organised by Antisemitic & Anti-Muslim Group Draws in Tens of Thousands in Warsaw appeared first on TELL MAMA.

How Bob Blackman hosted and thereby validated Mr Ghosh, is yet to be looked into, though what makes matters even more unpalatable, is that Blackman is a member of the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) committee. One of the functions of DCLG is to ensure the integration of communities and to ensure that British values of tolerance are protected, maintained and built upon. How Blackman, who sits on this Committee, could not be aware of Ghosh’s anti-Muslim hatred, is deeply concerning. For example, Ghosh has spoken about controlling the birth rate of Muslims, praised the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and even suggested that Muslims should be forced to leave their religion if they come to a western country. Simply put, would the latter view then apply to other faiths or just to Muslims? It is pretty clear that Mr Ghosh was the ‘intolerant’ in an event called, ‘Tolerating the Intolerant’.

Mr Ghosh’s militancy based on his skewed views of Muslims also extended to the creation of a ‘Hindu Defence Force’ which he allegedly set up in response to ‘Muslim violence’. In a Twitter post that the Times reported on, Ghosh even stated that,

“Backwardness is the most powerful ‘weapon’ of Islam. Rohingyas are glaring example.”

This is who Bob Blackman MP hosted and in doing so,  legitimised.

What Do We Call For?

We are calling for the following:

• That Parliament’s Sergeant-at-Arms open up a formal investigation into how Ghosh came to be in Parliament and that some serious questions be asked of Bob Blackman MP. The investigation should then be published as a learning tool for other MP’s.
  
• That Blackman be removed from the DCLG Committee that he sits on, until he can explain his actions and apologise for hosting an anti-Muslim extremist in our country’s Parliament.
• That all MP’s and their offices receive a notice from the Sergeant-at-Arms regarding undertaking due diligence checks on speakers whom they invite in.
• That Blackman contact us and meet with a Rohingya refugee, to listen first hand at the appalling genocide that has been conducted against this defenceless people by Burma’s military junta, which itself has been legitimised by Aung Saan Su Kyi.
  

We leave you with this thought. Just imagine if an Islamist extremist had been hosted in Parliament by an MP. Today’s newspapers would, rightly, splash the story all over their front pages. Exactly how is this different?

The post How Could Bob Blackman MP Host an Anti-Muslim Extremist in Parliament? appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Yet, an e-petition has been drafted that has over 5,600 objections citing parking and noise concerns. These are legitimate concerns that some may hold, but no-one can deny that such a focus on the Centre has drawn in anti-Muslim bigots, some of whom may be local residents in the London Borough of Barnet. For example, petitioners left the following statements on the e-petition:

“don’t want….installation of a mosque – an embassy for Muslims from which they learn hatred and warfare against the infidel”

Further comments showed a bigoted nature towards Muslims as though simply buying a historical centre for an Islamic Shia Centre was ‘provocative’ and as though those who would use the Centre are not fellow citizens who happen to be Muslim.

Jihadist Comments

Some of the comments left on the e-petition show the ignorance of those making them. For example, some comments suggested that the Centre would turn into a den of extremists and others suggested that extremism was being imported into the area, without even considering the fact that violent Jihadist extremism has targeted Shia communities historically. Shia communities have therefore been targeted by Daesh and IS and prior to this group, by Al-Qaeda.

Our call is therefore for the heated rhetoric to change into dialogue with the community group who have purchased the building. They clearly are not going anywhere, nor are local residents and the only way forward is to talk, listen and reconcile a way forward so that concerns are addressed and that the anti-Muslim bigotry of some stop! This issue cannot be used as a staging post for haters to push their hatred into this peaceful and cohesive borough.

The post Golders Green Hippodrome Furore Shows Bigotry is Not Far From Any Community appeared first on TELL MAMA.

To give context to the Independent article, it is important to state the following given the fact that there are other issues that drive anti-Muslim sentiment. Terrorism is one, inflammatory media headlines are another and we have seen this when headlines are emblazoned across front pages, only for minute retractions to be printed after IPSO complaints. Such work, (of holding to account stories that are not factually correct and meant to sell more newspapers or drive more traffic to a website), is essential and we salute those who carry out this vital work since it does help to reframe facts from fiction. There are a growing number of activists from Muslim and non-Muslim communities doing this and we value their much-needed work with the hope that it continues in the future.

We also understand that many people focus on the role of inflammatory and inaccurate media coverage. This does not make them Islamists, nor should their work be curtailed since holding to account the powerful is a fundamental plank of a healthy democracy, while we primarily focus on supporting those affected by anti-Muslim hate crime, we also use our platform to challenge press inaccuracies, or when hate crime spikes occur in other major political events, be it domestically or internationally.

What is a problem, is when some believe that the media is the only driver, as others may choose to deny or even acknowledge the lasting impacts of terrorisms on communities and individuals, either directly or indirectly. Some may feel that terrorism is not their responsibility, and that is their position to hold. We understand such a position but digress, as it is still our desire to challenge those who seek division through acts of terroristic violence, and how such hatreds manifest, and we remain committed to challenging all forms of hatred.

Some may seek to avoid the issue or seek to position themselves as the loudest community voice, when the voices that need to be heard loudest, are those directly impacted by anti-Muslim hatred, abuse, and hate crime.

Additionally, it is clear is that the vast majority of anti-Muslim hate incidents are opportunistic in nature and where individuals come across visible Muslims. In many of the cases that we have worked on, a language related to terrorist attacks is thrown at visible Muslims, such as “you were responsible for Manchester”. The link between terrorism, opportunism, and perpetrators feeling emboldened is clear. Some may feel emboldened due to press articles and comment pieces which blame all Muslims for extremism and terrorism or framing Muslim communities as culturally threatening or culturally at odds with Britain. As for others, they may have come across far-right extremist material or anti-Muslim rhetoric on social media pages or websites. Causation factors are many, including terrorism. It is neither one or another, but a combination of factors.

The post Anti-Muslim Hatred, Terrorism, Media Sources, Far Right Networks & Spike Points appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Within Islamic law, a woman does not become a woman until she goes through puberty. Some jurists in Islamic law have put this down to 13 plus years of age and this is one of the points that campaigners have used. They firmly believe that girls in primary schools should not be wearing the Hijab and believe it to be divisive. This is an area which will continue to raise arguments on both sides of the debate, though in the end, it is up to schools to decide on their school uniform practices.

Within the same article, Tell MAMA was cited as having dealt with a case where Dr Altay had to remove his daughter from St Saviour’s and St Olave’s school in Southwark. Dr Altay felt that the school had breached its own equality policy, “by telling his daughter that she could not wear the Hijab.”

This case is straightforward in one manner which we will go into. Tell MAMA’s involvement was based on the following. Documentation from the school did not make clear that the Hijab could not be worn and a decision to refuse Dr Altay’s daughter happened on the back of a meeting and with no clear communication with Muslim pupils, nor were there any clear statements on their policy on Hijabs in school uniforms. In other words, the decision to enforce the no-Hijab policy came out of the blue and parents were not made aware at any time of such discussions, nor was there a policy in place. This is the point and why we got involved. There was poor practice around how they dealt with this issue.

Schools in the end can make a decision as to whether Hijabs and religious symbols can be worn. That is something which is clear and which involves local decision-making. What is a problem, is when schools make a decision, poorly communicate this and have no clear policies in place around religious symbolism in schools and how it impacts on the school uniform. It is this which affects families, parents and young people and the Altay case is a good example of this.

This was the full comment provided to the Times on the Altay case. It provides some context:

“For St Saviour’s and St Olaf’s School to systematically fail to have a clear and transparent policy in place around clothing like the Hijab and to then make policy on the hoof when they rejected an 11 year old Muslim female from wearing it, shows reactivity of the worst form. The school has a ‘Cultural Diversity Quality Standard’ in place, but what is the point of such a standard when the most basic elements of policies, such as a transparent and well communicated policy on school uniforms and religious clothing, was missing. It is like sugar coating the top of a cake, which is hollow inside.

This young girl’s parents have now changed school, but the disruption to her and her family are clear. St Saviour’s and St Olaf’s reactive policy making must change and parents simply need to be told and communicated with clearly and in a timely manner.”

Note: St Saviour’s and St Olaf’s have made an amendment to their web-site. As of 03:10 am on the 11/09/2017, the web-site cites the following as part of its school uniform: “Scarf: School scarf only – available from the school office)”.

The post Hijabs in School Uniforms – The Altay Case appeared first on TELL MAMA.

We know that as tensions rise in the Al Haram Al Sharif, (also known as the Temple Mount), there is the potential for Jewish faith institutions or cultural centres to be targeted for graffiti or broken windows or for online anti-Semitic comments. Jewish communities, through the work of the Community Security Trust, have demonstrated that there are links between tensions in the Middle East and a rise in attacks against British Jews. This is unacceptable and everyone who cares about the future of their children and their communities, should feel a revulsion that this is the case. We are therefore re-asserting the fact that the best of Islam and Muslims are based on campaigning for social justice and for the rights of others and at this time, let us re-enforce the fact that British Jews are not responsible for the actions of the Government of Israel and that they have no way of influencing actions in the region at this time. They deserve to live their lives free from fear, intimidation and harassment. They are also part of our local, regional and national family – a family that is based on the belief that what matters – are people and their dignity and care.

It is also clear that the killings of 2 Israeli policemen in the Old City in Jerusalem has led to this position. The trigger factor and the killings of 2 people on duty cannot and should not be regarded as anything other than murder and the pouring of fuel on the emotions of Jews and Muslims, when the Al Haram Al Sharif and Temple Mount mean so much to local Muslims and Jews.

Furthermore, such incidents do not mean that the Government of Israel can be given a free pass for what is an occupation that has gone on for decades and that impacts on Palestinian lives through checkpoints, barriers, reduction of employment opportunities, travel restrictions and the killings of many Palestinians under circumstances that leave questions for their families which are not addressed. Many are young people whose lives have been cut short in violent circumstances. Yet, we also must acknowledge that Israeli Jews have been the subject of terrorism, suicide, rocket and vehicle attacks that have created enormous fear within a population which feels embattled, just as the Palestinians feel and voice on a daily basis. We therefore cannot accept and will not accept the killings of innocents on both sides which makes no-one safe in the region. Justification for any group that kills innocents in the region for political reasons, irrespective of which faith or community they come from, is justification for terrorism and that is never acceptable. Any group in the UK voicing such support for any groups which back the political killings of innocent men and women going about their lives and duties in Israel or Palestine, should be highlighted in their support for terrorism. Let us call it what it is.

That said, British Jews cannot and should not be seen as anything other than friends, citizens, neighbours and partners for a better society in our country, the UK. Whilst Muslims and Jews may have differences of opinions on Israel and Palestine, they can be conducted in a manner of civility and with a belief that we should stand up for each other’s rights if they are undermined in the UK. So we urge those reading this post, that we do all we can to send messages of trust and re-assurance to each other at this time. We cannot be anything other than agents of positive change, caring for our Jewish brothers and sisters at this time in our country.

The post The Al Haram Al Sharif Tensions Must Not Spill into the UK appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The killings in Bosnia has had ramifications for decades in the Balkans. However, let us not forget that the massacre happened in Europe and was another genocide after the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. These were communities that were well integrated and part of German and Yugoslavian society.

Who would have thought that in the mid-1990’s in Europe, another genocide could take place? Yet, these events happen because politicians or leaders foment hate and blame certain communities for the ills that they are suffering. Srebrenica and Rwanda are classic examples of how hatred can spread quickly and rapidly into murderous actions, whilst the Holocaust shows us that a systemised slow burning hatred can be implemented into murderous state policy if a nation believes in the wrong kinds of leaders.

Whilst we remember key events such as Holocaust Memorial Day and Srebrenica Memorial Day, let us not forget how these catastrophies started. They started through hatred which was unchecked and more importantly, seen as ‘normal’ by unquestioning populations. We can never allow the virus of hatred to take root in the UK.

The post Srebrenica Massacre 22 years Ago to the Day is a Reminder to Challenge Hate appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The woman can be heard to take an aggressive tone towards the man filming her and the only person being agitated is the female who seems to have initially flagged down the police officers in Central London. There is a suggestion that the man was running and the camera person makes clear that he was going to the mosque for his prayers and the suspect does not resist, looks shocked and bewildered. No doubt, this video will have impacts on some within Muslim communities. The strong impression given by the video is that Muslims are stopped because of the fears of some who see a visible Muslim acting in ways that they find to be ‘beyond the norm’, as being potentially dangerous. In this case, ‘beyond the norm’ was a man with a beard wearing layers of clothing and who was probably walking at a faster pace.

There is something troubling about the woman’s perceptions. The place to challenge them was not when the officer’s were undertaking the search and the officer’s were, as the man filming says, simply doing their job. The real issue is how a Londoner comes to regard another Londoner as a potential threat in relation to his visibility as a Muslim and whilst wearing two layers of clothing.

Such incidents do nothing to bring communities together. They also show how much work needs to be done to challenge the fears of some people that visible Muslims are somehow a threat if they wear more layers of clothing than others on a hot day. The reality is that some Muslims will naturally wear more layers of clothing, even on a hot day, since they believe it is a manifestation of their faith to cover their bodies.

We understand the real risk to us all from extremism and violent extremism. We have raised our voices time and time again against these threats, whether they be far right or Daesh influenced. But the fears of one woman, who was the person being the most challenging in this video, cannot just be left unchecked as she walks off and the individual going to pray is left feeling confused and frightened by the experience. Londoners deserve better and in the fight against extremism and terrorism, we cannot turn against each other on the basis of visibility and clothing. The woman in this video may feel she was doing her duty and we can understand that and applaud her civic sense of responsibility. However, we cannot accept the basis of her fears and the assumptions she makes by also including the camera-person as another potential suspect and by her belief that a few layers of clothing and a beard mean that someone is potentially a threat. Surely we all deserve better than this?

The fight against extremism and violent extremism needs to be intelligence led. It needs to be based on evidence and on ensuring that sections of populations do not feel marginalised. Such incidents merely fracture trust between communities and we understand the difficulties in the fight against terrorism, but this does not help.The police do a sterling job on a daily basis, however the woman in this video needs to understand that having a beard and wearing layers of clothing do not make someone a natural suspect.

The post Having a Beard and Layers of Clothing Brings Out The Worst Fears in Some appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The Holocaust is a sensitive topic for many Muslims because Jewish survivors settled in British mandate Palestine, on land which later became the state of Israel.

The relevance of linking the state of Israel to the Holocaust and how it is perceived within Muslim communities was perverse to say the least. Holocaust education and awareness is not linked to developments in the Middle East and the assumption completely disregards the diversity of Muslim communities and the large numbers of Muslims who want to know more about the Holocaust. Indeed, the article cites German Muslim girls travelling to Poland to find out more about the Holocaust.

Furthermore, the assumption that all Muslims cannot somehow empathise and feel the pain of the Holocaust in whatever form that takes, suggests that the writer thinks that all Muslims think the same. Additionally, many Muslims can distinguish between the practices of the Government of Israel and the implementation of policies regarding the Occupied Territories and Jewish communities globally. Linking political decisions made in Israel and Palestine to the genocide of Jews in Europe is frankly, sickening. Wherever such blatant linkages are made, they must be challenged and we therefore welcome the quick action of Muslim and Jewish groups and in particular that of the Board of Deputies, which we fully supported.

The BBC is globally seen as a respected news source. The last thing we need is ‘fake news’ creeping into a publicly funded body which promotes divisions between Muslims and Jews.

The post The BBC Should Not Be Promoting ‘Fake News’ About Muslims and Jews appeared first on TELL MAMA.

DOWNLOAD THE TELL MAMA PDF SECURITY BULLETIN: Mosques Security Bulletin 26062017

The post Tell MAMA Security Bulletin for Mosques appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Following the barbaric terrorist attacks in the UK in the last few months, there have been reports of an increase in anti-Muslim hate crime, including messages of hatred online. These attacks show that we need to robustly tackle anti-Muslim hatred. The Finsbury Park terrorist attack is part of this hate crime and it plays into the hands of the terrorists. All terrorist attacks seek to divide us. We must come together to stand against extremism in all forms and continue with our daily lives – including worship during Ramadan – to show the extremists that they will not succeed.

We call on the Government to continue fighting all forms of extremism, including the online far right hatred, and to keep promoting positive messages of how different communities can live together. Likewise, we will continue to work with the Government to tackle bigotry and hatred in all its forms, including anti-Muslim sentiments, and to challenge extremism. Anyone who has experienced a hate crime should report it to the police, whether in person at a police station, by phoning 101 or online, through the police’s reporting portal True Vision. We also urge members to report anti-Muslim hatred to Tell MAMA (www.tellmamauk.org).

Signed by:

Akeela Ahmed

Iftikhar Awan

Dr. Imran Awan

Qari Muhammad Asim MBE

Hayyan Bhabha

Iqbal Bhana OBE DL

Shermeen Butt

Nick Lowles

Riaz Ravat BEM DL

Karim Sacoor

Iman Abou Atta OBE

The post Finsbury Park attack: Statement from the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group appeared first on TELL MAMA.

People sit next to a police cordon near to the Manchester Arena, Britain May 23, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates

There is a link between extremism and hate crime. Far-right anti-Muslim hate has extremist rhetoric that is associated with it, as do other forms of extremism which promote a separationist view of people and communities.

Hate crime work involves empowering the victim. Only by empowering people, can extremist narratives be challenged. Those who play to fears and paranoia in our country are not part of the solution, but are part of the problem.

The post Extremism is a Cancer That We Must All Confront appeared first on TELL MAMA.

It is clear that social media PR bosses completely misjudged the mood of Parliamentarians which had changed over the last year. For over a year, it became clear to us that Parliamentarians were receiving more and more complaints from their electorate about issues with social media. Any public relations professional would have picked up the changing mood in Parliament and particularly on the Home Affairs Select Committee. There was therefore a fundamental failure by these PR bosses of social media companies to assess what was coming their way.

Tell MAMA supports the detailed and pro-active report produced by the HASC committee. The committee has stood up for the rights of individuals and victims and the points made in the report are a serious wake up call for these social media companies which make enormous profits. Furthermore, the HASC committee also took on board our suggestions around financial penalties for social media companies, if there are policing costs because of their inability to act on criminal material. We have always stated that there is a huge financial and social cost because of these platforms and Google, You Tube, Twitter and Facebook have provided no actual funding for policing and civil society costs for their work recording and countering issues such as LGBT hate, anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred. Whilst making huge profits, they have systematically neglected the unnecessary costs to the public purse that their platforms have racked up in the UK. That could not carry on and Tell MAMA has systematically made this case for over 2 years. This point has now been accepted and promoted by the Home Affairs Select Committee.

We thank the members of the HASC for their excellent work and we will continue to stand up for the rights of victims of hate crimes. 

The post Social Media Companies Misjudged the Mood of the Home Affairs Select Committee appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The comments from members of the public, particularly young people, should raise a smile and highlight the pointlessness of the actions of someone with clearly bigoted views, enough so, that he felt that he needed to act on them.

The comments should therefore be a reminder that bigots who carry out such actions are devoid of reality and their actions are seen by the wider public, as pathetic.

Bacon isn't kryptonite for Muslims https://t.co/uoAfcOuW0Y

— Raji Sandhu (@Miss_Raji) April 26, 2017

Man thought bacon would repel Muslims like holy water does with sins https://t.co/ZGZoVREIaY

— Monzo (@MounirMikhael) April 26, 2017

Wow probably the same people who wouldn't feed a homeless person. Would rather waste food being hateful, than feed someone who need it! https://t.co/oCVHqlSwC8

— Go Getter (@180rae) April 26, 2017

Lol as if I'm not going to take it off and just wash my hands. https://t.co/EfyQAyT5VW

— hoemad (@hoaomoaod) April 26, 2017

Blundering in his plan to foil the Muslim, Chad fails to sabotage the more commonly used driver door and instead resolves on the left rear https://t.co/EhlRA8S72D

— NaziPunch MemeStash (@lurktheotherway) April 26, 2017

Do people just always have bacon readily available for when they spot a Muslim? https://t.co/353u3V8cU8

— abdelali (@3lashalii) April 26, 2017

Oh no, how will he open the car door now his hand gonna burn https://t.co/AhctWkWUh3

— rawan (@msmvrvel) April 26, 2017

New logic: Bacon to Muslims is like garlic to vampires & kryptonite to Superman. https://t.co/lJdf9FqwgC

— Sam (@Samhassounn) April 26, 2017

The post Comments by Members of Public on Bacon on Car Handle Should Raise a Smile appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Citing integration and security risks, his focus on the niqab is a cheap ploy to play on the fears of some within communities, as an easy way to win votes.

The reality is that the number of women who wear the niqab in the United Kingdom is unknown and may well be very small. Yet, at a time when the nation needs to heal divides, such policy making is unwelcome and highly divisive. Furthermore, in the end, is it the place of the State or Government or political parties, to judge what a woman can and can’t wear? The answer to that is simply, no.

Our data and our information has also shown time and time again, women who wear the niqab or the face veil, suffer more aggressive anti-Muslim hate incidents and more incidents. Surely, now is the time to stop focussing on these women and try and ensure that we bring people and communities together, rather than building up grievances?

We believe that now is the time to steer away from the politics of what women wear and focus on the policies and principles that can provide opportunities to communities. In the end, what someone wears is their choice. If through their choice, they self-limit their futures then that is something that they have decided for themselves. Ensuring that there are employment opportunities, housing and access to goods and services are where the real policy battles are to be had. Let us stick to those areas which require focus and attention.

The post Legislating for What Women Wear Is Ludicrous. Let’s Stick to Core Issues – UKIP appeared first on TELL MAMA.

In the United States, President Donald Trump has managed to be the lightning rod that has brought Muslims and Jews together, but we know that in the UK, unchecked antisemitism continues, even when we see acts of interfaith solidarity. It exists in overt and covert forms. And is seen through the inability to separate advocacy for Palestine from antisemitic canard. Also, the glib use of ‘Zionist’ against members of Jewish communities without any real knowledge of their opinions.

In fact, just yesterday, a mosque council had produced an openly antisemitic article thinking that free speech and opinion shields criticism. It does not. And we’ve also been targeted by some groups who use this toxic rhetoric to bash Jewish communities under the guise of ‘anti-Zionism’. As if this gives them free reign to smear Jewish communities.

We must not allow this toxic rhetoric to corrode community cohesion. For too long, the issue of Palestine has been exploited by some to intimidate, abuse, and smear groups who believe in dialogue and mutuality.

Jews and Muslims can, should, and must always advocate for the rights and dignity of each community.

In the age of Trump, communities must energise to stand with Jewish counterparts and colleagues, defend Jewish communities and their security and space without hesitation. Time and time again, Jewish communities have done this for Muslims. For example, after the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013, the Bravenese Muslim centre was torched and local Jewish communities in Muswell Hill came to their aid. Just a few days ago, US based Jews gave shelter to Muslims whose mosque was burnt down. This should inspire more frequent acts of interfaith action.

It also means being bold. Challenging those who attempt to undermine such relations. Their negativity and their divisions on the basis of advocating for Palestine – are a ruse. The last thing that Palestinians need are antisemites, separationists and tin-pot campaigners supporting their cause and in doing so, delegitimsing it further. Frankly, the Palestinians deserve better than such advocates.

The post Trump Has Brought Jews & Muslims Together in the US. In the UK We Must be Bold appeared first on TELL MAMA.

It must be said we live in the midst of turbulent times. As forced displacement figures reach all time highs, a distinctly anti-immigrant wave of right-wing populism surges forth to meet it, with big “wins” being witnessed across the leadership board in the Western sphere. Whether the candidacy of figureheads such as Farage and Trump are manifestations of popular sentiment or they managed to successfully exploit times of uncertainty for political gain is another question, but the narrative they promote reaches far and wide into our everyday happenings like a fiendishly twisty ideological octopus.

The point being: the world is becoming paranoid, and the siren of fear, so purposefully manipulated by such politicians, media and other like-minded opportunists, is beginning to deafen us to the point where, apparently, well-grounded reason is no longer audible any more. The EU’s less than adequate handling of a steep influx of migration from both war-torn and economically-destitute countries, i.e. buttressing the existing walls of Fortress Europe and systematically violating human rights law by creating policy that forcibly repatriates vulnerable asylum seekers and migrants, has only worsened the climate for those in need of safe havens. Yet, this closed-minded mentality doesn’t stop at shuttering down the borders, it extends to our everyday interactions to boot. Let’s get into it:

Last week Delta Airlines were at the epicentre of a public affairs scandal following their forced removal of 2 young Arab-American males from a passenger plane heading from London – New York for “speaking a different language”. The language? Arabic. So-acclaimed Youtube star, Adam Saleh and his friend, Slim Albaher, filmed themselves being unceremoniously booted off their flight after a nearby passenger supposedly overheard Adam talking on the phone to his mother and informed him that she was “feeling uncomfortable”. Several other passengers backed her up, some even aggressively so, after which the flight attendants, asked the pair to leave the aircraft, with pilot in tow. Now, Adam Saleh has filmed an array of tongue-in-cheek social experiments around the idea of discrimination against Muslims and anti-Muslim stereotypes, so accounts of the incident vary from source to source. That being said, prankster or no, he sheds important light on the wider phenomenon of Islamophobia that is so prevalent today.

Right now, we sit at the intersection of Islamophobia and mass migration (by those seeking a better life, a large contingent of which are also escaping the brutal Assad regime and the throes of violent persecution, robbed of their sovereignty). It’s up to us to use every weapon in our ethical arsenals to twist free of these exaggerated perceptions thrust upon us and look to each other as human beings, free of misconceptions.

Stop others from co-opting Arabic as the language of fear.

Arabic had a rich heritage before it became so steeped in paranoia. It is the language of poetry, of literature, science, astronomy and philosophy from ancient Arab civilisations. But now, when we hear it, our minds spring to one word: “terrorist”. How have we reduced such a pillar of human development to one caricatured man with a beard and a bomb cowering in the belly of a plane? As an Arabic student, it exasperates me that this beautiful tongue is being tarred with such an ugly reputation, that represents a hugely disproportionate minority of Arabic speakers worldwide.

I say “we”, because it’s only human that after intensive bombardment from Western media circles that frame migration issues in a calculated attempt to create suspicion and fear of ordinary people, we become suspicious and fearful of ordinary people. But we have to challenge ourselves.

My mother recently told me a story about a family she noticed walking through a Texas airport in the wake of the Berlin truck attack, having arrived on a plane from Turkey. They were making their way through the arrivals hall, heads down, avoiding eye contact with other passengers. Perhaps they were just lost in their thoughts, but perhaps they were fearful of reprisals by social vigilantes who might take it upon themselves to “make America great again”. She expressed feeling a deep-seated sadness that they should feel victimised to the extent that they expect harassment before respect, prejudice before mutual tolerance, animosity before openness. She wanted to look them in the eye and reassure them that they were not being held accountable for a militant minority’s actions, but sadly, and understandably, the family kept themselves to themselves and the moment passed. What would you have done?

Twitter reactions via hashtags such as #DeltaIntolerance and #DeltaRacist demonstrated a healthy dose of public outrage at the extremist profiling of the 2 young men, but I was surprised to witness some on the more progressive end of the spectrum (both Muslim and otherwise) defending Delta’s actions on the basis that the pair incited a reaction at a sensitive moment. To that, I say this: your one moment of discomfort or offense is well overshadowed by multiple instances of ethnic and religious discrimination for Muslim and other minority communities all over the Western World.

How can we ensure freedom of expression/ of speech in a fair and just society when we cripple the tools to do so? Language goes to the core of our identity, so imagine how you would feel if yours suddenly became the language of fear. A few passengers, who appeared to be mostly ethnic minorities themselves, stood up in that Delta Airlines cabin in defence of Saleh and Albaher, while the rest either heckled them to leave, or looked the other way until the “ordeal” was over. These are the moments when we decide how we move forward, that shape our outlook and the experience of every community within our society and how they fit together. The least we can do is to keep a common dialogue open.

The post Stop Arabic From Becoming the Language of Fear appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Ten minutes later, at Gate H, a second suicide bomber detonated his vest. A third suicide bomber targeted a branch of McDonald’s near the stadium.

It would emerge later that all three men wore the same sophisticated suicide vest. According to the Paris prosecutor, François Molins, the detonator contained nails to increase its lethality. The vests contained TATP, a peroxide-based and highly volatile explosive.

The blasts were audible inside the stadium and the sounds immortalised by television cameras. President Francois Hollande was escorted from the stadium at 21:30 following the second explosion.

Manuel Colaço Dias, a 63-year-old chauffeur and Portuguese national was the first victim of the November attacks. He moved to France at the age of 18 to escape Portugal’s authoritarian regime. For the past decade, he had worked for a shuttlebus company, before retiring in 2012. That fateful Friday was a day he did not want to work. But he accepted the request of a group of spectators who were running late. Dias died on the spot from the suicide vest blast.

Dias adored Sporting Clube de Portugal. And the Portuguese club paid tribute to him on November 15. The club’s official English-language Twitter account tweeted: “For Manuel Colaço Dias, a lion who fell victim to the terrorist acts in Paris.”

On the club’s official website, a statement concluded: “Sporting Clube de Portugal would like to offer our most sincere condolences to the family and friends of all of those caught up in the attack on Paris.”

Yet, amid the tragedy came an act of heroism which saved many other lives.  Salim Toorabally, a 42-year-old devout Muslim of Mauritian origin, is the security guard who stopped Hadfi from entering the stadium. In an interview with NBC News, he insists that he was ‘just doing is job’.

He caught one man trying to enter the stadium without a ticket. He told Hadfi: “If you don’t have a ticket, I’m not letting you in.'” He warned another guard not to let the man in when he attempted to pass through a second turnstile without a ticket.

Minutes later, Toorabally heard the explosion which continues to haunt him. His actions saved hundreds of lives. Nor will he forget the face of Bilal Hadfi. The man who killed himself and Manuel Colaço Dias. He reflected that he, and countless others could have been killed.

In March 2016, the French newspaper L’Equipe invited Toorabally to meet with the France midfielder Blaise Matuidi, who told him: “You are more than a hero.”

Meanwhile, in a different part of the city, at 21:25, gunmen opened fire at patrons of Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge with assault rifles. It left 15 people dead and 10 injured.

Days after the shootings, members of the Algerian family who own Le Carillon spoke of their grief. A popular destination in a trendy area by Canal Saint Martin.

Witnesses initially believed that firecracker had been set off, before the realisation that they were under fire from semi-automatic weapons.

Momo, a family member, told the Local France: “There was blood everywhere, people lying on floor, screaming and shouting. My cousin’s a doctor and came down stairs and started treating people. People were shouting for scissors to cut off clothes.”

One of the victims was Amine Ibnolmobarak, a 29-year-old teacher and architect from Morocco. He and his wife were dining Carillon terrace before the attacks began. and his French wife, Maya Nemeta, was shoot three times but survived. Other names of the dead included twins Charlotte and Emilie Meaud, aged 29.

The names of dead from the Le Petit Cambodge restaurant shootings included student Justine Moulin, 23. And 27-year-old Chloe Boissinot. She was from Château-Larcher in the Poitou-Charentes region, where 150 people held a silence in her honour.

Within a matter of minutes, witnesses recalled seeing the same black car, as gunfire outside of Cafe Bonne Bière and La Casa Nostra pizzeria in rue de la Fontaine au Roi, left five people dead and wounded eight. The cafe re-opened three weeks later.

At 21:38 gunmen opened fire outside the La Belle Equipe restaurant. Within two or three minutes, 19 were dead. One of the victims was 41-year-old Djamila Houd – who died in the arms of her husband Gregory Reibenberg – who owns La Belle Equipe. She was Muslim and he was Jewish.

Houda Saadi, the 35-year-old waitress and manager of LA Belle Equipe, of Tunisian descent, was another Muslim victim of the Paris attacks.

By 21:40 Braham Abdeslam had detonated his suicide vest at the restaurant Le Comptoir Voltaire on the Boulevard Voltaire. It left one person injured.

The deadliest attack began at 21:40 inside the 1,500-seat Bataclan hall, where the Californian rock band Eagles of Death Metal were entertaining a sold out crowd.

Three men wearing suicide vests entered the venue with assault rifles. Prosecutors state that the gunmen shouted “Allahu akbar” and made references to Syria and Iraq.

The attackers threw grenades and opened fire on the crowds. This wave of violence left eighty-nine dead. At least 99 people were eventually taken to hospital in critical condition. Some escaped the developing hostage situation. Some escaped by accessing the roof. Others did their best to hide.

Just after midnight the police assault ended the siege. Two of the attackers died by detonating their suicide vests.
The names of the dead included Anne and Pierre-Yves Guyomard, who hoped that after two years of marriage that children would soon follow. Cecile Martin, a 33-year-old clinical psychologist. Christophe Mutez, a 48-year-old employee of the software firm PROS France. Gilles Leclerc, a 32-year-old florist who attended the concert with his girlfriend, who survived the attacks. Helene Muyal, was a 35-year-old makeup artist who leaves behind a husband and their 17-month-old son. Eric Thome was a 39-year-old photographer and graphic designer. He was to embrace fatherhood for a second time in the weeks ahead. Nick Alexander, from Colchester, was at the Bataclan selling band merchandise.

Police later identified their killers as Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, Samy Animour, 28, and Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 23.
Three hours of sheer terror would have lasting impacts in France and beyond.

At Tell MAMA, we did record a tripling of incidents. Our 2015 annual report noted that in the three weeks during and after the attacks there were 82 anti-Muslim incidents recorded. This short-term spike of 328 per cent confirmed an earlier estimate given to the Independent newspaper.

Cases reported to our service following the attacks again demonstrated gender bias. In one such example highlighted on November 18, 2015. A member of the public reported: “I saw a man behave inappropriately and make racist comments to a young woman on the tube where a white man wouldn’t sit next to a young girl with a hijab on. He called her a ‘dirty P***’ and [told her] to ‘f*** off back to Syria because girls do not wear hijabs in England’.
“I wanted to say something but was quite scared as none of the commuters did anything and looked away. She did speak back to him politely, and said: ‘I’m a British-Pakistani and am not forcing my faith on you or anyone else’.
Other examples of abuse included slurs which singled Muslims out as ‘terrorists’. Some had the indignity of a stranger shouting ‘ISIS’ in their direction.

Another high profile Tell MAMA case included the abuse directed at a Muslim couple in the Greater Manchester area. The unnamed couple had completed their shopping and were returning to their car when the abuse began. The female perpetrator went on to accuse the couple of being ‘terrorists’. She then attacked the woman due to her hijab and had unsuccessfully tried to tear it off. This. however, was not the end of the ordeal. A member of the public who had witnessed the attack sided with the perpetrator. It served to compound their outrage and humiliation.

Our 2015 annual report found that hotspots of anti-Muslim hate occur when Muslims use public and private transport networks, walk in public spaces of cities, and where they do their shopping. Muslim women are more likely to be attacked than men in most settings. The number of offline incidents have trebled from 146 in 2014/15 (12 months to March 2015) to 437 ‘offline’ incidents in the 2015 calendar year. This shows an increase of 300 per cent and there was an increase over time on the previous reporting period by 200 per cent.

One such incident typifies this trend: A Muslim woman out with family was confronted by an aggressive male who gesticulated about ‘killing them all’. The perpetrator had been silent and gave no early indication about motive. They felt targeted due to their religious identity. This incident occurred less than a week after the Paris attacks.
In the news media, Tell MAMA published an open letter to the Daily Mail, after a cartoon in the wake of the Paris attacks inferred that refugees and Muslims pose a violent threat to Europe.

Nor was the spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes and incidents restricted to Tell MAMA. The Metropolitan Police had also recorded a tripling of Islamophobic hate crimes and incidents. In the two weeks before the November 13 attacks, the Met recorded 24 Islamophobic crimes. Two weeks later that figure jumped to 76. In response to the rising hate crime, the Met increased its patrol and had more than 900 dedicated hate crime officers.

Attacks on Muslims, be it verbally or physically, did not just happen on the streets or social media. At around 2:15am on November 17, someone attempted to burn down the Bishopbriggs Cultural Centre in Auchinairn Road in the East Dunbartonshire town. The building is listed as a mosque on the Glasgow Muslims website.

Firefighters contained the blaze. Some damage resulted in financial loss but no-one was hurt as a result of the blaze. Police Scotland arrested a 41-year-old in connection to the blaze on October 20, 2016.

Hate crime spikes are not always easy to predict. In the case of both Paris attacks, we found that elevated number of reports came into Tell MAMA. Not all cases will directly cite the event – yet they represent how a climate of fear can impact cohesion. Others drawn into extremist right-wing narratives have long continued to exploit these tragedies for political gain. This sometimes extends to non-violent extremist hate speech online. Or, sadly, street based incidents. Not all perpetrators demonstrate far-right proclivities. Yet it speaks to how entrenched certain anti-Muslim narratives have become. Yet, an upsurge in reports also demonstrates that Muslims are more aware of the importance of reporting incidents. This includes confidential third party services like Tell MAMA or the police.

The post A Step by Step View of the Paris Attacks Last Year. We Remember appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Today in the heart of Europe and the West, there is a movement afoot that openly questions the loyalty of Muslims and which smears all Muslims with the mark of Caan. Except this mark is that all Muslims should carry the bloodstain of IS or Daesh and that the rights of Muslims should be reduced because they are an insiduous threat. Who would have thought that the rantings of Pastor Terry Jones would come to the mainstream of political debate in the US, but it has and it is now a reality.

This morning, political leaders in France and Germany came out and re-affirmed human rights and the inalienable right for the protection of civil and legal rights for all communities. This is not to say that there are no ongoing problems in these countries. Yet, our own Government’s message was that we were open for business with the US, all well and good, but there was a vacuous inability to stand up for human rights for all.

Which brings us onto the following. The face of politics in the West is changing. Within that, basic norms are being challenged and with the real risk that they may enhance extremist narratives and groups and further polarise the middle ground within Muslim communities.  It also a fact that the middle ground within Muslim communities is under enormous strain and is fracturing. People who would engage with Government are turning away, believing that our elected Government is a threat to Muslims and Islam. The talk of isolationism is therefore not just a Trump problem, it is fast becoming the narrative that some Muslims promote as they wake up to a daily diet of anti-Muslim headlines, politicians playing to populist xenophobia and others who believe that Muslims should only be seen through a securified lens.

Which brings us onto the following. We simply cannot and will not allow the rights of any community to be written by others who cannot see any good within them. This means that we will not stand by idly and let others write the narrative about Muslims, doing so thinking that Muslims are inherently problematic. By challenging these views and the activities of such people, we send out a message. That we are not going to be second class citizens in the West.

The post Post Trump, We Refuse to be Second Class Citizens in the West appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Prosecutors said that in postings on social media, Choudary and his close associate Mizanur Rahman, 33, had sought to validate the “caliphate” declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said Muslims had a duty to obey or provide support to him.

In one hour-long speech, Choudary set out the requirements for a legitimate caliphate under Islam and why he believed the Islamic State met those criteria.

Time and time again in bomb plots in the UK, individuals who had come into the sphere of influence of Choudhary and groups that he helped set up, such as Al-Muhajiroun, were convicted of attempts to harm, maim or kill. In some cases, young men who had come into contact with Choudhary, were involved in brutal killings in the UK and in other countries.

Yet, there is also another story – that of media sources and editors whose natural reaction on stories about extremism, radicalisation or even on Islam, was to approach Choudhary, as the ‘go to’ person. This not only elevated him in the eyes of some sympathisers, it lionised him in the minds of sympathisers who were overseas who saw him as some form of Muhajideen (or holy warrior), ‘sitting in the land of the disbeliever and standing firm.’ What it did for community relations, was simply to toxify perceptions of wider  British Muslim communities many of whom called for his arrest and conviction many years ago.

For some of these media sources, Choudhary was the gift that kept giving. He would raise viewer numbers, be the villain that they wanted him to be and highlight an extremist midst in the heart of our country. Choudhary knew this and played to the media sources knowing that any publicity was ‘good’ publicity for him. These sick and symbiotic relationships simply grew and grew to the point that Choudhary was on TV screens in the UK on virtually a weekly basis. From New York to Tokyo, Choudhary’s face was beamed to millions of viewers and what they saw was a Muslim who was extreme in his views.

Choudhary may well be looking at a ten year jail sentence in the coming weeks. Yet, there are more actors to this sorry saga than just Choudhary. His sympathisers and supporters, media platforms that held onto his every word to ensure higher viewing figures and those that gave Choudhary succour and support, all had a role to play. They had a role to play in creating this monster and in giving his toxic views a realism that may well have influenced others. Only time will tell on that score.

Commenting on the conviction, the Founder of Tell MAMA, Fiyaz Mughal stated;

“Anjem Choudhary was repeatedly the go to person for mainstream press sources. They knew this man craved the press and limelight and he sought to talk to vulnerable young men through those very same press sources and many willingly and obligingly gave him media platforms in a their ratings war. He served their purposes of raising the numbers of viewers and he received a platform for his horrendous and twisted abuse of Islam. It became a symbiotic relationship and some of these press sources should also hang their heads in shame after the verdict.

“Choudhary was made a household name by some of these media sources and he damaged the view of British Muslims by his extremist views. Today, he rightly has been convicted by a jury of his peers. Yet, editors of some of these media sources will be heading to pubs and drinking venues as if they played no part in the creation of Choudhary. However you slice and dice this, Choudhary, his supporters and sympathisers were given oxygen by some sections of the media. On that score, the public deserve an apology by some of these media editors.”

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“Islamophobia is awful and you know my sister was abused at a street corner.”

“I saw a young sister have something thrown at her from a passing car.”

“I was spat at on the tram and no-one helped me.”

These are actual comments from victims of anti-Muslim hate who have been targeted because of their faith and the abhorrent actions of the perpetrators should be wholly condemned by right thinking people in our country. Time and time again, we have come across such cases that have been reported into us and where we have assisted victims and ensured that evidence has been collected and passed onto law enforcement. Longer term casework support has also been provided to victims.

Sadly, we have also come across statements that have promoted homophobia and take this statement.

“I have been attacked so many times for being Muslim, but for gays and those who are against Islam, they (the Government), will do anything for these people who are against God.”

“These ‘homos’ are the ones that are trying to break Islam and bring their evil into our communities. When we get attacked, they are behind it in Government and they want to change us. We will not change because of their evil.”

Or take the fact that we have collected further evidence of harassing and intimidating texts being sent to colleagues and staff members, harassing them with homophobic comments. These are people who readily (and rightly), talk about how anti-Muslim hate needs to be tackled, whilst targeting people with homophobic statements and comments. It is truly bizarre and sad that they cannot see how twisted their logic is.

We have collected these statements and texts and where we come across them, we will publish who is behind them and any campaigns that are run against people because they are gay or perceived to be from LGBT communities. Such homophobia needs to be stamped out and we will give it no quarter. That also goes for anti-Muslim prejudice, which must be tackled with vigour, focus and determinism. There is no moral relativism in our work. If we tackle hatred, it is working to challenge all forms of hatred.

The post You Simply Cannot Tackle Anti-Muslim Hatred Whilst Being Homophobic appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Tanveer Ahmed pleaded guilty to the religiously motivated murder of Asad Shah and the motivation was simply because Mr Shah had posted videos online in which he claimed to be a prophet. In fact, during the trial it came to light that Tanveer Ahmed watched Mr Shah on his mobile phone as he travelled to Glasgow on the day of the murder. According to news sources, he was heard in a phone message to say:

“Listen to this guy, something needs to be done, it needs nipped in the bud”.

The Judge’s comments in her summing up were damning. She stated:

“No-one in any civilised country including Scotland has the right to take the life of another whatever offence that individual perceives that he or she has suffered.

“It is vitally important in modern society that respect and tolerance for others of any race, creed, colour, ethnic origin or religious belief is maintained and protected by the law of the land.

“I note with considerable concern that you have expressed no remorse whatsoever for this appalling crime.”

Legacy of the Murder

The murder of Asad Shah raises a number of issues. The first is around individuals who believe that they have the right to protect faith and belief at all costs. This, as has been seen, is not only dangerous, it is a serious threat to communities and the peace of our nation. It is also immoral and against the very basis of faiths themselves.

In trying to be the moral guardian for Islam, Tanveer Ahmed has not only taken a life, he has also confirmed in the minds of those who dislike faith, that it is the root of all evil. Allied to this, the very religion that he sought to defend and protect, will again be associated in the minds of some, with extremism and the destruction of life. Tanveer Ahmed’s murder of Mr Shah therefore has wider impacts and implications and whilst the case may be over, the repercussions will continue to ripple away.

The murder also raises the relationship of some Muslim communities to the Ahmaddiya community. Whilst the murderer stated that he was motivated by claims made by Mr Shah to be a prophet, we will never fully know whether the murderer was also partially inspired and motivated by hatred towards the Ahmaddiya faith of Mr Shah. The reality is that we will never probably know the full mix of thoughts which led to this brutal murder. This is relevant since there are ongoing intra-Muslim and sectarian issues that are showing themselves through other incidents, albeit non-violent in nature.

We within Tell MAMA have seen a rise in intra-Muslim hate incidents post the murder of Mr Shah and targeted against members of the Ahmaddiya community. Whilst the reasons may be many fold, some of the very comments made by the murderer are circulated against Ahmaddiyas in our country. This is a trend that has continued for some time and which has come to the forefront of the media in the last year or so. It is also a trend which is concerning.

Whatever the future may bring, the murder of Asad Shah and its after effects will continue to be felt. Let us hope that at the very least (and to make sense of the murder of Mr Shah), that we challenge those who believe that a faith should be protected through killing. The only way beliefs should be sustained is through their relevance to the lives of people. That is what people of faith should be working towards and the reality is that Tanveer Ahmed’s actions shame us all. Of that, there is no doubt.

The post Murderer of Asad Shah, Tanveer Ahmed, has Shamed All Believers appeared first on TELL MAMA.

According to the Independent newspaper, Faiza Shaheen was interviewed by South Yorkshire police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act which left her shaken and angry that she had been discriminated because of her faith.

The Independent lists ‘Syria Speaks’ as,

“The award-winning book by Malu Halasa is a collection of essays, short stories, poems, songs, cartoons and photographs from Syrian authors and artists.

Basis of Interview Under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act

It seems, according to the Independent, that the evidence for a Schedule 7 Stop was a book that Ms Shaheen was reading and possibly, the fact that she was travelling to Turkey and was Asian and Muslim. Some of these factors may have triggered a Thomson Airways cabin crew member to report in Ms Shaheen.

This case brings up a number of issues. The first is that young Muslims may re-confirm feelings that they are going to be increasingly targeted because of the ignorance of some. Terrorists and extremists will hardly be reading books on planes that raise their profile in the eyes of cabin crew staff.

Secondly, some will think that if Ms Shaheen, who is not visibly Muslim, can be stopped and left feeling that she has been targeted, then what of others reading the wrong type of book and who are visibly Muslim. Thirdly, such actions further corrode trust in the counter-terrorism agenda for young Muslims, who as suggested before, will re-affirm feelings of victimisation.

Which brings us onto the following. We are very glad that newspapers like the Independent highlight such cases since people need to get a sense of perspective. Asian Muslim men or women reading books about the Middle East should not be seen as people who are somehow suspect and potentially vulnerable to extremism. Also, we hope that the Thomson Airways cabin crew staff member will realise that common sense is an important part of life. Reading a book does not indicate extremism even with the words ‘Syria’ and ‘frontline’ within the title. What makes up good counter-terrorism work is common sense, looking at the wider picture and good solid intelligence. Referring people to counter-terrorism teams on the basis of books that they read on planes, is not only Orwellian, it is totally counter-productive.

The post Muslim NHS Worker Detained for Reading the Wrong Kind of Book appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Yet, in this 2014 production of Fireman Sam, (which has been sent to us by 4 separate people today), Fireman Sam seems to slip over when bringing in teas for his colleagues and with the result that as he slips and falls, a Qu’ran page flies into the air. (The Qu’ran page in question is actually from the Chapter ‘Al-Mulk’ – The Sovereignty, verse 14).

The impression given by those reporting into us is that this was deliberately done. Yet, the bizarre and random nature of a Qu’ran page in a Fireman Sam animation flying up into the air does raise the question as to what was it doing in this animation in the first place? Furthermore, this may seem like a trivial matter to some, but the impacts around such matters do affect perceptions. Those reporting into us believe that the Qu’ran page was on the floor and that the fireman slipped on the page.

In the end, what seems like a trivial matter to some, is certainly not a trivial matter to others who believe in the sanctity of holy texts. Maybe, some care can be taken in the future on including sacred religious texts when there is no relevance to the story whatsoever.

[This post contains video, click to play]

The post Why Is There A Quran Page on the Floor in Fireman Sam? appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The text messages ask for individuals who receive them to inform on members of the Gulen or Hizmet movement and the messages are laced with suggestions that action needs to be taken. The impact of these messages is to create fear within members of the Hizmet movement in the United Kingdom and who are active in social work within and beyond Muslim communities.

We are listing this issue and do not want to comment on Turkey’s internal affairs. They are an issue for Turkey and it is not our remit in Tell MAMA to do so. What we are concerned with, is that issues are spilling into the UK and with large communities of Turkish and Kurdish heritage. These texts are causing fear and are targeted at a group that is Muslim and which is as they say, are in the ‘eye of the storm’ in Turkey. The politics of Turkey is therefore bleeding into the targeting of a specific group of Muslims in the UK and who are part of the Gulen movement. This makes it relevant to us.

We would like to stress that what is needed are cool heads and calm at this period of time. No-one in the UK should be targeted for what is taking place in Turkey and we understand the depth and strength of feeling from members of the public in Turkey against the murderous coup that took place. We will continue to monitor impacts here in the UK and if anyone receives such texts, (listed below), please do get in touch with us and we will progress these through relevant law enforcement channels.

Save

Save

The post Turkey’s Hizmet Purge Is Seeping into the UK Creating Fear in Some Communities appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The programme highlighted the racist and anti-Muslim hatred which blights the lives of some people who are targeted by perpetrators with openly racist and bigoted views. The programme provided an insight into bigoted activities in our country which deserve nothing but contempt and strong action from us all by challenging, condemning and reporting in the perpetrators.

During the course of the programme, staff at Tell MAMA received abusive and threatening phone calls from 8 pm to 9 pm and with threats and racist and anti-Muslim abuse being left on our voicemail messaging services. These were logged and sent to the police.

Yet, we also received some of the most beautiful messages from members of the public and we wanted to highlight just one of the many we received. There are many within our country who simply will not accept such hatred and intolerance and this story is in honour of the silent majority who go about their daily lives and who challenge and question the hatred of others in a desire to build a more integrated, harmonious and cohesive country.

Response from member of the public to Tell MAMA, 11/07/2016

Sir,

Having just watched C4Dispatches, I am writing to TM from a different perspective in terms of prevailing perceptions.

I am white, English, public school educated and privileged. Now in my 60s, as I child I grew-up in Singapore. It was there that a lifelong enduring memory of honesty, decency, loyalty, and warmth of love was seeded. It was seeded by a humble taxi driver, ‘Osman’. Every school day for three years, unhesitatingly Osman ferried me to and from my school and my home in his taxi, of which he was exceedingly proud. He cared. He was generous of heart and action. He counselled. He joked. He laughed. He moaned. He was one of the most decent human beings I have known. He was also a proud Muslim. He had undertaken Hajj three times. He told me about his pilgrimage experiences. I was in awe as he regaled me of its time, distance, numbers and method. He always wore his faith, with pride. For many, many years after, Osman was, to me, the epitome of the Muslim faith. He still is. Osman died many years ago and when I found this out, I cried. The tears seared as they ran. Therefore, when today I witness the mayhem of hate, confusion, vitriol, bitterness, and loss, and when I see fingers pointing at the Muslim faith, I think of this humble taxi driver, and I know that as a representative of your faith, Osman is its truth and its reality. Society needs more ‘Osman’ – a subliminally respectful preacher and teacher, and a goodly, humble man.

This is my enduring impression of the Muslim faith. All should thank Osman.

AJ

The post Response to Dispatches ‘Racist Britain’ Programme Lifts the Soul appeared first on TELL MAMA.

In a bizarre move, Christian group ‘Voice for Justice UK’ has urged the BBC not to reduce Christian programming on the assumption that Aaqil Ahmed, who happens to be Muslim, may be looking to do so.  It also asked that Mr Ahmed be removed from his post citing that:

“that there is an unacceptable bias in favour of Islam and against Christianity” when it comes to BBC religious programming.”

Actual hard evidence in the petition regarding the ‘bias’ was not forthcoming, but there was plenty of rhetoric. Revd Lynda Rose, CEO of Voice for Justice UK, told Premier Radio:

“The UK is actually a Christian country, it’s established as such by statue, all our laws, our traditions, our culture is founded on Christian values, so it would seem entirely right that Christianity be given priority air time

“Even when it comes to general programming, Christians are being misrepresented or treated unfairly, they’re either portrayed as barmy, or they’re very much portrayed as endorsing modern, secular views.”

Revd Lynda Rose added:

“It’s scandalous that someone displaying such clear pro-Islamic bias and contempt for Christianity should be the BBC’s Head of Religion and Ethics.”

Programming on Christianity

Aaqil Ahmed has commissioned a range of Christian based documentaries, historical factual programmes and diverse Christian religious programming showing the diversity in Christian theology. He has also commissioned projects critical of Islamist narratives and thinking but this seems to have gone by the wayside with ‘Voice for Justice UK’. This is the same Aaqil Ahmed that said that it is wrong to suggest that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. Hardly a secret Islamist who is promoting a Muslim focussed agenda.

However, we think that the best response to these barmy charges came from the BBC itself. A BBC Spokesperson said:

“We are actually intending to do more programming around Christianity and more on other faiths as well, so there is absolutely no question of an ‘either or’ on our output.

BBC Head of Religion and Ethics, Aaqil Ahmed is not biased against Christianity programming, nor does he show any pro-islamic bias and any suggestions that he does are ludicrous and unfounded.”

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Marine Le Pen has a number of associations that should raise eyebrows and she has been praised by other xenophobic groups in Europe. Having congratulated the British people on Brexit, she stated the following:

“Obviously I would like firstly to offer my warmest congratulations and most friendly to the British people and to the leaders of the campaign for Brexit that enabled this historic result: my friend and ally in the European Parliament Janice Atkinson, Mr. Johnson, the very brave former mayor of London, the boss of UKIP Nigel Farage, and all those, known and unknown, from across the political kind, who have invested in this campaign.”

The last thing that the British people need is congratulations from a national party that has roots in anti-Semitism and which poses Islam as a threat to Europe. The British people do not need such external groups from interfering or attempting to gain favour through such statements, particularly given the background of the Front National.

There will also be other parties in Europe who try and develop alliances with groups in the United Kingdom post the Brexit vote. This means that we have to remain vigilant and do everything possible to highlight and keep such groups away from trying to influence, gain a foothold or develop any association within our country. What we need now, are groups that can heal divisions, who can provide hope and tackle hatred and intolerance. Marine Le Pen’s Front National is part of the problem and certainly has no solutions for our country. British people alone have the solutions and we must do all to reject her overtures and highlight the anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim base of the organisation.

The post We Don’t Need the Congratulations of Far Right Groups like Marine Le Pen’s appeared first on TELL MAMA.

More than half a century after the Second World War, the West is sliding toward a resurgence of far-right political movements.

A new report[i] funded by the German Federal Foreign Office reveals that public support for far-right political parties in Europe has risen exponentially since 1999, resulting in record wins in the European Parliament, as well as levels of influence on national governments unprecedented in the post-war era.

An analysis of the report’s data suggests that far-right parties are poised to take a third of all seats in the next round of European elections in 2019.

The German report coincides with a wide range of new scholarship exploring the similarities between anti-Muslim hatred today, and vitriolic anti-Semitism in the early 20^th century. These new scientific studies by leading experts paint an alarming picture of the rise of xenophobia across the world’s most powerful liberal democracies, with parallels to the toxic climate of the 1930s.

1.1 Far-right tipping point in Europe?

As anti-Muslim sentiment has been mainstreamed in the United States through the xenophobic rhetoric of the leading Republican presidential candidates, far-right parties across the European Union are making dramatic electoral gains.

In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) sent shockwaves throughout the country with its extraordinary success in the presidential elections, a hair’s breadth away from total victory. In March, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made startling gains in regional elections in three states. The AfD is now Germany’s third most popular[ii] political party according to an opinion poll[iii] conducted in November 2015 by INSA.

This is being mirrored elsewhere, with far-right parties building popular support in Slovakia (People’s Party), Hungary (Jobbik), Greece (Golden Dawn) and France (National Front).

But the new report sponsored by the German Foreign Office shows that these gains are part of an alarming pattern of increasing popular support that is likely to escalate. The report by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, released in February 2016, warned that “far-right parties and movements are on the offensive in many countries worldwide in the wake of the global financial crisis.”

The European elections two years ago, the report concludes, were “the most successful to date for the far-right parties in the EU.” Far right parties have “secured 172 seats in the European Parliament. That corresponds to just under 23 percent of the seats.”

The new report, is authored by Thilo Janssen, a research fellow in the European Parliament. His review of European election data since 1999 reveals that the rate of increase of seats for far-right parties has doubled in each election.

1.2 Exponential growth

Looking closely at the rate of increase, it is clear that this is an exponential trend. In 1999, far-right seats took 11 per cent of the European Parliament. This rose by 1.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent of seats after the 2004 election. In the 2009 election, the number of far-right seats increased by 3 per cent—double the previous rate of increase—to 15 per cent.

Then in the 2014 election, the number of far-right seats rocketed up to 22.9 per cent—an increase of 6.9 per cent, which is more than double the preceding rate of increase.

Figure 1 Source – Janssen (2016)

If this exponential rate of increase continues, far-right parties could win 37 per cent of seats in the European Parliament in the next election. This happens to be the same percentage of German votes that Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist party won in July 1932, precipitating the rise of the Nazi regime.

That parity should not be assumed to imply that today’s European far-right will at this point automatically acquire the access necessary to cement control of the levers of power in the European Parliament. Even at the point of his party’s entry into government, Hitler still required concessions from the left among other forms of collaboration to assure his rise to power. However, the parallel should be taken seriously as a signal that if current trends continue, the European far-right could be in a formidable position by 2019. If these far-right parties are able to organise coherently as a single voting bloc in the European Parliament from this position with dramatically greater access to EU funding, this could provide a foundation for further consolidation and expansion, both internationally and among their own domestic constituencies.

“Right-wing populist parties in the EU are persistently on the rise, which in some Member States has taken them to the brink of obtaining a majority in parliamentary elections,” observes Janssen in his report, who also points out that their numerical strength in the EU Parliament is “chiefly due to successes in the economically strong Member States in the north and west of the EU”—namely, the UK, France, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland and Belgium.

Despite major differences, these parties share a focus on populist resentments against immigrants, often grouped together as “Muslims”; and unwavering hostility toward the supranational EU, perceived as “the embodiment” of capitulation to the existential threat of Islam.

In November 2015, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn—who chairs the EU’s General Affairs Council in Brussels—warned that the nationalist policy agendas of anti-immigrant far-right parties could catalyse an EU break-up “within months.”

“This false nationalism can lead to a real war,” he told the Germany press agency, DPA.

1.3 Islamophobia as cover for far-right ideology

Although these groups portray Muslims as ‘the enemy’, and some advocate support for Israel, new research confirms that this is a tactical shift to provide cover for their far-right origins and sympathies.

A peer-reviewed study published in early April in the Routledge journal Israel Affairs finds that anti-Muslim hatred is increasingly being used by far-right extremists as a proxy for longstanding racist and anti-Semitic ideologies.[iv]

The paper, authored by Professor Amikam Nachmani—chair of the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University—highlights semantic parallels in the way Jews and Muslims have been targeted by historic and contemporary fascists:

“Like today’s Muslim immigrants who are described as preferring ghettoization and parallel societies, Jews were said to emphasise their separate existence, exclusiveness and rejection of universalism since Biblical times… Nazi-style rhetoric employed against the Jews is now targeted against Muslims.”

Whereas the Nazis cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Hitler’s Mein Kampf to ‘prove’ that all Jews are agents of an international conspiracy to control the world, today selective cherry-picking of Islamic texts is used to claim that Islam commands “every Muslim to fight an uncompromising holy war against non-Muslims.”

Muslims in the West are “perceived as the spearhead of the campaign to Islamise Europe,” explains Nachmani, while Muslim population growth is presented as a covert strategy to conquer Europe:

“Since the mass migration of the presently 30-40 million unemployed or refugee Arabs will be heading to Western Europe, Armageddon will be fought out on European soil.”

Professor Nachmani’s most alarming argument is that many of the most popular far-right groups are using the banner of Israel to conceal their neo-Nazi sympathies, and garner political legitimacy:

“Right-wing Europeans, among them Holocaust deniers and ardent anti-Semites, frequently decry Arab and Muslim migrants… But these very circles also consider it ‘natural’ to show sympathy for Israel, perceived by them as a staunch enemy of the Arab nation and Muslims…

European right-wingers, nationalists and fascists are presently engaging in a freakish turn: they aim to gain legitimacy by courting Israel. They hope to brush aside their hatred of Jews and the anti-Semitic past of their countries, thanks to the support they grant to the Israeli cause in the Arab-Israeli/Palestinian-Israeli conflict…”

Yet Nachmani writes that the same far-right groups have backed “proposals to limit Jewish religious freedoms.” He highlights their “proposed bans on circumcision, ritual slaughtering and distinctive religious attire” aimed primarily at Muslims:

“Jewish law, however, prescribes similar practices. The result is that anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment amounts to anti-Semitism or, more accurately, anti-Judaism.”

1.4 From anti-Semitism to anti-Muslim hatred

The tactical shift in xenophobic discourse is possible because there are important structural parallels between the targeting of Jews and the demonisation of Muslims.

A new peer-reviewed paper published in The Anthology of Migration and Social Transformation finds that “the structure and function of anti-Muslim racism and anti-Semitism are actually similar in terms of the ways in which they operate especially in times of social-economic and political turmoil.”[v]

The anthology, published by science publisher Springer, is part of IMISCOE (International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion), the largest academic network on migration in the world. Study author Professor Ayhan Kaya of the European University Institute in Florence is currently funded by the European Commission to research identity, pluralism and tolerance in the EU.

Professor Kaya’s paper argues that although anti-Muslim racism and anti-Semitism cannot be lumped together due to fundamental historical differences, there are important commonalities: “Both anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism focus on belief in religious law to render Jews and Muslims as threats to the nation.”

While anti-Semitism encompasses views that racialise Jews “as an assimilated threat to national interests emerging at moments of crisis”, this is now happening to Muslims:

“Muslims are now being represented as a different kind of folk devil, a social group that is openly and aggressively trying to impose its religion on national culture… Muslims have become global ‘scapegoats’, blamed for all negative social phenomena such as illegality, crime, violence, drug abuse, radicalism, fundamentalism, conflict and financial burdens… There is a growing fear in the United States, Europe and even in Russia and the post-Soviet countries that Muslims will demographically take over sooner or later.”

According to Kaya, public opinion poll data demonstrates sharp increases in negative attitudes toward Muslim minorities across the West, in some cases reaching close to 50 per cent of each national population. This has manifested in “increasing numbers of attacks and instances of discrimination against Muslims, as well as rallies and gatherings touting anti-Muslim messages.”

1.5 Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish hatred: Possibly two sides of the same racism?

Kaya’s findings are corroborated[vi] by a 2015 Pew Global Attitudes poll of European public opinion, which found that negative opinions toward Muslims was more than twice the rate of negative opinions towards Jews.

The percentage of Europeans who viewed Jews unfavourably was just 13 per cent, compared to 33 per cent who viewed Muslims unfavourably—a third of the Europeans surveyed. The poll also showed that half or more of the public in six of the European countries surveyed believed that the emergence of far-right ‘Eurosceptic’ parties is a good thing.

These complexities are reflected in recent hate crime data. In London[vii], a total of 483 incidents against Jewish people and properties was recorded for the year 2014 to 2015, an increase of 61 per cent from the preceding year. In the same period, 818 Islamophobic hate crimes were recorded, nearly double the number of anti-Semitic attacks, and an increase of 63.9 per cent from the previous year.

In France[viii], anti-Semitic attacks continued to outnumber anti-Muslim hate crimes. Although anti-Semitic incidents dropped by 5 per cent in 2015, their total number was 806. While attacks against Muslim people and properties tripled in volume, their total number was 400—half the number of attacks committed against Jews.

In testimony earlier this month before an OSCE session on hate crimes, Susan Corke—Director of Anti-Semitism and Extremism for Human Rights First—said that the prevalence of anti-Semitism in France was occurring “within the context of broader and interrelated phenomena including the ascendancy of the far-right National Front party, mounting anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment, the spread of Islamist extremism, and the increasing alienation of many Muslims in France.”

In other words, anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred, despite varying degrees, remain closely interrelated and are both at record levels.

1.6 Europe’s perpetual Jewish-Muslim problem

The waxing and waning of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred is no coincidence, but part of their complex interrelationship in the context of the tortured evolution of European nationalism.

A paper released late last year by Professor Ethan B. Katz, a historian at the University of Cincinnati, in the Wiley journal Cross Currents, illustrates how both forms of xenophobia emerged directly from Europe’s colonial-era civilising missions.[ix]

Colonialism, writes Professor Katz, “shaped, utilised, and manifested itself in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.”

During the mid-to-late nineteenth century, Katz says, “Islamophobia became much more pronounced in the colonial venture than anti-Semitism. Although Jews’ position was never entirely secure, in certain instances they even benefited from colonial rule.”

After the First World War, however, at the height of the colonial venture, anti-Muslim hatred was rapidly overtaken by anti-Semitism across Europe:

“Both Jews and Muslims were frequently depicted with highly racialised imagery and in many instances faced significant legal and social discrimination. At the same time, Muslims in particular were often the target of propaganda campaigns meant to win their loyalty for one European power or another, as well as provocations meant to turn them against Jews.”

During the Second World War, Europe’s increasingly violent anti-Semitism “crystallised in the horrors of the Holocaust.” Europe’s colonial powers and other political forces “saw in Muslims a possible constituency for their wartime aims,” elevating their position considerably.

In ensuing decades, Katz argues, far-right parties have made “Islamophobic anti-immigrant sentiment far more central to their politics than anti-Semitism.”

For Katz, this grim history provides evidence that anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are “inseparable hatreds” that have fluctuated in the context of geopolitical and nationalistic trends within Europe.

“At no time were anti-Semitism or Islamophobia entirely separate from one another,” he points out. “Rather, they were often mutually reinforcing, either through policies of divide-and-rule or through the heightened fears they produced about both Jews and Muslims.”

He closes with the following words of caution: “… when the rhetoric of either anti-Semitism or Islamophobia is invoked, whichever remains unmentioned is often present in the uncomfortable silence.”

1.7 Minorities at risk

This growing body of research raises urgent issues. Firstly, it demonstrates that the new far-right are perfectly capable of switching racialised loyalties for tactical reasons, demonstrating that Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe are very much in the same boat, regardless of public far-right overtures to Israel.

Assumptions that these overtures imply a real reduction in anti-Semitic ideology are misleading. As this investigation will show in due course, this concern applies equally to far-right overtures to other minorities traditionally discriminated against by fascist parties, including black and ethnic minorities, religious groups like Sikhs and Hindus, LGBTQI+ people, and even those with disabilities.

Secondly, political trends over the last 15 years suggest that a coalition of far-right parties—many with documented neo-Nazi sympathies—are poised to win shocking political victories across Europe over the next few years in national, regional and EU elections: and possibly as much as a third of seats in the European Parliament in 2019.

Thirdly, this prospect calls into question the stability of the entire security architecture of the postwar international system. Whatever the flaws of this system—and they are real—it has permitted peace within Europe for 66 years.

The potential fragility of intra-European cooperation and peace under a far-right resurgence should not be underestimated.

[i] Thilo Janssen, A love-hate relationship: Far-right parties and the European Union (Brussels, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2016) https://www.rosalux.de/publication/42151/a-love-hate-relationship.html. Report funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.

[ii] Jorg Luyken, ‘Hard-right AfD now 3rd biggest German party’, The Local.de (17 November 2015) http://www.thelocal.de/20151117/hard-right-afd-now-3rd-biggest-party-says-polling

[iii] INSA survey data, http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/insa.htm

[iv] Amikam Nachmani, ‘The past as a yardstick: Europeans, Muslim migrants and the onus of European-Jewish histories’, Israel Affairs (Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2016)

[v] Ayhan Kaya, ‘“Islamophobism” as an Ideology in the West: Scapegoating Migrants of Muslim Origin’, in Anna Amelina, Kenneth Horvath, Bruno Meeus (eds.), An Anthology of Migration and Social Transformation, IMISCOE Research Series (Geneva: Springer, 2016) pp. 281-294

[vi] Bruce Stokes, Faith in European Project Reviving: Bust Most Say Rise of Eurosceptic Parties is a Good Thing (Pew Research Center, June 2015) http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2015/06/Pew-Research-Center-European-Union-Report-FINAL-June-2-20151.pdf

[vii] Anil Dawar, ‘Jewish and Muslim communities both see race hate crimes rocket’, Daily Express (30 December 2015) http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/630446/Jewish-Muslim-hate-crimes-London

[viii] ‘Anti-Semitic incidents in France down by 5 percent in 2015’, Jewish Telegraph Agency (20 January 2016) http://www.jta.org/2016/01/20/news-opinion/world/anti-semitic-incidents-for-2015-decrease-in-france-by-5-percent-over-previous-year

[ix] Ethan Katz, ‘Shifting hierarchies of exclusion: colonialism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia in European history’, Cross Currents (Vol. 65, No. 3, September 2015) pp. 357-370

Tell MAMA independently and separately commissioned Insurge-Intelligence to look at networks of far right extremism within Europe with a view to assessing the impacts of far right extremism in Europe. The views and opinions in the reports do not necessarily represent views and opinions of Tell MAMA.

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On this occasion, we felt that it is was important to show support for a Member of Parliament who genuinely cares and is passionate about people. Naz Shah MP is one of those people and her recent sincere apologies for the hurt that she caused Jewish communities was heartfelt and we have also spoken to her about this. She genuinely was not aware of the impacts of her language and two years (from when she initially made the comments about Israel), have changed and shaped her into caring passionately about what minority communities think and feel and the way that they are perceived.

Naz Shah is one of the unique cases where people deserve the chance to move on and to impart her knowledge and her experiences to others so that hatred, prejudice and intolerance can be broken down. She cares passionately about tackling injustice and has learnt some hard lessons, but she is a tough and robust campaigner who will come back stronger and fitter and more in tune with understanding communities.

We sincerely hope that she can play a front line role in politics in our country. She has made her peace, now is the time that she should lead and with a renewed sense of urgency.

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Yet, even though we have been at the front lines of tackling anti-Muslim hatred in the UK, the minute we stood up in solidarity with LGBTQ communities against homophobia targeted at these communities and against gay Muslims, we had Whatsapp campaigns targeted at us, sometimes by the very groups purporting to tackle Islamophobia. In other words, they were willing to tackle one form of hate, but because a man loved a man or a woman a woman, they were not willing to tackle prejudice against these communities and instead turned their fire on groups like us who stood in solidarity with LGBTQ communities and against hatred and intolerance.

No doubt, you will hear the usual platitudes about how IS (Daesh) are terrible and how evil they are. We know that, that is not the point. The point here is that the gay community in the US was specifically targeted and murdered in cold blood. So, we are sure that some will be asking the following questions.

“Is this what God wants? Is this what life is about? Is this what religion is about?” We believe the answer to all of these questions is a firm ‘no’.

Let us also be clear. We will give no quarter to anti-Muslim bigotry, as we will give no quarter to LGBTQ hate or to anti-Semitism. We will continue to work with partners to tackle such intolerance and bigotry and if we come across it within some small sections of Muslim communities, we will actively and robustly challenge it. If groups choose to campaign against us on this, then we say, you will not win. You will not win because of the hatred and prejudice you promote and you will not frame the lives of people who are different and unique within the borders of hatred and intolerance.

Today, young lives were lost because of the hatred of Omar Seddique Mateen. Tomorrow, let us get up with righteousness on our side and counter those who hate people because they are gay, or Muslims or Jews. That is the righteous struggle ahead and there is still more work to be done.

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In undertaking this work, whilst anti-Muslim hatred may be an issue that is sadly growing, it should not be the over-riding issue through which communities view each other and neither should it be become the all-encompassing issue through which Muslims see non-Muslims. This is neither healthy nor realistic since so many people who work and engage with us are people who are not Muslims and who care that such hatred should not take root in our country.

Yet, there are groups who work on countering anti-Muslim prejudice or Islamophobia who constantly promote the view of ‘them and us‘. This is not only inaccurate, it is dangerous and does not highlight the large number of people in our country who actively tackle such hatred and who stand up against anti-Muslim prejudice. Such organisations add fuel to those extremist groups who believe that Muslims and non-Muslims cannot live together. This is far from responsible and puts us all at risk.

Lastly, anti-Muslim hatred is an issue that is being tackled. It will continue to be and we will do so with vigour and with drive and determination. Yet, we do this with many who are of no faith and who are not Muslim. That is the strength of our country – that at points when we need to stand together, we do. That is the unique nature of the set of values that we must all hang onto.

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Dzjamala performed the song “1944” during the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm and was born in Kirghiz (Kyrgyzstan) to a Crimean Tatar father and an Armenian mother. Both Dzjamala and her father are Muslims and with her mother being Christian and her family are in fact a microcosm of the mix of faiths and the co-existence of Christian and Muslim histories in our continent.

During Stalin’s era many Tatars were treated with particular disdain and many lost their lives as they were transported from areas like the Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania to gulags around the Soviet Union. This relocation meant that Dzjamala was born in Kyrgyzstan , though when Ukraine gained independence, she returned back to her ancestral home.

Dzjamala’s win comes on the back of a year which has seen London elect a Mayor who is a Muslim and with the ‘Great British Bake Off’ being won by Nadiya in 2015. We say that those promoting anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry, that they are in the minority and they do not speak for our country or the majority of voices within them.

We also have to make clear that there are some groups purporting to advocate for British Muslims who promote a corrosive victim narrative suggesting that Muslims have no future in Europe and that they are perpetual victims. Your narrative is also defunct and downright dangerous. Muslims have a future in Europe and will continue to do so and in fact Dzjamala’s story reflects this very fact.

There may well be difficult times in the future around the place of Muslims in Europe, though this will never take away from the fact that Europe needs Muslims as much as Muslims need Europe. This relationship which has lasted over a thousand years will continue and shows that those who sell perpetual victimhood sell a busted flush.

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It took Jeremy Corbyn some time to ensure that he set out an Inquiry into Antisemitism which will be headed up by Shami Chakraborty. The Inquiry is needed given the charges of antisemitism that should be looked into and given the fact that the Labour Party has a proud history of tackling racism. (For those who believe that antisemitism is not racism, let us put this bizarre argument to bed, it is racism and legally seen as such).

But there are questions to be asked of the campaign of Zac Goldsmith and let us not forget that towards the end of the campaign, the theme consistently put out was the link between extremism and Sadiq Khan. Some within the Conservative Party must have known that this would be read negatively within Muslim communities at a time when many Muslims are tired of their communities being framed solely through the lens of extremism. This was also expressly stated by Baroness Warsi in tweets that she put out.

These impacts would therefore have been known, but someone in the campaign made the decision to run on the extremism narrative and to push it through repetitively. Who was that individual or individuals is the question to be asked? How could this have been the main theme of Zac Goldsmith’s campaign is another question to be asked? Who authorised the campaign and who agreed to it? These are legitimate questions to be asked.

If we are to have a London united, then the public also need answers to these questions. In fact, over 1 million Londoners voted for Sadiq Khan. At the very least 1 million people would surely like an answer to these questions. We hope that the Conservative Party does show transparency and order an Inquiry into what went so disastrously wrong with the campaign that they had to resort to the lowest common denominator – innuendos about how the Labour candidate met someone over 10 years ago who was extreme and by default must have tendencies towards extremists. This is the narrative that was weaved and it was a toxic narrative. It is a narrative that has been soundly rejected by Londoners. However, now the questions must be asked about the Conservative campaign.

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The Conservative Mayoral campaign that has been run fixating on extremists and past associations with extremists may well have put off voters from listening to the public policies of Zac Goldsmith. Zac Goldsmith himself is a man who cares about issues affecting communities and is someone with a genuine desire to make a positive change for communities. Yet the campaign placed around him may well have also damaged his public reputation in the way that it constantly sniped at past events in the life of Sadiq Khan. It gave the impression of Goldsmith as being aggressive and playing to the lowest common denominator, of placing extremism with a Labour Muslim Mayoral candidate with no real tangible evidence.

Stories even went back to 2004, as a way of placing a question mark in the minds of voters, as though he was somehow secretly ‘one of them’. What ‘one of them’ meant was left to the reader, though it was a subtle attempt to suggest that people could not trust Sadiq Khan.

It looks like the people of London have rejected the attacks and the negative campaigning against Khan’s character. Also, let us be honest and say that whilst associations which politicians had should be questioned since they are in the public eye, the constant focus on who Khan met sometimes over a decade ago showed that the Tory campaign was solely based on pressing the button on extremism and Khan. They were playing to this core campaigning theme with little regard of the damage that it was doing to its image in Muslim communities. We believe that this will have short and medium term implications for the Conservatives as many Muslims remember and associate this campaign with them. This in itself is sad since this Conservative Government has ben strong on tackling anti-Muslim prejudice and ensuring that this is pushed through at a national and local level. This should also not be forgotten.

We hope that such a campaign is assigned to the past. It is clear that Londoners have rejected the negative campaign and in significant numbers. We also welcome the new Mayor of London and hope that he unites Londoners rather than dividing them.

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Yet,there is also a unique nature to Antisemitism that we should acknowledge. We also need to be aware of the deep scar of the Holocaust and the over-riding spiritual, religious and cultural trauma that it has caused and will continue to shape feelings and fears within Jewish communities for well over another hundred years. This must be taken into account and reactions also need to be seen through this lens.

European Jewry was, in a mechanised fashion, virtually wiped off the face of the continent and through that lens, we must always understand and empathise with the gut like reaction to Antisemitic discourse that takes place within Jewish communities. However, this does not mean that the policies of the State of Israel cannot be scrutinised and objected to. The latter is legitimate political discourse and there is no getting away from that fact.

Yet, over the last few days, the wider public may have got the impression that Muslims and Jews are completely at odds with each other over Israel and Palestine. As though it is the only thing that shapes relationships between both communities. This has been the impression that many beyond these two communities have got and the furore over the last two days may have further consolidated these positions. However, this is not the full picture.

Work between Muslim and Jewish communities has yielded much that is positive to both communities and to our country. Let  us be clear. Interfaith, conflict resolution, cohesion and integration work between both communities has meant that investment has been injected into local communities in our country. It has ensured the safety and security of both communities and of wider communities. It has ensured that the United Kingdom is seen as a beacon of hope globally of how communities can and do work together. And it has given strength to both communities to reach out and to take on extremist and bigoted groups, for the safety of these communities and our nation.

Much of this is not talked about or mentioned in the headlines. Much of this is not even recognised, but the reality is that it happens every day and goes without notice, yet we all feel the benefits.

Let us therefore remember that even in the darkest of moments, Jewish and Muslim communities hold a candle of hope for a better future. There are others within and beyond these communities who will try and snuff out that light, but they will not be successful. Nor should we let their voices be the enduring ones in the public space. We simply cannot allow them to shape our collective futures.

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Questioning the links between a candidate and their past associations is legitimate political discourse when someone puts themselves up for a public role such as the mayoral candidate for London. However, framing a candidate who happens to be Muslim just through the lens of extremism at a time when Muslim communities feel that they are trying to counter anti-Muslim tropes, may well have wider and deeper community impacts. This is not to say that questions should not be asked, however, there is much more to Sadiq Khan than his past associations and in the next few weeks, we would urge that the issues be looked, which include transport, housing and the role that London can play as a beacon city globally for financial investment. These are bread and butter issues and Sadiq continues to lay out these plans daily in his campaign. His plans on these bread and butter issues should be engaged with and the continuous focus on whom he associated with ten or more years ago is re-enforcing a view in some quarters, that Muslims as a whole cannot be trusted. This is unacceptable and if anything, may be turning off Muslims who may have considered politics as a future career.

Alternatively, we have seen Twitter campaigners from Labour suggest that Zac Goldmith is Islamophobic. This is a line that has been pushed by a lot of Labour campaigners against the Conservative MP and environmental activist. We have met with and spent time with Zac Goldmith. He is far from being Islamophobic and is reflective and thoughtful and deeply cares about communities. To label him as Islamophobic, undermines the value and the strength of the term and Zac is someone who has spent many years working with faith communities and with Muslim communities. Indeed, he was instrumental in working with the Kingston mosque in tackling the far right who had targeted the mosque and his involvement brought all communities together against far right extremists targeting the local Muslim community. To suggest that Zac Goldsmith is Islamophobic is to suggest that Sadiq Khan may be susceptible to being sympathetic to people with extreme views. Both narratives and suggestions are just obscene.

There are two weeks to go before Londoners go to the poll to elect their London Mayor. In these two weeks, let us focus on the policies of both Zac and Sadiq which can ensure that London remains the great city that it is. Let us vote for the candidate who can further enhance our capital city at an international level and thereby bring in much-needed investment and ensure that housing and transport issues are looked at. That is what we want from a London Mayor and that is what we hope campaigners focus on.

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We have said before that we are not going to get into a theological discussion and this is not the role of Tell MAMA. Our role is to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance. Yet, when we hear such terms used against the Ahmaddiya community, who are simply looking to develop a mosque, we have to state what is patently obvious; that differences can be resolved without resorting to terms that have implications which are bigoted and prejudiced such as ‘banana republic’.

This video sadly shows a handful of individuals stating that the Ahmaddiya mosque is not a ‘mosque’ but a ‘temple.’ It also shows one individual suggesting that individuals from the Ahmaddiya community may have come from ‘a banana republic.’

Our call is that differences can be resolved through dialogue and discussion. We hear from Muslims that Islam promotes dialogue, education and learning. We ask that local members of Muslim communities in Scunthorpe meet with one another to find a resolution to this issue. As long as there divisions, they will be manipulated and used by extremist far right groups to drive a wedge between communities. This is the last thing that residents of Scunthorpe need and things can only be resolved through dialogue.

We would like to stress that there will always be differences in life. The key thing is to ensure the safety of all local communities in Scunthorpe and to resolve issues through discourse and with language that does not inflame tensions between communities.

Lastly, the text on this video below shows how some may frame this issue. They will use it to malign Muslims and to seek division. May we ask for calm and cool heads at this time and we are here to mediate and assist if required.

We all deserve to live our lives in dignity and free from fear. Let us keep this in mind when working with each other and when interacting with each other in this tiny island of ours.

[This post contains video, click to play]

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“What about Christians and Christianophobia? What do you do about that, bet you don’t do anything?”

We just highlighted a brief response to a piece in the Spectator which was an opinion article by Margaret Thatcher’s biographer, Charles Moore. The article was peppered with, well….opinions and whilst we disagreed with his opinions, Moore nonetheless raised the issue of hate incidents against Sikhs. This is something that we both agree upon.

Ideally, we believe that there should be a hate crime monitoring flag for all faiths and with Sikhs for example, able to be categorised as a separate flag for recording and monitoring within police forces. It also needs to be recognised that some Sikhs are targeted since people see them as being Muslim and hence there is an element of anti-Muslim bigotry associated with the hate incidents. This reflects on the motivation and the belief of the perpetrator. Yet, it also resonable to assume that Sikhs are seen in the eyes of some perpetrators, as being ‘the other.’ These are just some of the motivations that may be at play regarding hate incidents against Sikhs.

Following on from this, it is irrelevant whether the number of hate incidents against Sikhs is small in number. That is the assumption that is made and may well be true. Some suggest that there may be anything between 1-200 cases nationally, but this is a guestimate and further re-enforces the need for hate crime reporting flags for a variety of faiths.

Interestingly, over the last year, we have had 3 cases of Sikhs who were perceived to be Muslim and who suffered a hate incident. Whilst our focus is on supporting victims of anti-Muslim hate, our service is also based on the ethos of assisting individuals who may have suffered hate incidents and crimes and we assisted the individuals in their respective cases. We will not turn away individuals who approach us with evidence of having suffered a hate incident and these cases in particular, were moving since the Sikh victims felt a sense of empathy with Muslim communities, yet they also wanted recognition that they had been targeted and felt that a part of their identity had been abused.

Over the last year, we also supported calls for the investigation into a case of a Christian convert who had converted from Islam, who had been attacked. He suggested that he had been targeted because of his conversion and we publicly made clear through various press sources, that such hate incidents needed to be tagged as a hate incident based on his new faith. So much for not dealing with Christianophobia!

Finally, we have come across articles that push the line that Muslims are getting some form of ‘special treatment’ because they ‘shout about Islamophobia’. Let us make clear that none of us enjoy the threats, abuse and intimidation that we receive and we have lost count of these that have been targeted at our project and staff for simply trying to help victims of anti-Muslim hatred.

Nor do we enjoy the online intimidation and harassment, which also includes scurrilous comments and articles based on opinion or conjecture. We have chosen to do this work to try and help victims of hate, prejudice and intolerance and this year, we will be publishing a clearer and more accurate picture of the state of anti-Muslim prejudice in the United  Kingdom. With well over 1000 cases in 2015 to Tell MAMA, if anyone can hand on heart think that anti-Muslim prejudice or Islamophobia does not warrant support and action, then there is much work to be done in the future. Some people may come to this view from a genuine lack of awareness, others from a mendacious position which means that we will not see eye to eye. Only the future will tell.

The post Sikhs Are Not Forgotten & Should Be in Hate Crime Work appeared first on TELL MAMA.

In light of this, very rarely do women who wear the veil have the chance to speak about the impacts of people’s prejudices against them. How many newspaper reports, when reporting on political developments about the Niqab, have then interviewed women who choose to wear the veil. Very few have and in fact, we can’t recollect seeing a Niqab wearer being approached by news outlets when discussing the topic recently.

We want to highlight the other side of the coin – the fact that women who wear the Niqab are subject to prejudice, aggression and open hatred at points. It is also important to note that over the last 4 years of work within Tell MAMA, it is clear that women who wear the Niqab suffer more incidents of anti-Muslim hatred and more aggressive incidents of anti-Muslim hatred, including assault.

These are the words of a Muslim woman who wears the Niqab and who recounted her experiences for us.

“I’m worried about the day my very young daughter suddenly tunes into the daily abuse, realises it’s her mother that these respectable-looking strangers – maybe parents of her schoolfriends during pick-up or drop-off, maybe the people behind us in the supermarket queue – are talking about / to.

“And what do I tell her? I’ve brought her up to believe people of all faiths are equally worthy of respect; the majority of her schoolfriends are Hindu or Christian. How can I explain to her that these people hate me because of the visible clues to my faith – particularly my outfit? Me, who taught my little girl that she should never care what other people thought about her appearance, to be proud of her mixed-race looks and unique dress sense.

“What if she’s ashamed to be seen with her mother? What if she’s angry with these strangers for hating on her mother, starts believing non-Muslims are abusive bad people who hate Muslims? What if she develops a fear of white strangers instead of her beautiful trademark confidence and friendliness? What if she’s present when the trolley-shoving, the jostling, the swearing, escalates into a more vicious kind of physical violence? There’s only so much verbal abuse and sly jostling/ shoving I can take passively before I turn round and tell them to have some manners.

“I’ve had women my mum’s age making explosion sounds at me and calling me ISIS, men my age telling me I’m disgusting, women younger than me telling me to f*** off back to Saudi. I’ve been called terrorist, dirty scum, f***** freak, Islamic whore, brown c********, Arab f****, Jihadi b*****…… All in front of my 7-year-old daughter. I had a trolley rammed into my belly when I was pregnant; it was after a bunch of skinheads made knife gestures at me that I stopped going out by myself until I gave birth and no longer felt like a walking target as a pregnant niqabi. I’m pretty confident that I could defend myself but I couldn’t risk the life of my unborn baby.

“If I’m out with my husband I get dirty looks and hissed insults at most; people only become audibly abusive or openly confrontational when I’m out without my husband – unfortunately the presence of my little girl doesn’t seem to silence them in the same way.”

The post With the Niqab Being a Political Football, Let’s Listen to the Voice of One Who Wears It appeared first on TELL MAMA.

A growing number of parents have reported into us that their children have been questioned on the back of Prevent related interventions. In one interview with a young Muslim student, he was asked whether ‘he owned a gun’. In another, he was questioned as ‘to which mosque he went to and whether he prayed a lot.’ In both of these cases, the parents have been so outraged that they have sought to meet with senior officers in the relevant Departments for Education and strongly believe that their children have been treated in this way because they are Muslim.

Listening to the parents of these children, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that some schools are over-reacting to scenarios involving Muslim children and the impacts on the children and the families are clear to see. Yet, these are not isolated cases and the cases that we have received have come from across the country.

We are also clear that many schools manage safeguarding issues in a manner which does not impact on young people and on families. We also understand that many schools do this on the basis of the protection of young people and thoughout the process students do not feel that a specific part of their identity is the trigger for the school to take some form of action. Saying that, other schools seem to have no understanding of safeguarding and manage to alienate the parents of children who happen to be Muslim. They also leave a lasting impression on the minds of young Muslims who believe that they have been targeted because of their faith. This is the worst outcome that anyone wants to see.

We will be monitoring these situations across the country and we believe that the safeguarding of young people and communties is of importance to us all so that the learning outcomes for young people can be the most fruitful for them. Yet, over-reactions to students who are Muslim and who receive a different standard of treatment because of Prevent is unacceptable. Of that, we are clear.

The post Over-Reactions on Prevent Are Causing Fears Within Muslim Students appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Over the last 4 years, we have not highlighted this issue since we have believed that a migrant community that has also suffered a great deal of prejudice and bigotry deserves support and no further pressures or stigmatising. Indeed, we are aware of many organisations that have been tackling racism and prejudice, who have actively advocated against anti-Polish rhetoric and the xenophobic bigotry that this community suffered after the accession of Poland into the European Union. Many of these organisations were led by members of Black and Minority Ethnic communities who felt that this community was being unfairly treated.

However, we have to say that we are concerned by the anti-Muslim cases that we have received that have involved perpetrators who have migrated from Poland and from other Eastern European Accession States. Much of the anti-Muslim prejudice has been triggered because of alcohol, though the responses on the ‘Poland – Birmingham’ page are appalling. They show a need for some Poles to tone down their bigotry and their rhetoric and to realise that inclusion, integration and cohesion are fundamental planks of our country. This means that racism and prejudice should have no quarter in our country.

What is also of real concern is that these comments come from members of a community that suffered press headlines that were xenophobic and prejudiced when the accession of Poland took place and when a large number of Poles migrated to the United Kingdom for the purposes of work.

We are thereore highlighting this issue now so that it sparks debate and we hope, introspection by some members of the settled Polish community in our country. Anti-Muslim bigotry is just as bad as the anti-Polish rhetoric that many suffered. We need to collectively tackle prejudice, racism and bigotry, instead of turning against one another as communities.

The post ‘Poland – Birmingham’ Facebook Page Shows that Some Poles Need to Curb Their Prejudice appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The English Democrats have absorbed previous supporters of the British National Party and the Party has failed miserably to make any major political headway in the past. Given the comments we have found around Islam and Muslims, the English Democrats certainly are far from the centre political ground.

No doubt, they will remain an irrelevance in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections for Kent.

We thought we would respond to his tweets below.

Only one religion I know tells it's followers to rape non followers .. Islam …and Muslims https://t.co/7VRVDyKNSP

— #Chilling (@SteveUncles) January 16, 2016

Editor: Er no Steve. Think this is what we call – ‘Make it up as you go along.’ Does not build much public confidence in your ability to grasp issues. In fact, it is pretty frightening that you think this way.

Islam is a religion .. not a race https://t.co/4uqFc60lZB

— #Chilling (@SteveUncles) January 16, 2016

Editor: You are just a genius Steve. Gosh, you carry on like this and you might, just might, sound credible.

1 Million White English Girls systematically groomed by Muslim men is no joke @DICS131294 https://t.co/Qpw5e1zjzk

— #Chilling (@SteveUncles) January 17, 2016

Editor: Er, you have now lost the plot again Steve. Just as we thought you were getting a grasp of Islam and Muslims, you go and come out with this. It is back to the statistical drawing board for you.

Scotty, just checking that you are aware that Muslims in England do not use toilet paper .. they use their hands https://t.co/OhgeBAm6Cp

— #Chilling (@SteveUncles) January 17, 2016

Editor: Last time we looked, there was plently of loo paper around and judging by your comments, you might want to steer clear from having a curry in the future. You know, some of the waiters may read this and decide to test out your theory.

Under an @EnglishDemocrat s administration grooming and rape allegations by Muslim men would be investigated

— #Chilling (@SteveUncles) January 17, 2016

Editor: Quick question – the way that reads is rather weird and thank you for suggesting that any allegation of rape or grooming will be investigated when reported by Muslim men. We think that what you wanted to say was that any allegation of rape or grooming conducted by ‘Muslim men,’ would be investigated. How charming of you to suggest that rape or grooming is linked to Islam or Muslims, as if their faith drives them to it. This is another case of ‘make it up as you go along.’  In case you were not aware, the vast majority of rape cases statistically involve non-Muslims and we should be talking less about this but rather ensuring that the safety of women is enhanced. We should also be talking about reducing the culture of violence in the minds of some men who think that women are sexual objects. This is about power, rather than faith driving men.

Also, just aside from that, there is the small little matter of the fact that any such complaint is already looked into by the police – you seemed to have missed this out. According to your tweet, it seems that only complaints about Muslims will be investigated. You do realise that you are slowly giving the public the opinion that you are…..not very informed on matters.

Under a @EnglishDemocrat s administration in Kent we would #BanTheBurka in public places

— #Chilling (@SteveUncles) January 17, 2016

Editor: Ban the Burqa Steve – Burqa with a ‘q’. Er, not a major issue the last time we were in Dartford, Kent, we did not see large swathes of women donning the burqa or is this one more element of your bizarre judgements made about Muslims. Judging by previous comments – you might want to rethink this one.

Under an @EnglishDemocrat s administration in Kent animal cruelty law would be applied in full to ban Cruel Halal Slaughter & supply

— #Chilling (@SteveUncles) January 17, 2016

Editor: You would then effectively ban Schehita – that is the religious preparation of food for Jewish communities. Thought this one through Steve? After this series of tweets, hold onto your mast Steve, the ship is fast sinking for the English Democrats in Kent.

The post Meet the Kent Police Commissioner Candidate for the English Democrats appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The question that has been tabled is the following:

“Whether Christians could be recorded as having committed an anti-Muslim hate crime from April 2016 by preaching the divinity of Christ in public or by reading out loud sections of the Bible in public.”

This question may have been posed in relation to the categorisation of anti-Muslim hate crimes as a specific category in the recorded crime statistics from April 2016. This will take place after April 2016 and was highlighted by a Home Office Minister on the 12th of October 2015. How this will be implemented is the subject of much work at the moment.

Lord Pearson has previously been in the news regarding his invitation to controversial Dutch Freedom Party leader, Geert Wilders, to show the film Fitna in 2009. The film was eventually shown in the House of Lords in 2010.

Whilst the question is directed for a formal response from Her Majesty’s Government, we though we would provide our response to the question that brings into play the issue of anti-Muslim hate crimes.

This is our formal response to Lord Pearson:

Reading sections of the Bible at a street corner will not be regarded as an anti-Muslim hate crime. Anyone suggesting that this may be the case is misinformed.

Muslims are ‘not sensitive’ or taken aback by people reading any holy book, unless they have sympathies for groups like the now banned Al-Muhajiroun. Indeed, we live in a plural society where people my fundamentally disagree and take approaches to their faith which are fundamentally different.

Lord Pearson will also find that Muslims regard Jesus as being revered as a Prophet of God. To suggest that they will report in a reading of the Bible as a Muslim hate crime, will warrant, we believe, one response from Her Majesty’s Government – a simple ‘No’.

The post Lord Pearson of Rannoch’s Question in the House of Lords appeared first on TELL MAMA.

How many times have we come across material from some of these groups that is deeply problematic? It is essential that where we see it, it is called out and this is even more relevant when it involves intra-Muslim bigotry.

So, it is with some sadness and trepidation that we have received the following material from a site which purports to tackle anti-Muslim hatred. The site regularly posts material about harm to Muslims and what they have previously posted is text that they have considered relevant in this area.The group is called Documenting Oppression Against Muslims or DOAM.

However, the following material is troubling and is unacceptable. Anti-Shia rhetoric, which is published on-line or stated at a street level or through leaflets is unacceptable. We cannot stand by whilst such statements are made and we need to call it for what it is – anti-Muslim bigotry.

We hope that the group changes its stance in the future around the promotion of anti-Shia rhetoric.

The post Anti-Shia Rhetoric Like This is Unacceptable. It is Anti-Muslim Bigotry appeared first on TELL MAMA.

He goes on to suggest that Tell MAMA, which has tackled anti-Muslim prejudice for over three years, has links with Islamophobes and shares the Quilliam Foundation’s narrow assumption that Islamist ideology is solely responsible for radicalisation. We have not been shy to criticise Quilliam in the past and we will not be in the future.

These accusations are based on shoddy, surface-level research intended to misinform readers.

Dilly should do his homework and look at Tell MAMA’s work in 2014 and 2015. Anyone who does will find that his accusations are untrue. We work hard to ensure that Islamophobia remains on the policy agenda and we helped bring about important changes.

We are not reliant on government funding. A number of charitable trusts have recognised the quality of our work and provide us with the funds to deliver our services. Dilly’s assumption that public agencies should not fund work countering the measurable rise of Islamophobia is naïve.

Tell MAMA stands up for Muslims in the UK facing hatred, racism, and prejudice. Our work on quantifying Islamophobia and bringing it into public debates is necessary and unrivalled.

We will not become obsolete any time soon.

Tell MAMA has no working links with the Quilliam Foundation

Dilly’s poorly researched column imitates the most facile examples of tabloid journalism. It is a gross inaccuracy to suggest that we ‘announced’ the findings of our 2013/2014 report at a Quilliam Foundation event. The official launch took place at Teesside University on 4 July 2014. Our director Fiyaz Mughal attended the Quilliam event as part of a wider tour that happened at nine different locations to promote the findings of this report.

To give an example of how this ‘Dilly-logic’ works, here is a recent photo from his Facebook page where he shared a platform with Tell MAMA’s Outreach Officer, Rehman Anwer. Based on his logic, Dilly must support Tell MAMA because he shared a platform with us. The more interesting question is why Dilly shares a platform with us one day, and smears us on another?

In fact, we shared a platform critical of Prevent with Moazzam Begg at a conference in June 2015. Our director Fiyaz also sat on a panel organised by iERA at Dilly’s invitation.

That does not mean Tell MAMA endorses their views, but shows that we are keen to engage and debate with the breadth of the British public to address Islamophobia.

Dilly takes a single event out of context as convenient ammunition to falsely accuse us of working with the Quilliam Foundation. We certainly do not.

We have voiced our differences of opinion with organisations that have suggested a top-down, highly centralised Prevent implementation. We have criticised this in a report to the London Assembly, calling for implementation to take community concerns seriously.

Before the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill passed, we posted an infographic that informed Muslims about the changes it would make and criticised the government’s approach. You can find it on the Stop the CTS Bill Website. We published this infographic before Dilly even addressed the bill on 5Pillars.

One of our staff members wrote recently that the Home Office had a ‘narrow’ definition of extremism based on a mythical set of ‘British values’ and consequently, ‘the outlook for democratic participation and accountability in counter-terrorism is grim’.

Eschewing an honest evaluation of our work for an accusation of guilt by association, Dilly suggests that we are linked to Quilliam and Islamophobes. This is a duplicitous smear.

If his accusation is true, why do we continue to have numerous Muslims on our advisory board, including community leaders, Imams, and academics?

Now coming onto the issue of Tehmina Kazi, she has clarified that she was part of the Arbitration Bill process and this included many other prominent Muslim women. This took place in 2011, well before Tell MAMA was even founded, which was in March 2012.

Dilly’s article picks facts at his convenience and ignores counterpoints to suit his agenda. In fact, 5Pillars has used Tell MAMA cases or data in thirteen different articles.

Dilly seems happy to cite us when it drives web traffic to 5Pillars and disparage us when expedient for his online brand.

Tell MAMA puts Islamophobia on the agenda and works across government and civil society to counter hate

Hate crime policing demands partnerships with faith communities. Dilly seems to think that the recent Home Office announcement to record Islamophobic hate crimes under a unique crime flag will render Tell MAMA obsolete. Once again, Dilly did not do his due diligence.

Tell MAMA has played a crucial role in putting Islamophobia and anti-Muslim incidents on the policy agenda. Our data has been cited frequently in reports to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia. FOSIS used our information to design infographics for Islamophobia Awareness Month 2015. From 2012 to 2015, Tell MAMA research documented a national rise in Islamophobia.

We used this data to push the government to require all police forces to record anti-Muslim incidents. While we commend Mend (then iENGAGE) for getting 10 Police and Crime Commissioners to pledge to record anti-Muslim hate crimes, we focused our efforts on lobbying the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Home Office to require all police forces to record anti-Muslim crimes.

Our lobbying capacity led to this ‘positive step forward’. Tell MAMA has representatives on hate crime panels across the country and advises police forces on how to address the nuances of Islamophobia.

It should be no surprise that the National Police Chiefs’ Council shares hate crime data with us. We have an important role to play in conducting crime analysis in a forthcoming report on Metropolitan Police data, disseminating figures about anti-Muslim hate crime, and sharing the experiences of victims.

With this shared data, we provide the police with monthly bulletins on trends and analyse their data to help improve hate crime policing. On top of that, we got the government to pressure Twitter and Facebook to take hate incidents more seriously. Sharing our reports on Islamophobia in schools has also put the issue on the agenda.

Tell MAMA will not be obsolete until hate and bigotry disappear

Third party reporting centres—bodies Dilly suggests will be obsolete now—were part of an important recommendation of the 1999 Macpherson report into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993.

Third party reporting centres are a conduit between victims and the police. As one such reporting centre, this is what Tell MAMA does day in, day out.

These policies will not make Tell MAMA obsolete. Other Muslim organisations, including the organisation Mend whose 2012 report Dilly cites calls for PCCs to include third party reporting centres as part of their strategies (see page 8).

Most importantly, we serve victims. The data we record informs the UK public about the rise of hate crime and ensures that Islamophobia is on the policy agenda.

If Islamophobia disappears in the future, we will be more than happy to be rendered obsolete. Until then, our important work will continue to support victims and inform the public, the police and policy makers about anti-Muslim hate

The post Tell MAMA remains the leading organisation to tackle Islamophobia appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Tell MAMA is now moving into its fourth year of existence and the results over the last year have been humbling. But this has been about how we have made a difference. When we stop making a difference, then it is time for any project or organisation to re-assess its future.

So these are the successes over the last year which have helped in tackling anti-Muslim prejudice and in ensuring stronger and more cohesive communities, whilst also helping to push back far right groups and their narratives.

— We were the first organisation to call out the large spike in anti-Muslim hate incidents that were reported to us by members of the public after the horrendous terrorist killings in Paris in November 2015. We acted, again, as an early warning indicator against a rise in anti-Muslim prejudice and community tensions.

— We worked with Ministers and senior officials in informing them around risks relating to anti-Muslim prejudice and in the need to ensure better recording of anti-Muslim hate incidents.

— Our material was sourced by over 768 local, national and international press sources over the last year. This made Tell MAMA, the leading organisation in creating a wider awareness of anti-Muslim prejudice and we will continue to push hard in the coming year.

— We reached out to over 2.8 million people in the UK on-line and our reach has meant that we received cases from the US, South America and other countries. Whilst we would like to have helped, our main and key priority is the UK, hence we did not record or count these cases. (Only UK based cases are included in our annual reports).

— We were one of two organisations, (the other being the Community Security Trust), who signed a partnership and data sharing agreement with police forces in England and Wales. This means that we have started to receive data from forces to add to the self-referrals for assistance that we receive in Tell MAMA. This year, our projections are that we will have over 2,000 anti-Muslim hate incidents logged.

— We have now assisted over 5,600 people with casework, advice, emotional and signposting support since we started work in March 2012.

— We have been successful in achieving over 524 arrests and 412 prosecutions since March 2012. These are figures from police forces who have fed results back to us and the figure may well be higher.

— We have disrupted far right activity on-line and ensured that over 1,370 acounts have been closed on Facebook and Twitter. Again, these are from figures that we have received when social media providers have fed this information back to us.

— We have developed an extensive network of police contacts who work on tackling hate crimes in forces in England and Wales.

— We were instrumental in advising the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), in looking for keywords that may associate evidence and cases with anti-Muslim prejudice. Those key words are now included in the Prosecutor’s Guidance on anti-Muslim hostility.

— We have developed a wide information network which feeds in anti-Muslim material which is circulated by far right networks to us. This allows us to be pro-active and to feed in the material to law enforcement, ensuring the safety of communities.

These are just some of the achievements to date. In all of this, we must not forget the victims of anti-Muslim prejudice, who are predominantly Muslim women who are visible, (who wear the Hijab or the Niqab). To many, we have been a key point of support and as we go into 2016, let us think about our impacts on society. Let us collectively stand up for the weak, those who have no voice and those who deserve peace. If we can stand up for the most marginalised and the voiceless in our communities, then we really are making a real difference.

The post Our Achievements in Tell MAMA as We Move into 2016 appeared first on TELL MAMA.

This was a Facebook post that we received from someone and it highlights and debunks the myth that Muslims are modern day Scrooge’s, wishing no-one a Merry Christmas. The text says it all and we wanted to highlight it in full.

“I just want to share this with folks: Muslims generally get a great deal of bad press especially when it comes to Christmas, many people believe that because of Muslims, we are now encouraged to say “Happy holidays” in place of the traditional “Happy Christmas/Merry Christmas.”

This evening and rushing to do my last minute shopping on this Christmas Eve, as I entered the supermarket, I noticed a Muslim lady rushing with her shopping trolley to her car, I smiled and said “Hurry out of the cold” To which she replied with a huge smile “Merry Christmas” and I thought…I love that this lady just said that to me, it kind of made me think how integrated we in the UK generally are.

Then later, I entered my local corner shop to pick up some last minute table snacks, I noticed he had “Christmas hats” and wanted to purchase one which said “Santa`s little helper” but I was all spent up and this little shop doesn’t have a card machine. I paid for the items and as I was leaving, this local shop keeper gave me the hat and wished me a “Happy Christmas” now it isn’t as though I use his shop often because he doesn’t take debit card payments but because of his small act of kindness, he now has a regular customer.

It is with little exchanges such as these, we come a long way in correcting the skewed vision of how Muslims are portrayed as wanting to change everything and steal our Christmas from us, it just isn’t true.”

The post Facebook Post by non-Muslim Debunks the ‘Muslims Don’t Want to Wish a Merry Christmas’ appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The post Facebook Founder’s Post Shows Why Jewish Muslim Relations Are Fundamental to Protect appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The East London resident. (who wears the Hijab), was abused after the terrorist murders in Paris and had parked her car and was looking for something in the vehicle. As she did so, a white male stopped next to her window which was open and peered into the car saying,

“Are you going to brainwash your kids to bomb people?”

This is the first time that she has experienced such an incident. Born and raised in London, this mother had previously not suffered anti-Muslim prejudice and felt that after Paris, the environment has changed.

Sadly, she also stated to us that after this incident, she was limiting her visits outside of the home and that she was isolating herself and her children in the home since the incident had shaken her confidence and had instilled a sense of fear that her family could also be targeted in the future. She has also asked her 6 year old daughter not to wear a Hijab in the future.

This case highlights a growing trend that we see in Muslim women over the last 12 months. Some have decided to change their visible Muslim identity and have taken off their HIjab and wear hats, whilst some limit their lifestyles by spending more time at home.

We should also add that some people regard prejudicial comments as being incidents that have no lasting impacts on victims and that Muslims should just shrug off these incidents and ‘move on.’ These comments are made with a complete lack of understanding and empathy with the victim and usually by people who have an antagonistic approach to Muslims. Clearly, such incidents disprove this rhetoric and there are clear and real impacts on people’s lives and perceptions.

Lastly, we wanted to add that we believe that the vast majority of the British public abhor such behaviour and particularly where women are intimidated and abused. We firmly believe this to be the case and it is a British attitude which we should value and which many admire across the globe. By highlighting these cases, we do not want to give the impression that such intolerance and bigotry is widespread across the UK. Yet, we cannot deny or gloss over the fact that such anti-Muslim incidents are taking place and sadly, with a greater frequency.

What we do know is that there millions of fellow non-Muslim citizens who stand with Muslims against anti-Muslim prejudice. If there is one example that shows us this, it is the hundreds of thousands of people who have signed a petition to stop Trump entering our country. We should celebrate this fact.

The post “Are You Going to Brainwash Your Kids to Bomb People?” appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Readers’ Editor,
Daily Mail,
Northcliffe House,
2 Derry Street,
London W8 5TT

Dear Sir,

RE: Editorial Cartoon in the Daily Mail on the 17th of November 2015

We wanted to get in touch with you regarding this cartoon which was published on the 17th of November. We would like to start off by saying that unlike some, we believe that the Daily Mail has published some excellent investigative pieces in the last 24 months and produces scoops at points that are unique and which have a public interest. We also have to acknowledge that there are fundamental differences around our views on refugees, minority communities and on human rights. On these, we will continue to differ since we believe in the right for people to seek sanctuary when they are persecuted and in the protection of communities who are threatened or abused just because of a part of their multiple identities. We also believe that human rights are fundamental to a healthy functioning democracy.

However, we would like to turn attention to the cartoon printed in the Daily Mail on the 17th of November 2015. The cartoon was a depressing attempt to couch stereotypes in the guise of artistic freedom for a national newspaper. The suggestion given was that Muslims are symbolic of men with beards and with their wives walking behind them and where refugees cannot be fully trusted since their migration is allowing in terrorists – note the man with the weapon.

Whilst the Paris murders do indicate that a handful of extremists may have slipped into Europe with refugees, we need to re-iterate that refugees should not be seen as part of the problem and their plight is real as they flee from the horrors of Assad and the so-called Islamic State. Yet, this cartoon is not meant to acknowledge such issues and plays to the most basal stereotypes about Muslims and raises question marks on fleeing families who have suffered years of war, persecution and killings.

Finally, we are very concerned that the cartoon places fleeing rats with the individuals in the cartoon. Is the Mail suggesting that the refugees or Muslims are rats? Why was other wildlife not used and why rats?

Such imagery should never be repeated again. In 2015, the production of such imagery is simply an insult to us all.

Yours sincerely,

Tell MAMA

The post Open Letter to the Daily Mail on their Editorial Cartoon for the 17/11/2015 appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Meet Raymond Redfern looking rather pleased by posting a picture of himself on Facebook. His comments are self-explanatory: “Kick all Muslims (sic) people and you (Tell MAMA) out of britain and there won’t be any racism in Britain because Muslims are the problem.” Bless – the level of ignorance here takes some beating as he states his bigotry and prejudice against Muslims whilst saying that if Muslims were ‘kicked out’ there would be no more racism. He surely will not be applying for the University Challenge we think.

Or there is Cardiff based Bob Anderson, who makes clear his bigotry towards Muslims. He states, “Burn in helll (sic) you Muslim scum.” All of this just because he saw a picture of Muslim women wearing the Hijab.

Or take Hadleigh based Dennis Redman, who goes onto state: “Feed the scum bacon,” referring to Muslims.

Or take London based Morgan Douglas Morgan, who has suggested on his Facebook page that he works in mental health services. He states, “Get rid of blacks and Muslims completely be (sic) having to make them live together side by side on their own planet.” It also seems Morgan previously lived in South Africa.

Finally, take Jason Hawkes, who goes onto state, “And Muslims are not racists themselves they are the worst, need shooting and sending back soz.”

Welcome to the internet and keyboard warriors who loiter on social media.

The post Meet the Keyboard Warriors who Spout Anti-Muslim Bigotry appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Yet, we should not fail to highlight the online world which is a toxic mix of a range of prejudices, allied to the benefits that social media sources and the Internet provide. Our report to be launched with Dr Imran Awan and Dr Irene Zempi will highlight some of the anti-Muslim hate and prejudice that is promoted on-line.

Sadly, we have also highlighted some of the abuse that we receive on a regular basis which shows the kind of prejudice that exists. This account for example, promotes the very real intolerance which permeates social media, and in this case Facebook, and the message was directly sent to us. We have notified Facebook and sent a copy to the police for their records. Sadly, these incidents are not unique given the work that we do.

The post Who Says This Work is Abuse Free? Mona Chalabi Highlights Key Issues appeared first on TELL MAMA.

“We don’t want the government to fob us off with some phony thing called Tell MAMA, which has got a pro-Zionist pretty much heading it, or in a very senior capacity, and is making all sorts of comments we might not agree with when it comes to homosexuality, to be recording Islamophobia.”

Not only are we independent of ‘the Government’, we have been running Tell MAMA to serve the needs of Muslims since 2012, without any form of ‘Government’ interference. Our independent service has assisted over 4,500 people and led to hundreds of arrests in order to ensure access to justice for victims of hate crimes who happen to be Muslim. Yet, our results, it seems, does not shield us from such statements or spin pieces that are thrown out into audiences.

Furthermore, when we set up Tell MAMA, it was on the basis of ensuring that anti-Muslim hatred was seen as one strand in the mainstream campaign against racism, prejudice and bigotry. Muslims are not a special case and nor should they be. British Muslims simply want equality and equality laws, policies and practices need to be applied evenly across the board. This is why we have been vocal when Muslims have been attacked because of their faith identity. This is why we have been vocal when some sections have tried to abuse Ahmaddiya Muslims. This is also why we have been vocal when some groups have tried to abuse gay or trans-Muslims. Equality needs to remain consistent and any group which picks and chooses when it wants to campaign against prejudice and when it chooses to keep quiet – (because the victims are from LGBT communities), is a group that has no moral courage, nor any ethical basis to it. Let’s be clear about that – they need to leave the campaigning space and reflect more clearly what they are about.

Coming onto the issue of ‘pro-Zionists’, this is a charge that is the most corrosive of all within Muslim audiences. We have worked with the Community Security Trust in setting up Tell MAMA and we are both independent organisations. We are proud of our ability to work with our Jewish brothers and sisters in the fight against prejudice and bigotry and that relationship remains unshakeable. When a Jew is attacked, we will stand with the community, as we will with others. With this in mind, we will stand with the CST in order to ensure that people are not targeted because they are Jews. When appropriate, we will also collectively campaign together against far right and other groups who target Jews or Muslims.

Over the last 12 months, we have had the great fortune of having Richard Benson act as a guide in advising us in Tell MAMA and in providing the moral courage and support when far right groups and others have targeted us. As the former CEO of the CST, Richard Benson built the organisation and placed antisemitism at the core of hate crime work within successive governments. His courage, as well as that of former Minister and Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik, have ensured that we have been led by the best in the field of tackling hate, prejudice and intolerance. These co-Chairs represent the best of a Muslim and Jewish working relationship and together with the Director of Tell MAMA, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, they have ensured that Tell MAMA has become the leader in the field of countering anti-Muslim hatred and which is making a direct and real difference to the lives of victims.

More recently, at a ministerial meeting, Richard Benson advocated that anti-Muslim hatred should receive the same attention that other hate crime strands do and has forcefully spoken out for Muslim women who suffer street based incidents. He has spent his time and effort standing up for what is right and has never in any meeting mentioned the Middle East. A consummate professional, he is an asset to any organisation and we are extremely lucky to have our co-Chairs at the helm of Tell MAMA. The statement from the CEO of MEND is therefore tiresome, inaccurate and an affront to those willing to do the right thing in countering prejudice, in this case, anti-Muslim hatred.

Lastly, on the issue of homosexuality, it is extremely depressing to hear the comments made by the CEO of MEND. Simply put, if any individual or organisation cannot stand up and openly challenge homophobia within some sections of Muslim communities, then what are they doing challenging other forms of prejudice, hate and bigotry? Whilst we also acknowledge that homophobia is also present in other faith groups and communities, we will never relent in challenging any bigotry and prejudice where we come across it. Only by doing so, do we know that our moral compass is still pointing in the right direction to tackle anti-Muslim prejudice.

The post Equality Means Equality for All. Organisations are Either In or Out of this Sphere appeared first on TELL MAMA.

“Love for All, Hatred for None” is the motto carried by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. A motto that has been tested in recent days after a surge of hateful comments towards Muslims on social media following a fire at the Baitul Futuh mosque last Friday.

Seventy firefighters worked hard throughout the day to control and extinguish fire at the mosque in South-West London known to be one of the largest in Western Europe. Many parts of the mosque remained unharmed. On Sunday, two arrests were made but since then the Met Police have said they do not believe this to be a hate crime. A 16-year-old was later released without charge as a 14-year-old received bail until January.

The investigation continues.

As news began to trend across social media, hurtful and hateful comments followed. Instead of being thankful that the fire was put out without anyone being hurt, they were disappointed. Instead of praising the firefighters, they praised the perpetrators.  Others posted threats of further escalations.

Dr Basharat Nazir, spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK, was thankful for the support given: “We have been aware of some hostile reaction on the social media, but they are simply dwarfed by the positive support we have received via social media and directly.”

Nazir says that “The key battle is against ignorance and extremism in all faiths that we all have to fight against together.”

Some of the hate comments included:

• “Mosque in Morden on the news. 2 lads been arrested for setting it on fire. It can hold upto 10,000 worshipers. Well done boys but the was place fecking empty”
• “The two young men arrested for setting fire to a mosque should not be jailed. They should be given a medal”
• “They should have been pouring gasoline on it”
• “Let’s do the same here in the USA, burn down every single one of them”
• “Probably was a bomb making class mistake”
• “They should burn them all, and then kick them muslims out of our countrys”
• “one down, more to go”
• “A WARNING to them of things to come, I hope it was done on purpose. PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF THE MUZZIES. and their DEMANDS”
• “Make it a holiday”” It wasn’t arson, its pest control!!”

Twitter trolls also joined in.

It is difficult to consistently monitor hateful comments and keep networks free from hate but it is important that we do all we can. These comments incite harm which should never be tolerated. Since Sunday, hate comments have been reported on Wimbledon Guardian, Facebook, Twitter and other news outlets but thankfully many are quickly removed.

But Facebook needs to accept that these comments have the potential to incite hatred and violence. One comment that read “should have blown that whole b*tch up” was reported to Facebook; but when reviewed, Facebook told users that it did not breach their Community Standards.

After similar problems in the past, a petition was set up asking Facebook to work on its reporting mechanisms. One signatory Natalie Otterly wrote: “Hate speech as outlined is extremely dangerous and harmful, especially given the current volatile situation towards Muslims. It actively promotes violent and illegal action towards a religion and its followers”

The Ahmadiyya community received much public support from people of all walks of life. Support also included tweets from MPs like James Berry and UK Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening.

Dr Nazir says: “The huge public outpouring of support for us and the indomitable British character that people have exhibited has strengthened our resolve to rebuild the complex as soon as possible so that this house of God that is a beacon of peace can shine again in its full glory.”

It is also clear that the community are determined not to let the hate comments deter them:

“We live by an ethos of Love for All, Hatred for None.  It is a motto that is emblazoned across our mosque complex, and neither the fire nor any negativity are able to thwart our ambitions to serve God, to help mankind, and to be loyal citizens.”

The positive attitude and genuine warmth witnessed this weekend is an inspiring display of unity. Through this, we must all remember, hate comments and violence against Muslims are by no means just a Muslim problem; but a problem for us all to get through together. To truly have a peaceful supportive world both online and offline, we must all work collectively by tackling hate speech and giving to one another especially in times of need.

The post After the fire, why the Ahmadiyya community will not give into hate , by Rima Amin appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Newspapers must moderate their comments and especially given the fact that far right groups mobilise and direct sympathisers to make anti-Muslim posts on mainstream platforms, so as to legitimise their views. Sadly, this is the environment we are in today and we cannot allow everyday platforms to be hijacked by any extreme group.

Furthermore Facebook’s response to this is to tell us to report in each comment. This is simply ludicrous when the vast majority of Muslims will not report in and for Facebook to suggest that we spend our limited resources to sit every day and report in tens of thousands of anti-Muslim comments is simply ludicrous. We have said before and we will say it again, these platforms, which are profit-making, give little if nothing back to civil society groups and their platforms are being used to promote open hatred and threats. Much of the former is not removed meaning that the volume sits and builds up for eternity. Also, given the loads on the Crown Prosecution Service, Police forces, civil society groups and police forces, it is time pressure was put on these social media platforms to get them to set up a significant civil society fund for counter-speech.

The post Thousands of Anti-Muslim Posts Today Could Fuel Reverse Extremism appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Never to miss an opportunity to build a career on inflammatory statements, Katie Hopkins has also jumped into the mix. Yesterday she tweeted the following:

“717 pilgrims killed in stampede during religious pilgrimage where they throw stones at pillars.  Target practise for Sharia I guess.”

So here we go again. It is as if, in the minds of some, Muslims think the same and live their lives as some form of homogenous block. But what is particularly sickening about the Hopkins tweet is that she takes a religious event meant to symbolise rejecting evil, as being “target practise for Sharia”. She is in effect saying that people on the Hajj, (who according to her world view, are influenced by Sharia), will be practising throwing stones  – and with the association that this is linked to inhumane punishments.

Going to the Hajj is one of the most important experiences for Muslims in their lives. It is a spiritually cleansing experience for many, yet, judging by any reading of the tweet of Hopkins, those who go on the Hajj are practising their stone throwing to possibly harm others. There is only one thing to say about Hopkins in Twitterland – #epicfail.

The post Katie Hopkins: Muslim Hajjis Practice Sharia Stoning appeared first on TELL MAMA.