Last Saturday we had the pleasure of visiting the Dar-Ul-Isra mosque in Cardiff who kindly co-ordinated a young people’s information session on the work of TELL MAMA and the need for people to report in anti-Muslim prejudice and to empower themselves. We understand that many Muslims, particularly Muslim women, believe that an incident is pre-written in destiny and that God will protect and provide comfort after such an incident. Mixed in with this thinking is the belief that God’s protection will ensure their safety and many simply fail to report in such incidents and this is one possible reason why hate crime reporting is so low within Muslim communities. Indeed, when we have undertaken focus group work with Muslim communities, reporting in of hate incidents and crimes has ranged from 15% of participants through to about 40% of participants and there seem to be gender and age related differences in reporting in though once again, more work in this area is needed.
So, we were honoured to provide a 90 minute community education session to young people in the Dar-Ul-Isra mosque in Cardiff and where we discussed some of the following thematic areas:
- Key findings to date regarding those most affected at a street level,
- The Far Right and the impact of activists in the on-line world,
- Social media guidelines of the CPS and managing community expectations in relation to material that may be offensive,
- Victim’s rights and the Victim’s Charter – understanding what the rights of victims are?
- Working with Twitter and Facebook in undertaking ‘take-downs’ of the worst accounts promoting anti-Muslim prejudice and hate.
- Specific legal mechanisms that may be avenues for social justice for victims.
We will be reaching out to Muslim communities across the country in our work. However, if you are based in Wales and would like the TELL MAMA team to visit you, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us through info@tellmamauk.org. Empowering yourself by knowing your rights is the only way to ensuring that those who hate understand that communities will not accept this poison to affect perceptions. You have a part in the play in ensuring that everyone can live their lives free from fear and prejudice.