In mid-2013, we were contacted by a Shia based organisation based in London which asked us to meet with a young Shia man who had been attacked by a number of Anjem Choudhary’s followers. The attack took place in Edgware Road in Central London and we had been aware of it through a You Tube link that someone had initially sent us.
Having met with the young man, the extent of the assaults on him became clear. The level of anti-Shia hate and aggression were also made clear to us. Also, shocking were the You Tube videos shown to us where open calls to murder and kill Shia were being made by people in the Middle East, many of them emanating from countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yemen. We were also one of the first organisations to write to the Home Secretary asking that a cleric already in the UK for a series of lectures, be refused entry into the UK in the future.
We have also become aware of the level of hate targeted at Ahmaddiya communities. Recently, a youth Ahmaddiya Twitter account which had been promoting the volunteering activities that young Ahmaddiya Muslims had been undertaking in hospitals and community centres, was repeatedly abused and we know that many others have also been abused on-line. Such hate is not only unacceptable, it needs to be robustly challenged given that everyone has the right to live free from fear in our country.
TELL MAMA welcomes working with these and other Muslim communities to tackle anti-Muslim hate and we are also clear that Muslim on Muslim hate will also be actively challenged. We will also actively challenge such hate when it is promoted through You Tube and other social media channels and when it is reported to us.