Tell MAMA was alerted to the issue on January 5, challenging the image choice in several tweets, including quoting the initial tweet, “How is a stock image of a Muslim woman in a headscarf relevant to this story?”.

We followed up this tweet by locating the origins of the stock image, detailing how it was taken in Newcastle in 2021, captioned, “A lady walk past a closed down empty shop on May 12, 2021 in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, England”.

Tell MAMA tweeted, “Here’s the origins of the photo which has nothing to do with the story. Please consider changing.”

Here's the origins of the photo which has nothing to do with the story. Please consider changing. https://t.co/7i5BR8KaTc

— Tell MAMA UK (@TellMamaUK) January 5, 2023

On January 6, the change occurred with the clarification making clear, “This article was amended on 6 January 2022 to replace the main image with a more suitable picture.”

Tell MAMA also flagged a tweet that blamed immigrants for fraud, written in reply to the original Guardian tweet.

The use of the stock image occurred previously but in non-related covid coverage.

The Guardian has recycled this stock image of a Muslim woman in a hijab wearing a face mask in other content before. Last year in fact, in a housing story, but did not mention Covid.https://t.co/hYIUCX1Dsw

— Tell MAMA UK (@TellMamaUK) January 5, 2023

In 2021, the New York Post used this stock image in a covid-related story about virus levels across the UK.

In broad terms, the risk of stigmatisation through stock imagery, especially during a pandemic, has long been the subject of criticism and concern, mainly when directed towards East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) and Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) communities in North America. Academics drew similar concerns during the SARs epidemic in the early 2000s whilst tracing the historical roots of such racialised stigma and prejudice. Further scholarly work details how attaching a stigma to cultural identities invokes assumptions of inferiority. Thus, it risks curtailing inclusion and producing economic and interpersonal forms of discrimination.

Tell MAMA continues to challenge and document how such stock images of Muslim and ESEA communities appeared throughout coronavirus coverage during the pandemic – themes that will feature in more in-depth research.

Two general articles on #COVID19 on @BBCNews and @CityAM today use images of Muslim and East Asian women.

Linking communities with the virus risks causing further harm and stigmatisation. Due consideration must be given in how images convey the news also. pic.twitter.com/mKDeeTtrGp

— Tell MAMA UK (@TellMamaUK) October 1, 2020

In March last year, we detailed how the BBC continued to recycle the stock image of a Muslim woman.

We thank The Guardian for replacing the image and hope the necessary steps follow editorially to avoid this occurring again.

The Guardian removes image of Muslim woman from Covid-19 story about business fraud

The post The Guardian removes image of Muslim woman from Covid-19 fraud story appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The recent examples bring the focus back to a broader structural problem in the media: linking minoritised communities to a virus risks harm and stigma towards them – with the most recent example appearing yesterday (March 22).

Examples of the same stock image of the Muslim woman in a hijab across four BBC Wales articles between October 2020 and March 2022.

The most recent BBC Wales headline read “Covid in Wales: Mask and isolation rules may be extended.” And, at the bottom section, which encourages readers to click on related stories, an article published on March 4, continues to feature the same stock image in an article about the ending of mass testing for Covid-19 in Wales.

Credit: BBC Wales.

It also gained due prominence, appearing on the main coronavirus news section on the general BBC News website.

A failure to update the image cache means that the stock image continues to appear on March 4 despite the BBC updating it to feature a video.

We can also trace previous examples of the BBC using this stock image in earlier stories. Two such examples emerged within two days of each other.

The BBC, however, did amend both versions – replacing them with more generalised images. One of the images appeared under the headline “Covid: Welsh firms ‘left in the dark’ over firebreak lockdown,” published October 22, 2020. Two days earlier, a different story, headlined, “Covid: Wales’ lockdown job support gap ‘a barrier to firms’,” before a headline re-write “Covid: Redundancy warning in lockdown appeal to Treasury” and a new image headline.

A BBC Wales article about the Job Support Scheme headlined "Covid: Wales' lockdown job support gap 'a barrier to firms'" has since removed a stock image of a Muslim woman in a hijab. The story now leads with interviews with local business owners. pic.twitter.com/NeH0cu8rGY

— Tell MAMA UK (@TellMamaUK) October 20, 2020

The BBC did go on to update and replace the original headline and image from our fourth example. Such revisions included a new headline and a video story replacing the stock image, which appeared online on March 4, 2022.

For this article, we researched the use of this stock image via the image reverse search engine TinEye (we’ve talked about it before) to help us find any examples we may have overlooked, but the results given focused its use on the BBC. The issue of media framing, of course, is far larger than just the BBC.

The origins of the stock image we could also trace – it appeared on Getty Images a day before the first BBC article cited above on October 19, 2020 – the text begins, “A woman wears a face mask as she walks past a sign for Cardiff Market.”

It is worth noting that during our search of Getty Images to locate this example, amidst the 72 pages of results for coronavirus with a filter for Cardiff and Wales revealed that a disproportionate number of the earliest results featuring people included photos of East and Southeast Asian (ESEA), South Asian, and other ethnic minorities.

Studies and research show the link between uptakes in racism towards ESEA and Asian-American and Pacific Island (AAPI) communities across North America.

Tell MAMA and many others, including ESEA community groups, work to document, challenge, and detail why such use of stock imagery is problematising.

In broader terms, another example we cited concerned a BBC News article about the Delta variant in Bedford (re-named to avoid stigma), foregrounded a stock photo of a South Asian family under a headline that included the line, “Indian variant areas”. The article even acknowledged this variant name change, stating that Bedford was an area identified as a “hotspot for the so-called Indian variant, now named the Delta variant by the World Health Organisation”.

From racialised disinformation about Muslim communities during the national lockdowns, abuse blaming Muslims for the spread of the coronavirus when in supermarkets, to shocking assault cases where racist men have coughed on a Muslim woman or families whilst to have the virus or seeking to spread it, we have continued to document the varieties of abuse directed at Muslims during the pandemic.

The post Why did BBC Covid-19 coverage reuse the same image of a Muslim woman? appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The four projects are funded to a total of £4.5m by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Professor Iyiola Solanke, at Leeds University’s School of Law, has been awarded a £2.5m grant to launch the Consortium on Practices for Wellbeing and Resilience in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Families and Communities (Co-POWeR).

In a statement, Professor Solanke said: “There are two viruses affecting people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities across the UK. One is COVID-19 and the other is discrimination. We want to illustrate that the way in which COVID-19 is exacerbating the experience of inequality for those in these communities.”

She added: “There is agency – people are able to adapt and support themselves – but the combined impact of COVID means that government intervention is essential to ensure the ongoing wellbeing of people of all ages who are subjected to these two viruses.”

The 18-month project will assess the combined impacts of the pandemic and discrimination on the wellbeing and resilience across these groups.

The new investment supplements previous UKRI funding streams to better understand Covid-19 and ethnicity, bringing the overall total to £8.8m of government research investment, according to a UKRI press release.

New @ESRC-funded research is set to dig deeper into the disproportionate social, cultural and economic impacts of COVID-19 on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities

Watch our video: https://t.co/2FGCRXInVt

Read more: https://t.co/QdBmn4qp43#TacklingCoronavirus #WeAreUKRI

— UK Research and Innovation (@UKRI_News) February 9, 2021

A research team from the University of Manchester will assess the pandemic’s impact on including health, housing, welfare, education, employment and policing (including the disproportionate issuing of fines).

Researchers from the University of Leeds will explore the twin impacts of racial discrimination and coronavirus on the wellbeing of black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities across all age groups.

Smaller research groups will focus on the impacts of the pandemic on Muslim communities in Birmingham, and the mental health impacts the pandemic is causing.

Amanda Solloway, Minister for Science, Research & Innovation, said: “COVID-19 has shone a light on the inequalities facing our society, with evidence showing that people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are more severely impacted by this dreadful disease.

Not only does science and research offer us a way out of this pandemic, but it will also help us to understand why these disparities exist. These four government-backed research projects will work directly with BAME communities to provide crucial insight that will enable us to address these inequalities and continue protecting as many people as possible.”

Professor Bridget Byrne, who will lead the University of Manchester project, said: “The pandemic has brought the lethal impact of racial and ethnic discrimination into sharp focus. We know COVID-19 has caused more deaths among racial and ethnic minority communities, but it’s also urgent that we understand and take steps to mitigate the wider social and economic impacts.”

Tell MAMA welcomes this important new research and awaits its findings.

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The incident occurred on the evening of November 27, and, despite the threat, the racist customer soon left the store as members of staff apologised, adding that the comments were unacceptable.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, and wishing to remain anonymous, he described how the man, whom he described as white and in his early-to-mid-forties, reacted to his innocuous request to maintain social distancing measures with such hostility, that even staff members had challenged him before their racist outburst, where he said: “I’ll call the police; if I call the police; they’ll take you to the airport and deport you.”

The Muslim man felt targeted due to his ethnicity and beard.

Nor did he report the racist incident to the police, citing a previous negative experience, where officers had informed him that despite the presence of CCTV footage, they had been unable to investigate further.

Following discussions, with our casework team, however, he did consent for our service to make an anonymous report to Greater Manchester Police to make them aware.

Last month, a senior police officer told a committee that arguments over face masks to limit the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) was a contributing factor in rising reports of racist hate crime.

Nick Ephgrave, who is the Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, told the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, said: “Someone will challenge someone about the use or not of a face mask, and then in the course of that interaction will then use racist language.”

These comments appeared within a broader context: of rising racist behaviour from neighbours during the national lockdown, or strangers targeting members of the public, reflecting how racist hate crime remains, overwhelmingly, an issue of aggravated public order offences.

Tell MAMA has long documented in previous annual reports how the dynamics of neighbours targeting Muslim individuals and families, warning in 2017 that: “Perhaps most invasively, this day-to-day form of abuse can happen in and around the homes of Muslims, harming their sense of safety and limiting their social mobility.”

And in 2018, one in 10 reports from Muslim men had sported beards when targeted in anti-Muslim and Islamophobic incidents.

Academics have also explored, more broadly, how, in a post-9/11 context, the racialised visibility of Muslim men are more likely to be deemed security threats or disloyal, as visible Muslim women, in particular, are questioned about their nationality and cultural values.

Tell MAMA has documented other case studies where Muslim men, targeted because of their ethnicity and religious appearance, faced discriminatory and dehumanising comments related to terrorism or explosives.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

The post Racist told Muslim man he’d call the police to “deport you” when asked to maintain social distancing appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The assault took place on the afternoon of September 21, just days before local lockdown restrictions took effect in the city on September 25.

The Yorkshire Evening Post reported a day later that rates of coronavirus (Covid-19) over a seven-day period in the city were 108 cases per 100,000 people, with 8.4 per cent of those tested returning positive results. In early September, the BBC reported that the seven-day infection rate for the city stood h0ad risen to 32.5 cases per 100,000 people.

It is within this context that the family wanted their story told anonymously and worry that the perpetrator will continue to target others unless caught.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, a family member described how the man singled them out, having walked from a distance before stopping to cough on them and then walking away into the crowds, identifying them by their South Asian ethnicity and the religious clothing of their wife.

Tell MAMA encouraged them to report the racist assault to West Yorkshire Police given the CCTV in the area, and after getting their consent, submitted a report on their behalf.

Nor is this the first coronavirus-related assault reported to our service, as back in March, a racist coughed in the face of a Muslim woman and told her that he had the virus.

The family are, however, thankful that no one has since displayed any symptoms.

They described the perpetrator as being a white male in his mid-to-late forties or early fifties, who carried a bottle of what they believe to be alcohol.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

The post Racist coughed on Muslim family and told them “there you go” in Leeds appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, added that her young daughter, who is autistic and fearful of dogs, fell into the road after jumping to avoid contact with their dogs, and she was able to calm her by speaking to her in Arabic.

The perpetrator then shouted various non-sequiturs and abuse at them, including “f*** off” and “f*** off, get back to work,” which the mother believes were motivated by anti-Muslim and Islamophobic prejudice, due to her hijab and speaking in Arabic.

She described the perpetrator as being a white female in her mid-to-late forties.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating the incident which occurred on July 25.

Consistent with existing research, a clear majority of reports to Tell MAMA in the interim months of 2019 (January to June), occurred in public areas (n=98).

During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we have documented examples of how in the realms of social media and on streets, individuals have targeted Muslims, whether with violence or acts of hate speech or racialised forms of online fakery.

How #COVID19 increased and influenced the nature of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic reports to our service. #no2h8#coronavirus pic.twitter.com/7D9MN3OqTl

— Tell MAMA UK (@TellMamaUK) August 5, 2020

Tell MAMA also called on the Conservative MP Craig Whittaker to apologise for his comments made on LBC radio.

Others have warned about rising racism in areas like Oldham.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

The post Woman with dogs pushed Muslim family and shouted “f*** off” at a pedestrian crossing appeared first on TELL MAMA.

On June 14, the taxi driver, who has agreed to have his story told anonymously, described the threatening and racist behaviour of a man who, when carrying an open bottle of alcohol, confronted the driver over his face mask.

The man, who was not a passenger, asked the driver: “Why are you f****** wearing a mask for?” to which the driver replied, in a calm manner, that he was wearing it due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as the man continued to be abusive, and using racist language like “P*ki”.

As the driver manoeuvred his vehicle to leave, which required a temporary pause to change gear, the racist male threw his bottle of alcohol towards the driver, as its contents splashed over both driver and passengers.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the taxi driver described how the man had also punched his car and had not been able to drive off when he did, that the bottle may have been used as a weapon to cause him harm.

The police were informed of the attack when it proved safe for the driver to stop. A call handler took corroborative statements from the driver and the female passenger.

No officer, however, had followed up, so he began making enquiries.

But the update was unexpected: police had closed the report, as witnesses were now unwilling to provide evidence, which left the taxi driver disheartened given the physical evidence in his vehicle and his call to the police.

The taxi driver is self-employed and due to the alcohol present in the interior of his vehicle meant that he was unable to work for the rest of that evening. And, given some of the alcohol had been consumed before the attack, he feared the spread of coronavirus.

After approaching Tell MAMA for assistance, and, after providing written consent, our service requested that senior officers at South Yorkshire Police review the report which has now resulted in it reopening, and the police sent it to the Crown Prosecution Service to review.

Tell MAMA has continued to highlight the vulnerability taxi drivers face, in forms of violence, racist, and discriminatory remarks. A recent report on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred in North East England, co-authored with academics from Newcastle University and Northumbria University, includes two focus groups with Muslim men and Muslim women, one of whom is a taxi driver.

You can get advice through our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

The post South Yorkshire Police reopened hate crime investigation after Tell MAMA requested a review appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Credit: Twitter.

Charles Hymas, the newspaper’s Home Affairs Editor, tweeted: “It is based on our understanding of PHE data” in response to a query from Hamza Azhar Salam, a journalist who contributes to The News International, who was encouraged to contact Public Health England.

A spokesperson for Public Health England confirmed the small figure of around 30 cases since June 4, in a statement to the News International.

As one major study found, however, a clear majority of coronavirus came to the UK from Europe, with 75 per cent of initial cases alone followed periods of travel from Italy (14.4 per cent), Spain (33.6 per cent), and France (28.5 per cent) between the end of February and the end of March. Moreover, the study reported that throughout mid-March, the UK had welcomed 20,000 inbound passengers per day from Spain.

The Telegraph coverage also appears to suggest that Pakistan is reporting 4,000 new Covid-19 cases per day since March 1, a date from where 65,000 people flew from the country into Britain.

Pakistan had, for a brief time, suspended commercial air travel between March 21 and April 4, to curb the spread of coronavirus, which caused anxiety for those seeking to return to the UK on chartered flights.

Pakistan’s Health Ministry did not confirm a single-day rise of more than 4,000 cases of coronavirus until early June, however.

Sayed Bukhari, who is the special assistant to PM Imran Khan, called the coverage a “hatchet job” in several tweets.

A change.org petition which has over 3,500 signatures as of writing, is calling for IPSO to investigate coverage in the Sun, Telegraph, and MailOnline, as it calls for apologies and corrections from each title.

It asks that Public Health England are more transparent in its reporting, more so, as factors including systemic racism, discrimination and social inequalities are factors in the disproportionate deaths among black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities from Covid-19.

Tell MAMA also received several reports from members of the public who expressed their concerns about the misleading and inflammatory coverage.

The Sun’s coverage followed a similar pattern: a speculative and inflammatory headline, rebuffed by the actual figure of 30 imported cases specified in the fourth paragraph. Its headline, however, read: “Half of UK imported coronavirus cases ‘originate from Pakistan’ amid calls for tougher checks on ‘high risk countries’.”

Coverage, in the MailOnline, did acknowledge the month of June its headline, with its first subheading providing context for the sensationalised headline.

Credit:MailOnline

It also mirrors coverage the Telegraph as it appears to suggest that Pakistan has reported 4,000 coronavirus cases per day since March 1.

A recent policy shift, which took effect on June 8, mandates self-quarantine for all arrivals into the UK (which some small exceptions), with a breach resulting in a £1,000 fixed penalty notice in England.

UPDATE: June 30

The Sun has amended its misleading original headline which had read "Half of UK imported coronavirus cases ‘originate from Pakistan’ amid calls for tougher checks on ‘high risk countries’.” pic.twitter.com/Xpf8v849Tk

— Tell MAMA UK (@TellMamaUK) June 30, 2020

UPDATE: July 1

The MailOnline has, today, acknowledged its amendment to a misleading and inflammatory headline about imported Covid-19 cases into the UK from Pakistan.

The Sun published its own correction yesterday.

Read our analysis on this issue from 2 days ago: https://t.co/FLBHK7R0F0 pic.twitter.com/ca58PEXNne

— Tell MAMA UK (@TellMamaUK) July 1, 2020

The post Telegraph claim that ‘half’ of UK’s imported Covid-19 cases from Pakistan total just 30 since June 4 appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The meals were donated by Ossie’s Fish Bar, run by Ossie Ultan, and is a local favourite.

The mosque has also donated £400 to help a local crowdfund to give keyworkers 3D-printed PPE face shields achieve its funding goal as they battle the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

NHS staff thank staff at Osse’s Fish Bar for their generous food donations. Credit: Canterbury Mosque.

Volunteers and committee members generously helped to feed staff at Sturry GP surgery, Ramsgate ambulance station, the Ambulatory Care Unit at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Cross Lane medical practice, Pilgrims Hospice in Canterbury, Canterbury Health Centre, the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service in Canterbury, the Newton Place Surgery in Faversham, and Whitstable and Tankerton Hospital.

Credit: Canterbury Mosque.

Staff at various supermarkets in the Whitstable received hot meals, as did council workers, JobCentre Plus staff, pharmacy workers, and Kent Police officers based in Canterbury.

Chair of Canterbury Mosque, Dr Mohamed Ali, informed Tell MAMA that, to date, they have raised and donated more than £5,000 to assist a range of local charities, including food banks, and helping the NHS in its Rapid access GP station at Kent University with volunteers and refreshments. A donation of £500 went to Canterbury Food Bank to help them with emergency food relief.

Ed Withers, who created the PPE crowdfunding page, said the large donation from the mosque on Facebook, that it has “really shown the spirit of Canterbury’s community.”

Dr Ali added that several of his committee members are on the frontlines battling the coronavirus pandemic in Canterbury Hospital and in local GP services. Others, he said, are helping to organise volunteers, fundraising, and providing essential spiritual leadership for Muslims across Canterbury.

Despite closing its doors before the lockdown announcement on March 23, the mosque continues to encourage its worshippers to donate to local and national coronavirus relief efforts, which includes the giving of zakat.

The post Coronavirus: Canterbury Mosque members donate 2,000 meals to key workers and raise £400 for PPE appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The video, which claims to show the police ‘ignoring’ long queues outside of a cash & carry store on Romford Road, in North-East London on April 17, first appeared online a month earlier, on March 17 – six days before the prime minister Boris Johnson announced strict lockdown measures.

Others have attempted to use footage filmed on April 14 at the same location to stoke racial tensions.

The March 17 video appeared on Twitter at 4:51 pm GMT, and was captioned, “Panic buy in very famous Asian departmental store, The Mina store in Manor park, London E12.”

We compared both videos, revealing that the tweet on the left, was taken on March 17, six days before the lockdown was introduced. On the right, is from a far-right user, using the same video to claim that it was filmed on April 17.

On the evening of April 17, the re-purposed content shared from the Twitter and Telegram accounts of a far-right activist which had gained over five-thousand views on both platforms, dwarfing the 202 views of the original video, which had reflected a moment in time when panic buying made headlines nationally.

On Twitter, the far-right @DawkinsReturns account, shared the re-purposed video with the caption ‘Social Distancing?’ but on Telegram, however, used racialised language to describe the minority ethnic groups featured as the ‘new British’. This user has previously shared anti-Muslim and far-right conspiracies on Twitter, including accusing a Muslim woman of ‘taqiyya‘ and sharing a video discussing demographic change captioned “Britain first live talk on demographics and the great replacement theory.”

The latter far-right conspiracy inspired the white supremacist terror attacks in New Zealand which left 51 Muslims dead last March (and inspired further acts of racist terror in various countries).

Other Twitter accounts would copy the text of this Telegram post, and when combined, had gained almost two-thousand retweets, as the video gained over 50,000 views from both posts.

Tell MAMA continues to urge Twitter to revise its policies and allow users to report tweets designed to mislead and stoke racial and religious hatred. Academics have made similar arguments and warnings.

This problem has intensified during the lockdown, as Tell MAMA has highlighted other examples in recent weeks. Nor is the issue isolated to the UK, as viral falsehoods have gained traction in the United States and India.

The post Far-right fakery: video of panic buyers queuing filmed 6 days before coronavirus lockdown began appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating the assault which occurred on March 18 in South London.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the white Muslim woman, who wears the hijab, agreed to have her story told anonymously.

She described how she did her best to avoid him when walking in the high street, but the man turned towards her and got in her face.

Following the assault, she informed him, that after already experiencing Covid-19 and that she could not catch it again, he swore at her and used the racial slur ‘raghead’ before leaving.

This assault demonstrates how the racialisation of Muslims and their religious clothing, harms all Muslims, irrespective of their ethnicity.

The gendered nature of this abuse and violence demonstrates the intersecting influence of misogyny, given the gendered stereotypes of Muslim women who wear the hijab (or other forms of religious clothing) as being ‘meek and submissive’, are themes explored in various Tell MAMA annual reports.

She described the man as being white, who was in his mid-to-late thirties.

The assault has left the woman feeling anxious and fearful of a similar attack, though the lockdown has created a sense of safety.

Tell MAMA is monitoring the investigation and will continue to assist if needed.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

The post Racist coughed in Muslim woman’s face and told her he had Covid-19 appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The offending tweet, published on March 26, from a user who claimed ‘to have spoken to the mosque’ and was ‘horrified’ to find that it was still open, adding that the people inside could be ‘super spreaders’ of the virus, and urged the police to act.

Credit: Twitter.

The Shrewsbury Muslim Centre, however, has continued to observe the lockdown since the government’s advice changed earlier this month. In a statement published on March 19, the centre committee, as with many places of worship, spoke of their acute concern about the virus and would, therefore, cease holding Friday (Jummah) prayers until further notice.

Credit: Shrewsbury Muslim Centre.

Shropshire Police tweeted yesterday evening that “Probably because there is no Mosque in Shrewsbury. There is a prayer centre & it has been checked and is fully compliant with the current government requirements.”

Other Twitter users condemned the flagrant attempt at stirring up anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia, writing, “Shropshire Police thanks for standing up in favour off against the hater who want to pour petrol and stir up tensions in the community.” One user added that “There isn’t a mosque in Shrewsbury ya daft racist,” as another user replied, “You’re a super spreader of lies and racism.”

Some condemned the user for wasting police time and resources, adding that, “Wasting police time, Russ. You’re nowhere near my town. Thank goodness.”

The tweet did attract attention from a plethora of nationalist and far-right accounts, but a clear majority of the replies condemned the malicious tweet.

When asked what they were going to do about such hateful conduct, Shropshire Police replied that it had been “all duly recorded & reported.”

Tell MAMA urges users to report the malicious tweet, as others have done so. We welcome the quick debunking by Shropshire Police and others who challenged this malicious and inflammatory tweet.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

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