We are proud to announce the launch of the following teaching materials that have been produced by the team at Faith Matters and in partnership with Syeda Ali and Professor Becky Taylor, from the University of East Anglia. We are particularly grateful to Syeda Ali from the University of Cambridge and Professor Becky Taylor from the University of East Anglia in helping Faith Matters to compile these resources for use at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 in schools.

They are, we hope, a valuable teaching resource for teachers when they are looking at issues of social cohesion, citizenship, migration and integration, as well as how the Commonwealth has intersected with British history. These teaching materials tell the story of a community that is fast being forgotten and whose impact on British history over the last 200 years has been significant.

The teaching materials are part of the ‘From East to West’ project that was founded by Fiyaz Mughal – the Founder of Faith Matters and researched by Max Russel. It has been a personal journey for him to document and to collect the stories of those who were expelled and to get the information and pictures into materials that can inform young people about the history of the Ugandan Asians. Mr Mughal is himself, of Ugandan Asian heritage who was expelled from Uganda when he was aged just 15 months, with his family being hosted in refugee military bases such as the RAF base in Stradishall.

We hope that these materials can assist those in Key Stages 3 and 4 in understanding how the impact of the British Empire and its resource needs, drew in people from across the Commonwealth. Many of them were used as cheap labour, inculcated with a sense that they were part of Britain and its Empire, re-settled in Uganda and then forcibly expelled by Idi Amin in 1972. They found themselves at the brunt end of Idi Amin’s anger at Britain, which led to much discussion by the British Government at the time, as to what should be done for the Ugandan Asians.

The sad fact is that Idi Amin was a product of colonialisation. He was brought into the Ugandan army by the Briitish, nurtured and let loose on other Ugandan tribes. He was an enforcer of British rule in Uganda and thereby a by-product of Empire. His impacts were to be felt by the Ugandan Asians who arrived in Britain in August 1972, dressed in clothing that was meant for the heat of East Africa, rather than the cold autumn that was coming in late 1972. These Ugandan Asians, (about 28,000 of them), moved from a land of light, colour and greenery, to the cold, grey and rain of Britain.

This is their story – the story of a displaced people – twice over. Once from India, and then again from Uganda. Yet they have made their home in the United Kingdom, but for many, it has come at a cost of what they lost in terms of their possessions, their memories, their childhoods and their health. This is their story.

Read more: 50 years on, no-one talks about the trauma that affected the Ugandan Asians

In 2016, intelligence services estimated that there were just over 23,000 right-wing extremists in Germany. A myriad of groups networking covertly, utilizing social media to extreme effect, was sowing major social discord. Germany has in modern times been regarded by the rest as immune to the reach of the far-right, partly out of collective shame for Nazism. The country had seen where hate led and would not saunter down that path again.

DOWNLOAD THE PEGIDA REPORT HERE

But today, the country exists as a hotbed of far-right extremism. The proliferation of populist, racist movements has caught many within its political class off guard. One such group is Pegida.

The movement caught on fire in late 2014 through to early 2015, whipping up mass anger around immigration. The organisation threatened Germany’s long held social cohesion, fracturing it in the backwaters of east Germany where anti-immigration attitudes had been rapidly bubbling for a while. Pegida’s aim was to force into the national conversation the concept of a national cultural identity being threatened by refugees and asylum seekers. It was dangerous, but for a while, it was effective. The group came to influence the political system, and particularly, the part Alternative for Germany (AfD). This report will look into their tumultuous history, their peak moments, setbacks, controversies and structural reasons for why they were as popular as they were.

We are proud to launch the following report, which highlights the trajectory of the Democratic Football Lads alliance, offshoot groups and the ongoing engagement with anti-Muslim and radical far right movements in the United Kingdom.

The report has been authored for Faith Matters by two leading lights in this area of work, Dr Matthew Feldman and Dr William Allchorn.

This report appears a decade after the emergence of the English Defence League (EDL), a street movement that has changed the face of radical right politics in Britain.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

Key points from this report include:

  *   A number of key supporters of the D/FLA, such as ‘Tommy Robinson’, rose to national prominence through these new street movements, which include not only the ‘defence leagues’ but the ‘Infidels’, Pegida UK and now the D/FLA.

  *   The D/FLA is on the way to becoming a fully-fledged radical right movement through its overwhelming focus Islam and consistent engagement with anti-Muslim prejudice. Yet the other issues in which it is engaged (such as combating homelessness) have staved off the ‘Far Right’ label to date, but 2019 will be a pivotal year for the group.

  *   The immediate stimulus for the formation of the Football Lads Alliance clearly emerged in reaction to several UK-based ISIS-inspired terror attacks that occurred from March to June 2017.

  *   Organisationally separate from the established UK Radical Right, the D/FLA can be more fruitfully aligned with the nationalistic and anti-establishment concerns of working-class football casuals in the UK.

  *   Since the FLA-DFLA splinter in April 2018, however, the rhetoric and group of actors within this new protest movement have seen the group move onto anti-Islam and anti-Muslim issues more customarily associated with the UK Far Right.

  *   At the start of 2019, the direction of the DFLA looked unclear – it is however certain that the DFLA may yet prove to be another incubator group for the Far Right, like the defence leagues and other anti-Muslim groups before it.

The social polarisation of a globalised world continues. Toxic discourse around ethnicity, identity, citizenship, belonging and nationhood has led to the fracturing of communities along the lines of skin colour and accents rather than shared values. And although societies are far more conscious today to not tolerate racism, what is clear also is that fear and suspicion still breed ignorance, prejudice and bigotry. They become the stones that fuel xenophobic, populist movements rooted in reactionary politics.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

The far-right have returned to increasing prominence, their racism masquerading as faux liberalism. Pulsing darkly through their movements remains a deep-seated dislike of those they see as ethnically and culturally different. With politicians increasingly unsure of how to defeat them, we risk veering towards the creation of right-wing, authoritarian societies not wired with empathy but natural hostility towards others.

These movements are a sore test of the values cherished by Western liberalism. As this report will show, the far-right have tracked plenty of support that has frayed the social cohesion of different countries. In a time when immigration and globalisation has created discontent and resentment, the far-right have provided misleading and simplistic answers to deeply complex problems that cannot be resolved simply by banning immigration and turning away all Muslims. As Jose Zuquete explained, “the threat that the Crescent will rise over the continent and the spectre of a Muslim Europe have become basic ideological features and themes of the European extreme right. Thus, the concept of ‘Islam’ galvanizes group action: as the group rallies a ‘defence’ against Islamization.”

The focus of this report will be on Generation Identity, who they are and what they stand for. In the wake of a global refugee crisis triggered by conflicts in the Middle-East, far-right groups such as Generation Identity have emerged portraying immigration and multiculturalism as physical and moral threats to their ways of life.

We are launching this report on Rebel Media and its influence online in a world where click-bait content, conspiracy theories and untruths become fact in the minds of some.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE

This report, entitled ‘Rebel Media – a platform promoting division, white nationalism and fear mongering‘ highlights the following. Key points include the following:

• Ezra Levant has made a career out of using inflammatory language to gain audiences. He is the founder of Rebel Media and he has previously accused Gypsies of being “rapists, drug-dealers, thugs and murderers”.
• Former contributors on the payroll of Rebel Media have included Tommy Robinson, Lauren Southern, Katie Hopkins and Paul Joseph Watson. They are notorious for their anti-Muslim, anti-refugee and anti-migrant views as well as promoting views of a clash of cultures between the West and the East.
• Central to Rebel Media’s message is the platforming of far right ideology, many would identify as ‘counter-Jihadi’ and with slants that seek to portray a world view of ‘them and us’ – with Muslims in Europe being viewed as ‘them’.
• There are three heavily emphasized themes that make up Rebel Media’s output. These include, white nationalism, the rejection of ‘political correctness’ and its criticisms of Islam.
• It has 1.156 million subscribers on You Tube and 169,000 plus Facebook followers. It also has 161,000 Twitter followers meaning that it has a substantial online reach that can influence people across national boundaries.
• Groups like Rebel Media have successfully tapped into a wellspring of discontent and unease, ramping up fears that white people are facing a rapid decline managed by elitist institutions on the side of minorities and ‘homosexuals’ and by using immigration as a tool against white people.
• Rebel Media essentially believe that there is an Islamist infiltration through increased number of Muslim migrants.
• Ezra Levant, the founder of Rebel Media, was investigated for possible contempt of court charges for filming inside the Old Bailey in September 2018. The investigation was subsequently discontinued. He was filming Tommy Robinson during his trial for recording a short social media film outside Leeds Crown Court, which was hearing a grooming trial at the time.
• Two former ‘Rebel’ staffers have suggested that Rebel Media raises over $1,000,000 dollars in subscriptions per annum. It also received a $2 million payment from the anti-Muslim think tank, the Middle East Forum.
• It continues, like Infowars, to promote a view of white victimisation in a global world where liberal elites are conspiring against them.

The author of the report, Rabbil Sikdar said:

“Much more work needs to be done to counter the fake news around Muslims and the insinuation that building mosques or having halal-certified food amounts to a ‘Muslim takeover’. It alludes to a soft power approach by Islamists. People who buy into this false narrative are then likelier to protest against Islamic institutions like mosques and faith schools or call for fewer Muslims, or even support authoritarian measures against them. Rebel Media are essentially existing as a platform for the spread of fear and hate, and all their contributors work on this line. They have essentially globalised hate and we should be really concerned by that”.

My Story is a new project launched by Faith Matters, which brings forward the untold stories of faith and spirituality within local, national, and international contexts. If the stories are separated by distance, they are bound by a unifying aim: to promote change and to promote tolerance and understanding in their communities, and in communities abroad.

Through My Story, Faith Matters hopes to empower young activists and bring their unique voices forward and support them in reaching a wider audience.

In this project, we would like to offer our audience a close-up experience of personal stories, encouraging listening and opportunities to reflect on the experiences of others. The main aim of My Story is to challenge those who seek to divide communities by offering a different story, an individual, personal, and honest story.

Participants explain, in their own words and images, how their faith is not a passive act, but an act that is both deeply personal and a way of being.

]]> 8281 https://www.faith-matters.org/tell-mama-annual-report-2017/ Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:17:08 +0000 https://www.faith-matters.org/?p=7914

Beyond the Incident: Highest Number of Annual Reports Logged by Tell MAMA Since Launch in 2012

Director of Tell MAMA, Iman Atta OBE says, “We are in deeply worrying times where people are looking for certainty and what they are getting is instability at a political and societal level. This means that at times like this, minority groups are the ones who suffer the anger of those looking to vent their fears, insecurities and concerns.

“We are seeing more aggressive street-based incidents, younger perpetrators, between the ages of 13-18, increased vandalism and international interference by well organised social media accounts playing groups off in the UK. More than ever, we need to come together and redouble our efforts against those who seek to divide and play communities off against each other”.

Key Points

• In 2017 Tell MAMA recorded a total of 1,330 reports. Of these reports, 1,201 were verified as being anti-Muslim or Islamophobic in nature and as having occurred in the UK between January and December 2017. More than two-thirds of verified incidents occurred offline, or on a street-level (70%, n=839), which represents a 30% rise in offline reports when compared to the previous reporting period (n=643). An offline, or street-level, incident means that the incident occurred in-person between a victim (or property) and a perpetrator. There were therefore more street incidents of anti-Muslim hatred reported into Tell MAMA.
• Crimes or incidents that are classified as ‘online’ occurred on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, or on other Internet-based platforms, were verified as having happened within the UK, and account for a third of reports in 2017 (n=362), which represents a 16.3% rise in reports when compared with the previous year (n=311). This small rise can be partially attributed to the way in which ideologically-motivated accounts felt emboldened by major trigger events, (such as terrorist attacks) and broader Islamophobic discourses in the public sphere.
• The ‘online hate’ figure, however, should be viewed as part of a wider trend in our data sets where there has been a marked shift towards more serious offline incidents such as physical attacks, threatening behaviour and abuse more generally, along with a growing awareness of Tell MAMA in Muslim communities, among key stakeholders, and partners, resulting in a greater willingness amongst victims and witnesses to report.
• Tell MAMA has listed in its Annual Report examples of ‘Twitter bots’ that have sought to cause disruption and division in community perceptions and which have actively promoted anti-Muslim hatred. One such Twitter account was @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 originated from Russia. Furthermore, a Twitter account called @SouthLoneStar, which had amassed some 16,500 followers, was responsible in starting a global trend after the Westminster terrorist attack.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE.

For further information about Tell MAMA please click here.

Report by Ian Acheson, Former Prison Governor and Reviewer of Islamist Extremism in Prisons, Makes the Case.

This report – “Faith, Hope and Clarity”, commissioned by Faith Matters, and published today makes the case that Muslim communities, working in a unique new partnership with statutory services, can reduce risk of released extremist prisoners re-offending through a community re-integration programme called the ‘Sunnah’ concept.

This concept empowers a core of carefully selected community based supporters who provide a ‘virtuous circle’ around the offender. These core supporters carry out a number of functions. They can challenge Islamist ideology, ensure behaviour is appropriate, monitor risk and provide practical help. In this way the community is given formal responsibility for helping resettle offenders with more prospects for them abandoning toxic behaviours and beliefs than the state creates on its own.

Acheson is a former prison governor with a long track record of work in the extremism field. He was responsible for the ‘landmark’ 2016 independent review of the threat posed by Islamist extremism in the criminal justice system and is the architect of the separation units for highly subversive extremist offenders. He writes extensively for the media continues to advise government nationally and internationally on combatting violent extremism.

The report highlights:

1. That terrorism trials and convictions are rising,
2. That the offender profile is changing as the police and security services get better at detecting and disrupting plots at an early stage
3. Better detection and disruption can mean shorter prison sentences or in a rising number of cases, community penalties.
4. Our national security depends on the state but the state alone can’t keep us safe from future harm. We need to look imaginatively at other models including greater use of communities to resettle ex-extremist offenders successfully.
5. We need to mobilise communities to help people convicted of extremism stop being a threat to us and change their hateful beliefs for good.
6. The vast majority of those convicted of extremism offences are Muslims inspired by Islamist extremism. The faith communities they return to after custody have a potentially huge role to play in partnership with the state to keep us safe.   
7. The ‘Sunnah’ concept is a radical way to apply tried and tested thinking on sex offender management in the community to extremist prisoners.

Speaking on the launch of the report, Ian Acheson said:

‘Considerable numbers of terrorist offenders are now on the criminal justice conveyor belt. Most of them will return to their communities and increasing numbers are being given short sentences or community penalties. Many of these offenders will face unique and specific difficulties reintegrating with the communities they have come from and harmed. It’s not clear to me that the state should carry the burden of managing this risk or even if it can get ideologically extreme behaviour and beliefs changed on its own.  

I’ve argued that a partnership of community and statutory authorities is the best approach to reintegrating terrorist offenders and keeping all of us safe in the long term. It requires imagination and courage to take this approach but if the prize is safer communities who have a stake in protecting our national security, it’s worth exploring seriously. This is what I hope Government will do”.

Notes

1. Download the report HERE.
2. 695 people in this country have been convicted after facing terrorism charges since September 11th 2001.
3. As of September 2017 (the latest available statistics), 213 are currently in custody.
4. The remaining 482 will have served their sentences and are in the community.
5. 20 terrorist related offenders were released from custody between Jan 15 and September 17..
6. Non-custodial sentences for terrorist related offences is climbing steadily – it’s now 9% of all terrorist sentences – underpinning the need for community-based solutions.

In recent years, several high-profile terrorist attacks, emanating both from the Far Right and from religious extremists, have brought public attention to the link between mental instability and susceptibility to radicalisation. Often it has been the friends, co-workers and relatives of those who have committed violent acts who have then retrospectively voiced concerns about those individuals’ mental health.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

Overall, links between mental health issues and extremist acts, whether motivated by a Far-Right or Islamist ideology, were first suggested by the family and friends of those who had committed violence. However, academics and researchers have also noted the link. Connections between mental health issues and extremism merit further investigation, not least because findings can then be implemented as part of a strategy based upon prevention and catching such individuals early, rather than judicially punishing them after they have committed criminal acts. As Chief Constable Simon Cole said: “We cannot arrest our way out of a terrorist crisis”. Instead, a more effective strategy is to understand the basis of such acts and utilise this knowledge to identify potential future extremists. It should therefore be a cause of reassurance that academics have noted the need for partnerships between mental health professionals and counter-terrorism police, with schemes now permitting police to utilise the expertise of mental health specialists and embed them within their work. Despite families of extremists complaining of a lack of support from health services, whether for themselves or for their troubled relatives, that the police are uniting with mental health specialists to utilise their research and expertise is promising, as we look to the future.

You can download the report HERE

Faith Matters launches a ground-breaking paper looking at worrying levels of far-right anti-Muslim racism in Poland and anti-Muslim activism in the UK in Polish Communities

• A chronology of Islamophobic incidents in Poland demonstrates how some have exploited international events to attack Islamic institutions, including an attack on a mosque in Poznań, shortly after the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris in January 2015,
• Polling of European countries in 2016 found that negative views of minorities and refugees were commonplace. Negative views of Muslims were widespread in Italy (69%), Hungary (72%), and Poland (69%). It is perhaps unsurprising that almost a quarter of Poles interviewed expressed negative opinions towards Jewish communities. Ideological leanings to the right were indicators of increased unfavourability towards Muslims.
• Anti-refugee sentiment remains stubbornly high in Poland, even though the country has hardly taken in refugees post the Syria civil war. For example, just over half of Poles polled who expressed favourable views of Muslims had agreed that refugees pose a threat, though this jumps to 81% amongst the Poles who expressed unfavourable views of Muslims. Outside of Hungary, Poles expressed the most concern (71%) that refugees will increase the risk of domestic terrorism. Almost of a third of Poles agreed that Muslims in their country support ISIS, as a similar number declined to answer this question. As with other countries, Poles also overwhelmingly agreed that refugees were ‘drains’ on the welfare system.
• Perhaps these factors help explain how many Europeans uniformly overstate the size of their respective Muslim populations. In Poland, researchers found that on average, Poles believed that of every 100 people, seven are Muslim. The reality is that this figure is under 0.1%.
• Regarding population shifts, Poles believed that Muslims would make up 13% of the population in 2020. Pędziwiatr (2016) attributes this perception gap to the misinformation presented in sections of Polish press and by certain public figures. 
• Social researchers, Gawlewicz and Narkowicz (2015), highlight how the rich Islamic history of the region is ignored, demonstrating how this panic is a modern problem, and reflective the political shifts in Poland in recent years. Some of the key social agitators, highlighted in the Faith Matters report are based in the UK and Poland.

• The history of the Polish Muslim Tatars is completely overlooked by social commentators who promote anti-Muslim hate, as though hundreds of years of engagement with Muslims that have shaped and made up a part of Poland’s history, simply do not exist.

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