It was in fact the Home Secretary who initiated this proposal just prior to the last general election and clearly, the momentum is growing within this administration.

Tell MAMA warmly welcomes the lead now taken by the Prime Minister to ensure that all forces in England and Wales record anti-Muslim hate crimes and the Prime Minister is also leading the way in showing the importance of tackling anti-Muslim hatred.

For the last three and a half years, we have systematically supported victims of anti-Muslim hatred with over 4,500 people assisted. Hundreds of arrests have led from our work through police forces and we are the only national agency to have a data sharing ACPO protocol with all of the forces. This means we are working with information from self-referrals and from data that the police provide so we are the only agency getting a rich and varied picture of what is taking place nationally on anti-Muslim hatred. Yet, reaching this point has not been easy, as we have acknowledged previously.  There have been multiple barriers internally and externally to Muslim communities and it is clear that Muslim communities require and need a service that they can refer cases into and who understand the complexities and the nuances around anti-Muslim hatred. Many of them, particularly Muslim women, also need support, care and assistance after the traumas that they suffer.

Additionally, we acknowledge that there have been other organisations that have tried to tackle anti-Muslim hatred. They have been a part in the process, as we have, though over the last three and a half years, we have systematically and methodically made the case of the need to record, highlight and campaign on anti-Muslim hatred. We will continue to do so and the proposals from the Prime Minister will add to a collective effort to try and tackle anti-Muslim hatred at a national level. Muslim communities should welcome this decision since it will have far reaching and wider positive implications in the future around tackling anti-Muslim hatred.

As we move forward, we do so in the knowledge that our values and our work will positively add to this area of work around the monitoring and measurement of the scale of anti-Muslim prejudice in our country. In that journey, we hope that we are joined by like-minded organisations who see no national or international conspiracies against Muslim communities, and who only seek to tackle prejudice, hate and intolerance. We also hope that in that journey, Muslim communities, who add so much to this country, advise and guide us on that journey. There is much to learn, and even more to do.

The post We Welcome the Prime Minister’s Drive to Ensure All Forces Categorise Anti-Muslim Hate appeared first on TELL MAMA.

This report looks at the impact of on-line and off-line experiences of anti-Muslim hostility on British Muslims in the UK. It highlights how some male Muslims are failing to report in Institutional anti-Muslim prejudice for fear of being targeted and for fear that they will be seen to be ‘weak’ in the eyes of their families and lead to instability in their employment. It also highlights how key ‘trigger’ events such as the murder of Lee Rigby, the actions of the so-called Islamic State and the Rotherham grooming scandal, have led to multiple impacts within Muslim communities. It also re-affirms the link between racist language and anti-Muslim prejudice, with one female respondent saying, “actually, 9 out of 10 times, the abuse I receive is based on race. Although they use religion because I am identifiable as a Muslim woman, the words that come out of their mouth have to do with race, so the race and the religion are tied up together in people’s minds.”

Participants in the report talk about the disturbing nature of verbal and physical violence that they have suffered. A convert to Islam, Sophie (who wears the Hijab) stated, “a guy walked past, he spat at me and called me a ‘Muzzi’. Also, I’ve been called dirty Paki, (I am white), as a group of guys walked past and shouted ‘speak English in our country.’ I was looking at a map and did not say anything.”

Some participants also warned about the risks of radicalisation, especially for young people as a result of suffering online and/or offline anti-Muslim hate crimes. One respondent, Hamza, noted that “anti-Muslim hate crime has affected Muslims. This is why Muslims are going to Syria. This is why they support ISIS. When people experience Islamophobic abuse, they will be easily radicalised. They feel weak, lonely, isolated, and rejected from British society. This is when these hate preachers pick them up and brainwash them. If you are constantly victimised, you are weak.”

This report also highlights an impact on Muslim communities which is rarely discussed and which includes changes in dress style so that attention is not drawn to the visibility of their faith. The report highlights the issue of Muslims managing their Muslim identity on-line and off-line with the aim of reducing future abuse. It states that, “the reality of anti-Muslim hate crime creates ‘invisible’ boundaries, across which members of the Muslim community are not ‘welcome’ to step. The enactment of both virtual and physical boundaries impacts upon ‘emotional geographies’ in relation to the way in which Muslims perceive the spaces and places around and outside their communities of abode. Rather than risk the threat of being attacked, either off-line or on-line, many actual and potential victims opt to change their lifestyles and retreat to ‘their own’ communities.

]]> 1227