Vaccine disinformation is being “forensically targeted” at specific groups, MPs have heard.

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said that information is “very, very cleverly, hyper super-forensically targeted at different communities”.

Mr Zahawi told the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee that disinformation about vaccines and fertility were “proving to be sadly quite potent”.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had raised no concerns about any of the vaccines and fertility, he added.

And Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch told MPs that people needed to take a “personal responsibility” in tackling vaccine disinformation.

She also told MPs that misinformation around fertility and coronavirus vaccines was coming from “the aunty” rather than social media.

During the committee session, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy asked what efforts were being taken to stop disinformation being targeted at specific groups.

She said: “We have seen the type of disinformation varies depending on the group it’s being circulated to. For example, Hindu and Muslim communities were told there is this information about the vaccine containing meat and alcohol.

“In black communities, we saw historical injustices is being exploited by anti-vaxxer groups.

“And false reports about the vaccine leading to infertility increased fears amongst young women.”

Mr Zahawi replied: “Even if I look at my own background, and mine and my wife’s family, from the Middle East, much of this information is very, very cleverly, sort of hyper super-forensically targeted at different communities.”

On concerns raised about vaccines and fertility, he added: “Some of the anti-vax messages, which are clearly directed at both young men and women around fertility, are false, but proving to be sadly quite potent.

“Some of the focus groups and polling evidence suggests much of the hesitancy is around issues around fertility.”

Ms Badenoch said: “The fertility thing is more problematic as a type of misinformation, because of where it comes from.

“I had a roundtable with clinicians last week and one of them works in east London, and she said that the fertility thing, it’s not social media where we can speak to social media companies and ask them to take it down, it’s the aunty.

“Aunts who may be less well educated or come from a different environment

growing up, in a different country, advising younger people.

“We can’t go into people’s homes and interfere with the sort of communication that is taking place, that’s very personal.

“So that’s why we just must keep repeating the positive messages about safety and also ensuring that clinicians have the information to be able to provide comfort to those people who are seeing the doctors.

“It has to be from the people who are trusted as experts.”

Mr Zahawi told MPs what while there was no safety data on

pregnant women, there is currently no reason to suggest the vaccine would have an adverse effect.

Ms Badenoch said that people needed to take a “personal responsibility” in tackling vaccine disinformation.

She said: “People need to take personal responsibility. Everybody needs to take their own personal responsibility.

“They can’t wait for the minister to fix the vaccine disinformation that’s

happening within their WhatsApp group. We are never going to see it; neither is the social media company or the telephone platform.

“Reinforcing the message that everybody has their responsibility, whether you

are a family member, whether you are a journalist, a clinician, a teacher, a

local politician.

“We, as MPs, also have a responsibility to tackle some of this. I have given

repeated examples of how MPs (for) political purposes end up using vaccine

misinformation phrases that are unbelievably unhelpful.

“We need to be serious and lead by example as well.”

She said that she personally joined trials for the coronavirus vaccine following misinformation about jabs being tested on ethnic minorities.

“We could see the misinformation around the vaccine being tested on ethnic

minorities and things like that,” Ms Badenoch told the committee.

“That was one of the reasons why very early on I decided to go on vaccine

trials and encouraged others to do so. Nadhim (Zahawi) did the same thing.”

Read more: Indonesia expects Halal certificate for experimental Covid-19 vaccine

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/communities-secretary-sets-out-plans-to-improve-integration/ Sat, 09 Feb 2019 14:49:06 +0000 https://www.faith-matters.org/?p=8236

A greater emphasis on promoting British values and the English language forms part of a new action plan to help promote better integration.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said “we cannot ignore the fact that too many places across the country have divides”.

He added these prevent people making the most of the opportunities available.

The plan sets out a series of steps the Government will take in England, backed by £50 million in funding, to create “stronger, more confident and integrated communities”.

The integrated communities action plan states immigrants should build a good understanding of British life and learn English – but local communities also have a responsibility to welcome newcomers.

It promises a “package of practical information” for migrants “to help them meet, mix and build social connections with neighbours and the wider community”.

The Life in the UK citizenship test will give greater prominence to national values , while the language requirements for those seeking to become citizens will also be strengthened.

In schools, teachers will be supported to promote British values across the curriculum and there will be a new national strategy for the English language.

Mr Brokenshire said: “We are a successful, diverse democracy – open, tolerant and welcoming.

“These characteristics are as British as queuing and talking about the weather.

“However, we cannot ignore the fact that too many places across the country have divides, the benefits and opportunities our great country offers are not always felt by everyone equally.”

He added: “Our new action plan charts a course for how we will engage and work with communities to bring people together in recognition that there is more that binds than divides us.

“And as we embark on a new future outside the European Union, we need to ensure that everyone, whatever their background, has access to the same opportunities.”

The plan also includes measures aimed at ensuring communities have access to information and support to improve their areas, including taking much-loved local assets into community ownership

What are the basics? Well, over the last 2 decades much investment has been placed into dialogue and engagement projects, many of which have done some great work, though on a stop and start basis where groups have come in, organised sets of people together and then left, having ticked off a box. Or, depending on a specific theme, campaigns have been run which are based on shared experiences and shared interpretations of life experiences. So far so good, though have they made a real and long lasting difference to the integration of communities so that they feel a part of their local environment and communities?

Even after all of this investment, the pressures of austerity, global political instability, the rise of hatred and intolerance on social media and other factors have placed extreme pressures on communities in Europe and the UK. Add to this, the poison of Islamist extremism and their very adept social media tactics and the bully-boy anger and poisonous social media tactics of far right groups and it is easy to see why communities feel such pressure.

Any Integration strategy needs to reflect on life chances and opportunities and in giving young men and women hope for future employment. It needs to give women the options of having training, the chance to learn English, develop personal confidence and most of all, support perceptions that they have opportunities which can allow them to do something that builds a sense of self-worth in them, if they have not worked for years. Integration also means feeling part of a shared set of values, of belonging and of engagement with other communities and individuals at an equal level. Many of these things may seem aspirational, but they are the cornerstones of a holistic integration strategy, showing how complex and subtle this work is.

Then there are the more difficult elements of supporting institutional independence meaning that the use of public services come with them, a set of core values and ideals that need to be respected. If an institution believes that certain religious or cultural beliefs and practices may impinge on the rights of the user or on the rights of others, should they challenge them? More of these cases are coming to light and no doubt, there will be a greater frequency of such cases where schools may object to religious clothing. Such contentious issues are part of the Integration debate and no doubt, will elicit further responses. Within that public debate, there is no room for groups who attempt to bully and intimidate institutions. If we allow this to happen, we allow thuggery to become the norm and that must be resisted at all costs.

Lastly, we must always stress that integration is a process that can affect many communities. For example, is there a discussion to be had around the integration of some disaffected white men who feel that they have reduced life chances and who have not worked for many years? Such individuals may well feel marginalised and therefore, we need to get away from the immediacy of thinking that integration only affects migrant or Black and Minority Ethnic communities. It potentially affects all communities. 

So, as the Integration Strategy is in the process of being released, we hope that it covers a range of such issues and is not seen as a strategy just for specific communities. If it does that, it will be counter-productive. 

Dame Louise Casey’s long awaited report has highlighted a number of alarming areas and with one predominant feature. That at the heart of Government, a more robust and focussed approach needs to be taken on integration policies which have been previously ticked off by successive Governments by sponsoring interfaith work, as though the ‘tea and samosa’ or photoshoot interfaithers really had any major pull in a fast moving and challenging electronic environment.

So let us look at the core findings of the Casey Review. Having met with 800 members of the public, community groups, front-line workers, academics and politicians, Casey also took over 200 submissions for the Review that had been set up under the Premiership of the Rt. Hon David Cameron MP. This has not been an easy process for her and her team, with a change in the premiership and a new leadership that has probaby wanted to distance itself from the past.

Core Findings

Clustering of Communities

The core findings of the Casey Review are going to make for uncomfortable reading for some. She cites that whilst Britain is becoming more diverse, there are a number of local areas where minority and faith communities are increasing in both segregation and concentration, both at a neighbourhood and at a school level. The report cites that,

“Between 2001 and 2011 in England – the number of wards in which more than 40% of the population were of Pakistani ethnicity grew from 12 to 24 and that the number of wards in which more than 40% of the population were of Indian ethnicity grew from 16 to 20…….In 2011, Blackburn, Birmingham, Burnley and Bradford included wards with between 70% and 85% Muslim populations.”

The report goes onto state that,

“Segregation and ethnic concentrations in schools followed different patterns. In 2015, there were 511 schools acros 43 local authority areas with 50% or more pupils from Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic backgrounds….No other single ethnic or faith group has residential concentrations as high as Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi ethnic or Muslim faith groups.”

Immigration

Casey’s whole ethos has been that if communities do not talk about sensitive matters, then extreme groups and those looking to create divides in society will. She is absolutely right on this and whilst immigration is an area that needs to be tackled sensitively and appropriately, Casey highlights the failure in integration policies over successive Governments. She stresses that this Government must take action by supporting greater integration and dialogue and through approaches which are not based on soft interfaith sessions which speak to the ‘converted.’

She talks about “the impact of the unprecedented pace and scale of recent immigration on communities.” With annual net migration figures being over 300,000 and with a ‘churn’ of 1 million people who enter and leave the UK, local perceptions are impacted by the scale of change, Casey argues. She suggests that a ‘level-headed’ discussion has to be had on immigration and recommends that Central Government should support a new programme to help improve community cohesion through local authority area based plans and projects.

Targeted Assistance & Challenging Cultural Practices that Hold Back Women

Casey eloquently makes the case for targeted assistance to ensure that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women have access to English language skills so that they can access the Labour market. Allied to this, she calls on the Government to further re-enforce and bolster core values and that people need to confront misogynistic and patriarchal views, which hold women back. She states that “regressive or harmful practices justified in the name of culture or religion”, must not be tolerated.

She also goes onto state that Hindu and Muslim women are twice more likely than Hindu and Muslim men to not speak English and this creates a strong barrier to the workforce, further holding back these women for the rest of their lives.

Strong on issues of equality, Casey advocates for cultural practices to be challenged where they hold back equality and that both the Government and society need to be more confident and determined in challenging such practices where they come across them.

Perceptions Within Communities and Prevent

Casey’s findings will also challenge some within Muslim communities. She iterates that British Muslims are increasingly identifying with a ‘global Muslim Ummah’ and that regressive, intolerant, less integrated and sometimes more conservative versions of Islam strengthen the intolerant and extreme far right, when events take place. For example, statements on women and LGBT groups given by some imams, have been pounced upon by extremist far right groups as evidence that Muslims are a threat to society, whilst deflecting the fact that both Islamism and far right extremism have strains of intolerance and autocracy about them.

Casey goes onto state that there needs to be honest conversations about these matters which are to be welcome, though detail in this area seems to be missing as to what Government, civil society and other actors can do. Furthermore, such issues have led to rises in anti-Muslim hatred and hate incidents and Casey’s suggestion that British laws and values are the anti-dote to such issues, seem vague and blunt.

What was needed was a more specific detailed framework through which local authorities could build stronger local action plans including this core area of work within them. In fact, this area is one of the key areas that has led to polarisation as extreme far right groups have promoted web-site and social media texts around speeches made by imams and other individuals within Muslim communities.

Safeguards

Casey rightly makes the point that the growth of unregistered schools and home schooling, put the safeguarding of young people at risk and also exposes them to poor education opportunities. She suggests stronger safeguards need to be in place and also supports the continued delivery of the Prevent, (Preventing Extremism), agenda that has been implemented within statutory authorities as part of the Government’s safeguarding agenda.

Casey goes onto vocally support Prevent and suggests that it needs to be more strongly promoted and defended in communities. What Casey does not mention, has been that successive Governments since the Coalition Government, took a laissez-faire approach in defending the Prevent programme and for years left Prevent open to attacks from groups whose sole purpose was to highlight potential flaws, promote a post-factual world around Prevent and state that Prevent was a ‘mass-spying exercise against Muslims’.

For years these narratives were targeted towards Muslims by groups who had no alternative and who rarely talked about the need for the country to be protected by some form of a community based counter-extremism strategy. The latter was never mentioned in debates apart from consistant attacks on Prevent.

Additionally, the slow tortoise like approach from the Government in admitting, acting upon and highighting actions regarding Channel referrals on far right extremists re-enforced for some, the bizarre belief that Prevent was a ‘mass spying exercise against Muslims’. So whilst Casey makes the case for Prevent, some responsibility needs to be taken by the last two Governments in their monumental failure to defend the Prevent and counter-extremism strategy, to the point that within many in Muslim communities, it is seen through an overwhelmingly negative lens.

Summary

Casey’s report highlights structural employment related inequalities, the need to challenge views that undermine equality, greater advocacy for safeguarding measures and the need to build in greater mixing at local community levels through activities and better urban landscaping. She talks about the need to get women trained in English and the need to break down inter-cultural barriers through targeted assistance and classes. She also introduces an ‘Oath of Integration’ with British Values for those who arrive in the UK, as a means of signing up and adhering to a set of British principles.

The real proof of change will be in the desire of this Government to resource, upskill and stand up to challenges against its programmes which support women from Black and Minority Ethnic communities. For far too long, successive Government’s have also been passive in defending their policies and have wavered when supporters from political fringes within them have lobbied and harried the Government. If we are to truly strengthen core values and principles, then there is a time to stand firm, defend good integration projects and make the case for investment within them. Saying this, the Government must stop funding projects that show faith leaders smiling at cameras and where there are no tangible outcomes apart from people of the same views meeting and self-promoting themselves. It must also have clear impact indicators that measure each and every integration project which the Government supports and which are in line with this national review.

Overall, the Casey report is to be welcomed and Casey undertook the work tirelessly and diligently, meeting with over 800 people in this task of work. She was open, probing, highly informed and clear that something needed to be done to kickstart integration work. Integration she felt, had been left to develop a life of its own and had never really happened in parts of our country, a view that we fully subscribe to. Furthermore, Casey felt that core values needed to be protected and defended, something that we wholly agree with. For far too long, we have allowed views that reduce the human rights of people, to be passively and actively promoted without challenge. For far too long, we assumed that the momentum of ‘good’ triumphing over evil, would naturally happen. Sadly, life and the dynamics of life do not work that way. Maintaing integration and cohesion needs solid hard work on an hourly, daily, monthly and annual basis. Without this consistent energy, we open ourselves to the forces of separation, hatred and extremism.

The Louise Casey review of the state of integration within communities in the United Kingdom may well be launched soon and in the coming months. The Government’s Integration Czar, she has taken a measured, yet honest view based on hard evidence of what is impacting on communities in the United Kingdom.

Some of the focus of the report will be on barriers to employment and cultural practices that hold back women from employment. Evidence over the last decade has shown that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women do suffer significant barriers to employment, yet anyone who knows Dame Louise Casey will know that she will not pull any punches on forensically looking at areas that may also be sensitive and she is right in doing so. Cultural and gender identified roles do not have a part to play in modern society and neither should religion be used to hold back the social, mental and emotional development of women within communities.

The review will also look at areas of extremism and immigration and changes at local levels in communities. Casey’s work has extended over a year now and was first initiated by the previous Prime Minister. With decades of experience on working on anti-social behaviour and child safeguarding, she is best placed to have led this work and to have some honest discussions about immigration when the report is launched. Granted these discussions will not be easy, but they have to happen if we are to reduce barriers between communities and to take the oxygen out of extremist groups using this topic to recruit predominantly vulnerable young men.

Extremism

There are findings which will shape how this Government moves ahead on extremism in the future. Islamist groups who continue to build barriers between statutory agencies, including the Government, will be highlighted. The narrative of ‘them and us’ which has gone unchallenged for far too long, may well be highlighted and if so, it is essential so that young people are not fed half-truths and downright lies that the Government ‘spies’ on Muslims because they are Muslims. This simply exacerbates fractures in communities and ensures that Muslims never reach their full earning or social potential as they withdraw into a world of conspiracy theories.

Equally, by looking at issues like immigration, we hope that the Casey review will be able to start a discussion which means that extremist far right groups can have the oxygen on which they fuel their activities, taken away from them.

We need a new momentum in the coming Parliament, one which is realistic around integration and extremism and there are links across these areas. Those who suggest that they are not, are deluding themselves.

What we also need is less of a focus on supporting integration by the ‘kumbaya politics’ of interfaith work that is promoted by some organisations and with pictures and soundbites doing nothing more than feeding the egos of the leaders of some interfaith groups. We need substantive hard discussions if we are to fill the real vaccum that has developed around integration for some communities.

Dale Jones, 30, of East Bawtry Road in Rotherham, gave no reaction when found guilty of murdering Mushin Ahmed, 81. A lack of reaction matched only by his lack of remorse. Judge Mr Justice Males said Jones was a ‘racist thug’ who cared little for the suffering he caused.

Jones had refused to see Mr Ahmed for what he was: a loving and kind husband, father, and grandfather. A pensioner who commanded respect and adoration from the local community. His family recalled a man who smiled and spoke to many people. A man who imparted his strong moral core on those around him.

August 10, 2015 should have been an uneventful evening for Mushin Ahmed. He should have been able to attend early morning prayers at his local mosque. Dale Jones, however, took that from him. Though others shared in his crime.

Damien Hunt, 30, of Doncaster Road in Rotherham, helped stalk Mr Ahmed. He and Jones walked together like ‘soldiers’, according to the prosecution. Here, Jones had reduced Mushin Ahmed to a slur that grows more common in Rotherham – ‘groomer’. A reference to the nightmarish child sexual exploitation scandal in the town. Where criminal gangs exploited vulnerable young girls due in part to a wider culture of indifference and victim blaming.

Mr Ahmed ignored the abuse and walked away. Hunt and Jones soon had the 81-year-old trapped. Hunt then punched Mr Ahmed to the ground before Jones stamped and kicked the pensioner.

The sustained assault matched the venom of the intended slur. A shoe print left on Mr Ahmed’s skin matched the brand of Adidas trainer Jones had worn that evening. He left Mr Ahmed with fractures to his eye sockets, nose and jaw.

For his part, Damien Hunt, had punched Mr Ahmed with such force that it removed the pensioner’s dentures. Officers found Mr Hunt’s blood still on the broken dentures when they arrived at the scene.

Both men had launched their attack at around 3:20am. They left Mushin Ahmed to die. Around an hour later and Jones saw a friend and told him ‘It is a good job you are not a P*ki’.

A passer-by found Mr Ahmed laying in the grass at around 5:25am. He had been alone and in terrible pain for two hours. Bleeding and brain-damaged, he coughed blood upon arrival at the hospital. Dale Jones, however, spent that time trying to wash away Mr Ahmed’s blood from his clothes.

Forensic pathologist Dr Charles Wilson told the jury at Sheffield Crown Court that Mr Ahmed died from pneumonia. An illness common with patients that suffer serious head injuries, he argued.

Days after his murder, a vigil brought together local Yemeni communities and members of Unite Against Fascism.

Jones and Hunt appeared in court a month later. The charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm with intent turned to murder.

After the funeral in October, his family released a copy of the memorial card through South Yorkshire Police. It read: ‘Each time we look at your picture you seem to smile and say “Don’t be sad but courage take, and love each other for my sake”‘.

During the trial, the prosecution revealed that Hunt had lied in his first police interview on August 13. He told South Yorkshire Police that his bloodied knuckles came from hitting a lamppost while riding his bicycle.

After CCTV placed both men at the scene, Hunt remained trapped in his lies. A week after his initial police interview, he told police that he cut his knuckles trying to stop Jones from assaulting Mr Ahmed. That would again change under scrutiny. During the trial, Hunt maintained that he had punched Mr Ahmed by accident while attempting to stop Dale Jones. Piolice found spots of Mr Ahmed’s blood on his trainers.

Hunt later admitted going fishing for two hours after the fatal assault to ‘avoid’ the police. Under cross-examination he also claimed that he had convinced Jones not to return to the scene and further the assault.

Dale Jones gave ‘no comment’ answers to police and declined to testify during the trial. The content of his character during the trial pointed to a history of violence and racism.

On the night of the fatal attack, Jones had attempted to attack an Asian taxi driver and shouted racist abuse at him. He had made death threats against his girlfriend’s former partner earlier that day. The mixture of alcohol and cocaine served to heighten his racist and violent urges.

Jones had received an eight-week suspended sentence in relation to football hooliganism. Probation officer Alisdair Kirkpatrick told the jury that Jones had said to him that ‘P**** make me very angry’.  Kirkpatrick asked why and he replied: ‘All P**** are rapists’.

Jones had also kicked a man in the head outside a pub. He had assaulted his ex-partner in front of their child. Jones had punched her in the face and had attempted to gouge her eyes. In another example of violence, Jones and two others had assaulted a man from behind and leaving him unconscious.

Peggy Ahmed spoke of her deep grief at losing her husband of almost 50 years. “I have the rest of my life to spend without my beloved husband and my pain and loss is almost indescribable,” she said. They had lived in the same house together for 47 years.

Dale Jones will now spend the rest of his life in prison, with a minimum sentence of 32 years. The jury found Damien Hunt not guilty of murder; but he will spend 14 years in prison for manslaughter.

Detective Chief Inspector Victoria Short, the Senior Investigating Officer for this case, said: “The pair refused to take responsibility for their crime, putting Mr Ahmed’s family through the further distress of a court trial where they had to hear in detail what happened to their loved one. This family have demonstrated exceptional strength and dignity while listening to shocking evidence”.

The post The Mushin Ahmed trial: when anti-Muslim hate turns to murder appeared first on TELL MAMA.

This report is a set of reflections from key social activists, academics and civil society leaders who experienced the social impacts of 7/7 or who have worked with communities shaped by the experiences of 7/7 and scourge of extremism and terrorism. It is an insight into the private and public experiences of individuals and their perceptions of the local, national and global changes that have shaped this generation and their security within nation states. The London bombings changed the lives of many and brought in a period of securitisation that has affected many communities.

The report highlights the impacts on faith communities and changes in the Government’s Prevent (Preventing Violent extremism) agenda and puts forward a set of views on the events of the last decade. Some of the commentators highlight the pathology of extremism and how it shaped perceptions of and public policy making around one faith community, itself, extremely diverse in terms of theological and faith based traditions and concepts.

The report is a joint partnership between the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations in Coventry University and Faith Matters and we hope that it adds to the discourse and debates on extremism.

We are holding the following event as part of our series focussing on how the press portrays certain communities.

Faith Matters are proud to present – ‘One Rogue Reporter’ which was devised and produced by ex-journalist Richard Peppiat and reflects his time in a national tabloid paper. Entitled, ‘Holding Power to Account – One Tabloid Editor at a Time‘, the evening will be a great opportunity to reflect on the role of the press and to discuss any checks and balances that may impact on a press that seems to worry less about the impact of its stories and more about sales.

We hope to see you there and thank you to the Hacking Enquiry for their support who will also be speaking at the event.

More than ever, it is clear that faith plays an important part in some of the lives of young people in our country and a role that inspires social justice and common action for the good of communities.

Faith Matters has set up a Youth Champion’s Interfaith Panel which helps us to develop our projects and that will participate in very exciting projects at national and international levels.

Click image to see full advertisement.

• Who are Youth Faith Champions?
• Aged between 15 and 25 years old
• Engaged in their faith community locally
• Have a willingness to discover other cultures and faiths
• Have a leadership attitude
• Open minded and creative

If you are interested in becoming a Youth Faith Champion, please send us ASAP an email to info@faith-matters.co.uk  or call us on 0207 935 5577