Launch of Islamophobia Awareness Month
Dr. Mozammel Haque
The
Islamophobia Awareness Month was launched on Friday, 2nd of November,
2012 at London Muslim Centre by prominent British organisations and campaigners
to deconstruct and challenge some of the stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.
Leading commentators and politicians, including human rights Lawyer Imran Khan,
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, academic and journalist Myriam-Francois-Cerrah as well
as UNITE the Union’s Steve Hart addressed themes around Islamophobia.
Human Rights Lawyer
Imran Khan
Imran
Khan said, “Anti-Muslim attitudes are directed against people believed to be of
Muslim faith or generally against Islam as a religion, regardless of whether
those affected are actually religious and which branch of Islam they belong
to.”
“In
more recent years and, particularly since the events of 9/11 and 7/7, attention
has very much focussed on Muslims. The agenda set has been one that is
distinctly anti-Muslim,” said Khan.
Human
Rights lawyer Khan said, “The response to 9/11 and 7/7 by leaders in the US and
UK and the ensuing reporting in our media has inexorably led to a rise in
anti-Muslim feeling in our society which might be termed “institutionalised
discrimination” based upon the institutional practices of the state and its
organisations which leads to discriminatory practices against those of the
Muslim faith. It is this process of discrimination which is probably the most
pernicious in its effect because, by its very nature, it has the sanction of
the state and the blessing of society and can be evidenced in a number of ways.
Imran
Khan, Human Rights lawyer, was speaking on Islamophobia and the Law. He
mentioned, “By the way of example, in 2009/10, 36,928 racially and religiously
aggravated offences were recorded by the police in England and Wales. In December 2008 there were 9,975 Muslim
prisoners in England and Wales, equivalent to12% of the prison population. This
represented a considerable increase on the 5% in 1994 and 8% in 2004 and was
more than four times the proportion of professing Muslims at the 2001 census.”
“Ministry
of Justice statistics showed ‘stop and account’ powers were used on 2,353,918
occasions in 2006/7, up a quarter from 1,601,196 in 2006/7. There were twice as
many stops and searches of Asian people per head of population than of white
people. When concerns were raised about this disproportionality Hazel Blears,
then a Government Minister, said that British Muslims should accept as a
‘reality’ that people of Islamic appearance are more likely to be stopped and
searched by police,” Khan said.
Finally,
Human Rights lawyer Khan quoted Anas Altikri, Chief Executive of the Cordoba
Foundation, who said: “Islamophobia is a tragic reality and a test to the
West’s claim to upholding the most noble of human values. Already, we have
failed when allowing laws to pass prohibiting Muslim women from dressing as
they wish in France and building their mosques in a particular aesthetic form
similarly to other places of worship in Switzerland. It is a phenomenon that
will, if allowed to spread unabated, leave none unaffected. It was true in the
case of anti-Jewish and anti-Black attacks in the last century, and it will
prove true if anti-Muslim sentiments are given free reign to expand today.”
Supt. Robert Reavill
Supt.
Robert Reavill, Partnerships, Tower Hamlets Police, said, “We deal with
Islamophobia within the context of hate crime. Complains are investigated by a
dedicated team of officers. Criminal offence was given priority whatever the
race or ethnicity, gender, disability, age, sexuality, religion - actual or
perceived by the victim. We shave seen threat of the EDL on the borough and it
causes concerns the causes to the community.
Mr.
Reavill said it is the time for the communities to work together. He said the
community cohesion is very very important.
Speaking
about the Tower Hamlets Borough, Mr. Reavill said, this is a very very diverse
borough.
Lindsey German
Stop the War Coalition
Lindsey
German, Stop the War Coalition, said to me in an interview, “The war on terror
which begun in 2001 really created the present mood of Islamophobia; when you
bombed on a countries which are largely Muslim countries then you have to
demonise the people where you are bombing and at the same time as we talk about
terrorism among Muslims, we are conducting terror attacks with drone in
Pakistan and Afghanistan and we are creating a situation where more and more
people around the world have grievances against, grievance against the United States
and other countries in the world.”
“And
if we want to end that, we have to campaign not just against the wars but
against Islamophobia as well. Also Islamophobia does not come from the Far
Right but it comes from the government, it comes from the police, it comes from
the whole attitudes in society. The attitudes to Muslims are somehow inferior.
We have to campaign against that as well,” said German.
Jeremy Corbyn
Labour MP
Jeremy
Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North, said to me in an interview, “I am
delighted to support this campaign against Islamophobia and for cohesive
society recognises all faiths and respects for all faiths. Because what I have
noticed over the past eleven years ever since the problem of 9/11 and the war
on Afghanistan has been a gross Islamophobia in the popular press and this then
leads on to unemployment, leads on to discrimination, and leads on to brutality
and that allows quite discriminatory
anti-terror laws passed in this country. So tonight what I am saying tonight is
that Islam is a part of the British society; it’s a part of normal life and
it’s a faith that can be respected and recognised and supported we are here to
demonstrate that tonight.”
“I
remember couple of weeks ago Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan were deported to
the United States to face charges which will never put in British court and
they were not in any sense prosecuted in Britain. Gary McKinnon few days later
was not deported to the USA. Again, the US tried to extradite, the British
government refused. I think everyone else can draw their conclusion from that
decision,” mentioned Labour MP Corbyn.
Lutfur Rahman
Mayor Tower Hamlets
Lutfur
Rahman, an independent executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets and has been
Councillors for 10 years, said, “I regularly get described as an ‘extremist’. I
get depicted as being part of a supposed Islamist conspiracy to ‘Talibanise
Tower Hamlets’. My administration gets depicted as being one that panders to
homophobic and anti-Semitic views. There is not a single shred of evidence to
substantiate these claims.”
Tower
Hamlets Mayor mentioned, “I am not alone in being subject to this kind of
treatment. Labour’s Sadiq Khan, the Shadow Justice Secretary, was accused of
holding ‘extremist’ views after he called for a ‘more independent foreign
policy’. Labour Peer Lord Ahmed found himself being branded an ‘extremist’ and
suspended from the party. When former Conservative Party Chairperson Sayeeda
Warsi was appointed to the Conservative frontbench in 2007 some of her own
colleagues said her appointment was ‘the wrong signal at a time when Britain is
fighting a global war against Islamic terrorism and extremism’.”
“I
don’t doubt there are genuine violent extremists out there and it is right that
they are monitored,” said Tower Hamlets Mayor and added, “But it is wrong and
dangerous to lump all of us who express political opinions via the democratic
process and those who support sectarian hate and advocate violence.
Speaking
about the role of journalists, Mayor Rahman said, “It is a reality that there
are a small but powerful group of journalists who see Islam and Muslims as
alien, hostile and threatening. When the Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips refers
to ‘fifth column in our midst’ we all know who she is talking about. And when
the Spectator’s Douglas Murray says ‘conditions for Muslims in Europe must be
made harder across the board’, we know exactly what he is talking about.”
Mr.
Rahman also mentioned, “Islamophobia is real. It needs to be exposed and
challenged. And events like Islamophobia Awareness Week are very important to
that end.
But
there is a good sign that the preachers of hatred were pushed to the margin in
the Tower Hamlets Borough. “Those who preach hatred, against whatever
community, have consistently been pushed to the margins in this borough. I am
inspired by our residents findings that the number of residents from different
backgrounds who state they get on well together has risen year on year and now
stands at 78%,” mentioned Mayor of Tower Hamlets.
“Islamophobia
is the latest form of attack on this borough’s multicultural identity,” said
Mayor Rahman. But he emphasized, “There is no place for hate in Tower Hamlets.
There is no place for hate against people on the basis of sexual identity.
There is no place for hate on the basis of racial identity. There is no place
for hate on the basis of religious identity. We are one Tower Hamlets. And we
are not going to let the preachers of hate, wherever they comes from, divide
us.”
Sahar Alfaifi
Wales chair of FOSIS,
Sahar
Alfaifi, Wales chair of the Federation of Students Islamic Societies, started
saying, “As a niqabi (face veil),
a Muslim female with a face veil the first things that comes to most people
mind that I am oppressed, that I am uneducated, passive, isolated behind closed
doors and not integrated within the British society. This is how the media
portrayed me; this is how the tabloids see me and now not only that this is
also how some high-profile politicians and leaders think of me. All these are
contributing to the old and new phenomenon Islamophobia.”
She
emphasized by saying, “No. I am not oppressed. I am highly educated. I am
actually scientist, active individual and well-integrated within the British
society. Fortunately, we are living in times of remarkable complacency as well
as rising the new racism.”
“Racism
is now called Islamophobia, spreading across Europe and UK that is manifesting
different forms and shapes from vilifying mosques, attacking Muslims,
marginalising the Muslim as individual, as a society and also as an
organisation,” Ms Alfaifi said.
Ms.
Alfaifi also mentioned, “Islamophobia is also reaching university campuses.
Years ago, a Muslim brother was tapped in City University and many sisters
including me faced verbal, written and physical abuses from pulling off hijab,
the headscarf, to calling them names such as terrorists, bombers, and the list
goes on.”
She
also mentioned, “Islamophobia becomes after-talk dinner as has been described
before and now actually generated and explained away. It also not becomes
limited to the right-wing political activists, but also politicians and
organisations from all sorts as well as governmental sectors.”
“Institutional racism and Islamophobia is expanding and now
reaching the justice and administrative sector by extraditing recently Babar
Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan but not Gary McKinnon and their rights as British
citizen has been denied,” said Alfaifi. .
Wales
chair of FOSIS maintained, “Britain is living example of a country of
democracy, human rights, mutual respect and tolerance. We have to work hard
individually as well as collectively to maintain these values of freedom,
justice and tolerance; because today Muslims who are attacked are never know
who will be attacked tomorrow. These attacks cannot be justified.”
“Whether you agree or disagree with the Muslim faith or
people, whether you agree or disagree with the niqab or face veil, there
is one thing that I hope, we all agree on that niqab or any act of
worship is not a culture, is not a tradition, it is actually an act of worship
like many others and here I truly really believe them,” said Ms. Alfaifi..
Speaking on niqab or face veil which she was wearing,
Ms Sahar Alfaifi emphasized by saying, “No one actually has got the right to
force it on me, neither no one has got the right to take it off me. I pray as a
Muslim and British and more specifically Welsh and there is no conflict or
antagonism between these three identities.”
The
Islamophobia Awareness Month was spearheaded by the Enough Coalition Against
Islamophobia, The Muslim Council of Britain and ENGAGE and other partners.
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