Two Muslim men sit on a train, minding their own business. A white fellow passenger starts abusing them. “I’ll defeat you,” he says, “whatever it takes.” He goes on. “Jihad bastards” – and a few more similar phrases. “Bring it on, brother!” he goes. “F***ing Muslim bastards.” The train reaches the Muslim men’s stop: they get off, and so does the white man. He lunges at them – wild swings with his legs, flailing arms, still shouting. The fact that seems to be drunk stops the punches connecting and makes the scene comical – on one level. A passer-by joins in, telling the Muslims to leave the man alone! It’s a shocking video: shocking because of what happens, shocking because you can’t help thinking how much worse it might have been – if the attacker hadn’t been disabled by drink; if he had got it together to smash the bottle that looks to be in his bag and started swiping that around… It’s shocking that no passengers help the Muslim boys and it’s shocking because it is both shocking and routine at the same time. But mostly it’s shocking because this video was posted on the Tell Mama website, which records anti-Muslim harassment and attacks, and the end of October – three weeks before the Paris massacres.
[Adverts]
Since those massacres, a new wave of islamophobia has swept the world – building on an already high level of hate crimes ranging from verbal abuse through to violent attacks. Over 100 anti-Muslim attacks were reported to the UK police in the week after the massacres: three times the “normal” number. The abuse is often directed at women in Muslim dress – partly because they are the most visible, but also because they are seen as the more vulnerable. A couple of months ago, London police revealed that the number of reported Islamophobic offences in London had increased by 71% over the last year. The Tell Mama website records the recent case of Hijab-wearing Khadija, who was peacefully drinking a cup of tea in a coffee shop when a man began staring at her – coming over to put his face close to her and ask “whether she was ‘going to blow things up today’”. Fortunately this time members of the public (not apparently Muslims) intervened and as the threats continued the police were called and in the end they arrested the abuser. Despite the increase in Islamophobic abuse, there are signs that similar – supportive – interventions from members of the public are on the increase too. Ruhi Rehman was recently interviewed on Good Morning Britain telling a story of how she was harassed as she travelled on the Newcastle Metro. Ruhi is Newcastle born and bred, but a fellow passenger to her to get out of her seat “because this is my country” and accusing her of wanting to bomb the train. Fortunately, fellow passengers – including a bunch of football fans – came to her defence, telling the abuser to shut up before removing him from the train, delighting everyone else in the carriage who broke into spontaneous applause as the train sped off again leaving the abuser on the platform. The local radio has appealed for anyone with information about the abusers to come forward and the Metro is working with the police to try to identify them. The support shown to Ruhi is similar to the support a young woman wearing a hijab received on a Victoria line train a couple of weeks ago. The woman, who is thought to be around 18 years of age, was met with a stream of racist abse from an older man who joined the train at Oxford Circus. It was all too much for fellow traveller Ashley Powys, who stepped in between the two, acting as a human shield to absorb the abuse being hurled at the young woman – which was then turned on him. Mr Powys continued talking to the young woman, who said her name was Yara. He stayed on the train past his own stop to make sure she reached her destination, where some friends were meeting her. He was shocked to hear that she had been abused like this several times before and when he left her he told her many people felt like him and she should “never have to feel afraid in her own country.” Sadly, Mr Powys was the only traveller who stepped in to help.
[Adverts]
It’s not just physical attacks that are giving cause for concern. A recent report by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has found that 60% of Muslims in Britain have seen Islamophobia being directed at a fellow Muslim. In 2010, the figure was just 40% – a shocking 50% increase in just five years. Whereas in 2010, half of the Muslims questioned said they had never seen an Islamophobic incident, that number has now plummeted to just 18%. The survey directly repeats a set of questioned asked in 2010, and almost every finding has a worse results – showing a despondent community with little confidence that the police and the state are helping. More than two thirds of those questioned said that had heard anti-Islamic comments by politicians. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury (the most senior position in the Church of England), welcomed the report, saying: “This will make very uncomfortable reading; not all will agree with every aspect of the analysis, but it is painfully clear that physical and verbal violence against Muslims has risen spectacularly in recent years. What is described here is a serious reproach to our society’s most humane ideals and values.” Similarly, Tell MAMA has compiled a report looking at the on-line and off-line experiences of anti-Muslim hostility on British Muslims in the UK. The report suggests that there may be a great deal of under-reporting of anti-Muslim prejudice as some Muslims fear they may face discrimination at work if they make a fuss. The report also confirms that key events trigger upsurges in anti-Muslim behaviour. One respondent is reported as 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.” A third key conclusion is that Islamophobia and fear of Islamophobia are in fact driving Muslims back into their own communities and discouraging integration.
[Adverts]
It’s all a vicious circle. Daesh claims that the western world is anti-Muslim and it appeals to young Muslims in the West to come an fight for their religion. When Daesh perpetrates another atrocity, westerners are repulsed and there is a backlash of anti-Muslim sentiment. Daesh uses this to support its claims that the west is islamphobic, and so it goes on. These few examples, though, of non-Muslims standing up to public islamophobia can only be encouraging – and they have doubtless been fuelled, in part, by the number of Muslims who have (rightly) condemned the Paris attacks, just as the help given to the Aldgate victims of 7/7 showed the charitable and human sides of Islam. Can we go further? After 13/11, many people spoke out against the Paris atrocities and took part in small but meaningful acts of solidarity such as tweeting pictures of the Eifel tower and putting tricolour washes over their Facebook pages. Politicians were keen to join in and be seen to be expressing their solidarity with the people of Paris (including the many Muslim victims of the Daesh gunmen). Will politicians now, even-handedly, speak out against the rise in Islamophobia and its consequences?
•If you suffer anti-Muslim prejudice or hate, do report it to Tell MAMA on 0800-456 1226 or via e-mail to info@tellmamauk.org. You can also tweet @tellmamauk or text them on 0115-707 0007.
[Adverts]
•Islamophobia is said to have reached “unprecedented” levels in the USA according to the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which is recording incidents. Since the Paris atrocities, CAIR has reported dozens of cases of mosques being attacked and vandalised and threats being made to their communities. Incidents recorded from across the USA include shots being fired at the Baitul Aman mosque in Meriden, excrement being smeared on the door of the Islamic Centre of Pflugerville, and a man in Texas being charged with making a terrorist threat for posting on his Facebook page “I’m going to shoot up a mosque. I’m sorry.” A woman wearing a jihab was insulted and then assaulted in a supermarket car park in Cincinnati; a pregnant woman in San Diego, who had a young child in a push-chair, had that push-chair shoved into her stomach; a woman student was abused and had her scarf pulled off at San Diego state university. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad spoke at a press conference organised by the US Council of Muslim Organisations in Washingon, where he condemned the terror attacks in Paris and urged people in the USA to find a positive way forward. CAIR officials are worried that the right wing rhetoric being brought out during the US presidential campaign is helping to fuel the violence. Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman campaigning to be chosen as the Republican Party’s candidate, recently called for all Muslims in the USA to be registered on a government database, while Ben Carson, another Republican hopeful, said Muslims were like “rabid dogs”. The House of Representatives has halted Syrian and Iraqi refugees entering the country until immigration procedures can be tightened up, and Governors of several states have said they will not admit refugees from Syria.
•Members of the Party for Freedom Australia stormed into a Council meeting in the Leichardt district of Sidney last week, protesting against Syrian refugees being homed in the area. Protestors entered the Council Chamber, waving placards saying “We don’t want Muslim Jihadis” and shouting anti-Islamic slogans including, “Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want refugees here.” They left after the police arrived. A Freedom Party spokesperson later told the press, “We don’t want Muslim asylum seekers. They should be resettled in the Middle East… Importing people from a warzone you’re just asking for trouble.”
•Following a local referendum back in 2013, in which two thirds of the population demanded the banning of the burqa, the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, Switzerland, has just legislated for a ban on face veils being worn in public places such as shops, restaurants and public buildings, with a maximum fine of £6,500 for anyone who does so. It is not yet clear when the ban will begin. A similar ban was passed in France in 2010, and was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights last year. Despite public protests that the ban was inherently discriminatory, the Court reasoned that ordinary people have a right to live together and this right was threatened by Muslim women covering their faces, so a ban on this was justified.
[Adverts]