Man Charged with Attacks on Birmingham Mosques – Arman Rezazadeh

August 20, 2019 Article

A man has been charged with religiously aggravated criminal damage after five mosques had their windows smashed in Birmingham.

The investigation, which involved counter-terrorism officers, began in the early hours of March 21 after four mosques had their windows broken with a sledge-hammer overnight.

West Midlands Police said Arman Rezazadeh, 34, was detained under the Mental Health Act, but has now been deemed fit to charge.

Officers received reports of vandalism at Al-Habib Trust in Birchfield Road in Aston at 2.32am and then attended a second attack at the Ghousia Mosque in Slade Road, Erdington, at 3.14am.

Patrols then started in areas with mosques and police came across further damage to Witton Islamic Centre in Witton Road, Aston, and Masjid Madrassa Faizal Islam on Broadway in Perry Barr.

At 10.04am, officers responded to a smashed window at Jamia Mosque on Albert Road, Aston, after pictures were circulated on social media.

Deputy Chief Constable Louisa Rolfe had described the attacks as “an abhorrent, despicable act that is clearly designed to create fear in our communities who are actually cherished in Birmingham”.

The force said it has conducted a thorough investigation and it continues to work in partnership with mosques around the West Midlands to offer reassurance to communities.

Rezazadeh, of Greenhill Road, Handsworth, will appear at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on September 12.

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Categories: anti-Muslim hate, Arman Rezazadeh, attacks, Birmingham Mosques, hate crime, Jamia Mosque, News

Man attempted to punch disabled Muslim woman and ran off shouting “P*ki”

August 19, 2019 Article

“I was shocked to hear the word P*ki, I’ve not been called it in years”, said Shiria Khatun, as she described the racist abuse she faced from a fellow customer at a branch of the Co-Op in London on August 13.

“It took me back to the dark days of the National Front, who would bang on my front door and shout ‘P*ki’”, she added.

The 47-year-old wanted Tell MAMA to share her experience without anonymising her identity.

She was queuing to pay for her goods, which she had dropped several times due to her disability, and a man, who she described as white, bald, and middle-aged, sporting a high-visibility jacket, loudly tutted at her for dropping her goods.

Shiria turned to the man, offering her apologies, and patiently began to explain how her disabilities meant she was unable to hold onto her items without dropping them.

His response, however, was of a man gripped by paroxysms of racist anger and entitlement, as replied: “You P*ki. You disabled P*ki”. Adding, “You lot think you can do anything”.

But Shiria challenged him, adding that there was no need for that language, nor was it her role to justify or explain herself to him.

His racism continued, and he made a crude remark about her hijab, stating: “Can you even see with that thing on your head? Probably why you’re dropping things”.

And, again, Shiria challenged the man, who then attempted to punch her in the face, which was blocked by her teenage son.

A member of staff then intervened, but the man fled the store, shouting “P*ki” as he left.

Shiria reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police, who took her statement three days later, on August 16.

The racialisation of Muslim identity means that Muslims, irrespective of ethnicity, face racist abuse, including the slurs directed at Shiria, who is not Pakistani. It also impacts non-Muslims, including Hindus and Sikhs, who have, according to some academics, had their faiths ‘othered and delegitimised’ through the reconfiguring of their religions through a racial lens.

Academics have contended that the visibility of the hijab serves to reinforce the “age-old stereotypes about Muslim women as meek and submissive” amongst perpetrators.

Tell MAMA continues to document the gendered nature of this issue. In the 2017 reporting cycle, more than half of those reporting incidents to Tell MAMA were female. And, a clear majority of perpetrators were male (64.6 per cent), with 69 per cent of all male perpetrators identified as white (where the perpetrator data was available and verified). In the interim reporting cycle, between January and July 2018, 58 per cent of those reporting incidents to Tell MAMA were Muslim women.

Grounding any understanding of this issue, therefore, in a framework of intersectionality, is imperative. This concept of black feminist thought presents a framework to stop the essentialism of difference. Writing in Living a Feminist Life, the scholar Professor Sara Ahmed noted that “Intersectionality is messy and embodied” in the hope of broadening the discussion to recognise certain privileges, like being able-bodied, but still face structural and personal forms of oppression. Ahmed argues: “It is easy for me to forget to think about it [able-bodied privilege], which is what makes a privilege a privilege: the experiences you are protected from having; the thoughts you do not have to think”.

Shiria’s case is another example of how this issue harms the mobility of Muslim women, curtailing the right to shop free from abuse, discrimination, or attempts of violence. Tell MAMA continues to document other examples where fundamental rights of religious expression have been hindered or curtailed in employment and education.

It was a fear that fewer Muslim women are speaking out about their experiences of racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim prejudice, which encouraged her to not only contact Tell MAMA but agree to have their story told.

Tell MAMA, in partnership with CATCH (Community Alliance to Combat Hate), works to support those who face abuse or discrimination, due to various protected characteristics, meaning that someone who experienced an Islamophobic and anti-disability hate crime or incident, can be referred to the appropriate support service.

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Categories: Co-Op, disability hate, London, Metropolitan Police, News, Supermarket

Salford City investigating racist slur made against Muslim supporter

August 14, 2019 Article

A Muslim man was abused by a middle-aged man, who said: “You haven’t come to bomb the place have you?” and then laughed, as they queued to purchase tickets for the Carabao Cup clash between Salford City and Leeds United.

The incident took place outside of Salford City’s Peninsula Stadium on August 11 at around 10:00 am GMT.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, he consented to have his story shared anonymously to raise awareness of the incident, reported the Islamophobic and anti-Muslim abuse to staff who are investigating.

Tell MAMA reported the incident to Greater Manchester Police on their behalf.

The Muslim man felt targeted due to his beard, ethnicity, and thobe, which demonstrates the intersections between racialisation and religiosity. Non-Muslim men have faced racialised abuse and violence on the misperception that their appearance, including their ethnicity and beard, were indicators of the Islamic faith.

He described the perpetrator as a white male, who was in his mid-to-late fifties.

A spokesperson for Salford City spoke of their “immense disappointment”, and, in a statement to Tell MAMA, said: “We are hugely disappointed to learn of this, and it is being dealt with in cooperation with the relevant authorities. Salford City does not tolerate the use of racist or abusive language or behaviour and we will take relevant action against the person responsible in conjunction with Greater Manchester Police”.

Kick It Out, the anti-discrimination charity, reported a 43 per cent rise in reports of racist abuse in English football, with 274 reports when compared to the previous reporting cycle, with an additional 99 reports of racist abuse online.

Racist incidents continue to rise, with 274 incidents reported to Kick It Out during the season – an alarming 43% increase on the previous campaign.

An additional 99 reports were made regarding racist abuse online.

Full report: https://t.co/rlFsktKU7x #KickItOut pic.twitter.com/68uHY7bGRQ

— Kick It Out (@kickitout) July 24, 2019

Kick It Out also measures faith-based discrimination, which includes Islamophobia and antisemitism, rose by 75 per cent, with 63 reports compared to 36 reports the previous year. The charity said on Twitter that such a rise was “a significant cause for concern”.

Recent examples of Muslim footballers being targeted for racist abuse online, including Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Nottingham Forest striker Lewis Grabban were both subjects of criminal investigations, with 32-year-old Gary Hyland pleading guilty to the abuse of Salah last week.

Photographs of Grabban and Salah were doctored to include suicide vests.

Show Racism the Red Card, a charity which works to counter racism, issued a statement late last month after a small section of Newcastle United supporters made pro-Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) chants during a pre-season friendly with Hibernian FC.

Kick It Out has an online form and apps on Google Play and iOS to report racism and discrimination in football.

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Categories: football, Greater Manchester Police, News, Salford, Show Racism the Red Card

Uber driver felt “mentally broken” after facing racial abuse from passenger

August 9, 2019 Article

A Muslim Uber driver has been unable to work and felt “mentally broken” after being racially abused by a passenger in Brighton.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the driver, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how he collected a group of passengers on July 30, at around 11:45 pm GMT.

One of the three passengers, described as being an Italian man in his mid-to-late forties, asked several personal questions of the driver, including his name and where he was born.

He answered the passenger’s questions. But the passenger became more belligerent in tone, adding: “Why are you working for f**king British people? I f**king hate British people” and “I am Italian and proud to be Italian. You should go back to your country. You are discriminating against your own country”.

The driver then requested that the passenger stop being disrespectful, but instead, the passenger continued to repeat his racist remarks. So, the driver pulled over and insisted that he could take the passengers no further and that they should order a different taxi, as he was unable to continue with their journey.

The racist passenger grew more belligerent as he exited the vehicle, he said out “f**king Muslim” and referred to the driver as a “c***”.

After the passengers left, the driver contacted Uber and Sussex Police to report the racial abuse.

The physical and psychological toll of hate crime is well-documented, harming the mental health and wellbeing of individuals. In broader terms, there is a blurring or overlap between racial and religious discrimination in the context of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice. Racial discrimination, however, has been linked to increased psychological distress, hypertension, and poorer general health. The city of Milwaukee, in the United States, declared last month that racism is a public health crisis. Despite such negative health impacts, structural racism for black and Asian people struggle to access talking therapies or treatments for mental or emotional problems. Perceptions of discriminatory attitudes from healthcare practitioners, studies have found, has seen some withdraw from seeking help. The Race Disparity Audit found that patients from Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, and Chinese backgrounds were more likely to express dissatisfaction with the experience of getting a GP appointment, and with the quality of service.

Tell MAMA, has, for many years, documented the risk working in the night-time economy, such as taxi drivers, security personnel and those in the hospitality sector, may have for Muslims, vulnerable to Islamophobic hate crime.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

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Categories: News, Sussex Police, taxi driver, Uber

Nottinghamshire Police caution two men over “they don’t sell bombs here” remarks

August 6, 2019 Article

Nottinghamshire Police have cautioned two men for shouting “they don’t sell bombs here” at a Muslim family as they walked through an outdoor market.

The incident occurred on May 18 at around 13:45 GMT.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, a family member, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how the Islamophobic and anti-Muslim abuse left them fearing for their family’s safety, so, they informed the police.

After Nottinghamshire Police located the suspects, neither could recall the incident, claiming they were ‘too drunk’.

The family member, however, declined to take the matter further, citing a previous bad experience with the criminal justice service, which resulted in Nottinghamshire Police issuing cautions to the men.

The two perpetrators were white and ranging in age – from their mid-twenties to their mid-thirties.

The Victim and Witness Satisfaction Survey, published by the CPS, is a useful measure of satisfaction with the justice system. Several important and wide-ranging recommendations, made in 2015, included more transparency and keeping those who have experienced hate crime better informed or why charges were either altered, dropped, or upheld. Victims of hate crime and witnesses were more likely than victims of non-aggravated offences to be satisfied with final charges given to perpetrators. The report added that “satisfaction with the final charges is associated with victims and witnesses feeling that the CPS helped them to cope and recover from their experience.” The police were, therefore, also more likely to ascertain the needs of vulnerable hate crime victims, including referrals to third-party agencies.

There are institutional barriers and personal biases that Muslims and those from other minority groups are often disadvantaged when they engage with the criminal justice service. Polling released that year, by the solicitors Hodge Jones & Allen, found that just 20 per cent of Muslims surveyed stated that they could trust legal professionals – compared to the national average of 37 per cent.

Academics have found that the quality of the service given by those within criminal justice service is more important than the outcome for those who experience hate crimes.

Tell MAMA has continued to document how Muslims have faced discriminatory, hurtful, and dehumanising language directed at them that referenced bombs or explosives. Others have described how teaching staff misapplied safeguarding policies, including over a Muslim child’s water pistol and their father’s legally-obtained permit to use firearms for clay pigeon shooting.

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Categories: hate crime, News, Nottingham

Man targets Muslim woman with racist abuse then punches adjacent bus window

July 29, 2019 Article

A Muslim woman, who wears the hijab, described the racist abuse she faced from a man who stared at her and said out loud: “there are too many of these people” and “they need to go back to their countries” on a crowded bus in Bristol on July 22.

The woman consented for Tell MAMA to tell her story anonymously.

She added that a woman, who she believed was their partner, had told him to stop, to which the man laughed, adding that he ‘cannot be racist as he has a black television’.

When departing the bus, however, the man then punched the adjacent window to the Muslim woman with such force that it “shook”.

She then spoke to the driver who was, in her words, dismissive of her concerns and denied hearing the man making racist remarks, points she will raise with a complaint to First Bus.

Tell MAMA reported the incident to Avon and Somerset Police on her behalf.

She described the man as being white, who was in his mid-to-late twenties, or early thirties.

The act of racism denial has been subject to several important and influential academic studies. One such study, published in 1993, argues that the act of denial takes several forms: the denial of racist intent, trivialising and/or downplaying the significance of the racist incident, inverting the criticism where dominant groups are targets of discrimination, or, through acts of positive self-presentation. But, as van Dijk argues further, other strategies exist outside of outright denial: the justification of events which denies its negative intent, the use of excuses to deny services due to the role of others or ‘special circumstances’, or to blame the victims (on an individual or political level).

The act of self-presentation, therefore, functions as a disclaimer, where the ‘but’ appears beforehand to help justify discriminatory practices, and to “protect the in-group as a whole from accusations of racism”. Racism denial has a socio-political function: to deliberate and undermines anti-racist analysis, and to undermine measures against it, and, as van Dijk asserts, externalising racism and racist acts to the political fringes, obscures how institutions and politicians have an indirect influence and “contribute to the legitimation of white group dominance, that is to the reproduction of racism”. As others contend that nationalism has overtaken traditional understandings of racism to “sanitise and deracialise racist discourses”.

Avon and Somerset Police recorded a 236.23 per cent rise in religiously aggravated hate crime offences between 2009 and 2017, with a 38 per cent rise between 2016 and 2017. Sue Mountstevens, PCC for Avon and Somerset, said 507 people had reported racist hate crimes in the three months that followed the EU referendum result. Reports of racist hate crime to Avon and Somerset Police had increased by 46.36 per cent between 2009 and 2017 (up from 1,540 reports to 2,254).

Tell MAMA verified 58 reports (7 per cent) of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic abuse on transport networks in 2017.

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Categories: Bristol, First bus, hate crime, News

DPD driver did Nazi salute and called Muslim women ‘ninja’

July 26, 2019 Article

A driver from the delivery firm DPD said “ninja” and performed a Nazi salute from their vehicle as a Muslim mother and her two daughters left a café in Wimbledon.

The incident took place at around 18:00 GMT on July 23.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, a family member described how the incident left them feeling vulnerable, and how it left their mother in further shock given the relative diversity in the Wimbledon area.

All three women were wearing the hijab when the Islamophobic and anti-Muslim incident occurred.

Tell MAMA reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police on behalf of the family, after informed consent was given.

The family member described the driver as white, male, and in his mid-thirties.

They have since written a letter of complaint to DPD who are now investigating the driver.

The dehumanising and racialised language is emblematic of how perpetrators construct essentialised ideas of Muslim women, of Muslim identity (or ‘Muslimness’), where their religious identity and clothing is seen to embody all that is “problematic and threatening about Muslims and Islam”.

And, given the gendered nature of this incident, it demonstrates how such religious visibility reinforces, in the minds of perpetrators, at least, the “age-old stereotypes about Muslim women as meek and submissive”.

The theory of intersectionality, was, after all, intended to offer a framework to explain the particularities in which black woman are oppressed and subordinated, a framework rooted in black feminist thought. Crenshaw, who helped popularise the term, went on to argue, that the oppressive barriers facing black women were more to do with how “particular categories are negatively valued and exclusionary”, not just essentialist thinking. Other academics integrated these theories with ideas around embodiment.

Sara Ahmed explored how “inter-embodiment” sought to define embodiment as a lived experience within “the social experience of dwelling with other bodies”, which includes the social body, born from the ‘historically determined’ antagonistic encounters between those bodies deemed and not deemed ‘others’. Ahmed argues: “In contrast, I want to consider inter-embodiment as a site of differentiation rather than inclusion: in such an approach ‘my body’ and ‘the other’s body’ would not be structurally equivalent (even as impossible bodies), but in a relation of asymmetry and potential violence”.

The Metropolitan Police investigation is ongoing, and the family consented to have their story told anonymously, to raise awareness and to demonstrate how incidents like this can happen in areas like Wimbledon.

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Categories: hate crime, Hijab, London, Metropolitan Police, News

Security guard smirked as he asked Muslim man: “Do you have a bomb in the car?”

July 24, 2019 Article

The Metropolitan Police are investigating after a security guard targeted a Muslim man at a parking complex in Canary Wharf, insisted that he empty the contents of his boot, before asking: “Do you have a bomb in the car?”.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke of his understandable frustrations and sense of humiliation as the security guard sought to assert his authority over him, adding the nature of the question had caught him unawares, so, when he asked the security to repeat himself, he did so with a smirk.

He did, however, challenge the security guard, adding that such a question would not have been asked of him if he was white.

It was at this moment that another security guard attempted to alleviate the situation, and before he left, the Muslim man took out his phone to photograph or film the perpetrator. The security guard, however, responded and demanded a separate body camera from his colleague, since his camera was allegedly switched off or not working, but the Muslim man was able to capture footage which he then passed on to the police.

He described the security guard as being a black male in his mid-to-late 30s or early 40s.

Totalising narratives that frame Muslims more broadly as potential violent threats sit within a framework of securitisation. Though others contest the idea of a “suspect community”, securitisation is broadly concerned with mobilisation of the “politics of fear”, of presenting an issue as an existential threat, which intends to reconfigure social relations around distrust. But academics argue that for the theory to take hold, audiences must be persuaded and accept such claims. In broader terms, others have documented the ‘securitisation of infectious diseases’ and other health concerns. Others contest that “securitisation and domestication (which is concerned with the role of the state in matters of cultural difference) represent the dual strategies of exclusion or inclusion”.

Muslims have reported examples of discriminatory, hurtful, and dehumanising language directed at them that referenced bombs or explosives. Others have described how teaching staff misapplied safeguarding policies, including over a Muslim child’s water pistol and their father’s legally-obtained permit to use firearms for clay pigeon shooting.

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Categories: hate crime, London, News, securitisation

Ahmadiyya Muslims Targeted for Violent Islamophobic Hate in East London

July 19, 2019 Article

An Ahmadiyya Muslim stall in London was verbally abused and repeatedly attacked by a man who called them ‘non-Muslims’ and ‘deceivers’.

The stall, which has been running for many years on weekends in East London and which has the motto – “Love for All – Hatred for None”, was approached by a man who snatched the free information leaflets which were being given out and took a very aggressive stance to stall-holders who were simply handing them out. The individual then warned the peaceful stall holders that if they came back, he would physically assault them and made violent threats.

Within about 10 minutes, the individual came back to the stall and targeted a 66-year-old member of the Ahmadiyya community who was volunteering at the stall. He took the leaflets off the man, poured out more hateful abuse and then started to mock the stall holders as ‘non-Muslims’. He also threw some of the leaflets in the face of one of the stall-holders with such force that it injured him. This was then followed by at attempted assault on an elderly man who was volunteering at the stall with the perpetrator then walking off and returning a third time to the stall.

By this time a small crowd had gathered around the Ahmadiyya stall. The perpetrator then berated Ahmadiyya Muslims saying that they ‘had no right to call themselves Muslims’. He also went onto say that Ahmadiyya Muslims “had no right to deliver this message” and that they should “stop delivering this message in the future”.

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Categories: Ahmaddiya, East London, intra-Muslim hate, News

Woman threatened to stab Muslim teen for wearing the hijab

July 17, 2019 Article

The Metropolitan Police are investigating after a woman twice threatened to stab a young teenage Muslim girl for wearing the hijab in east London.

The incidents occurred within a week of each other in early May.

Tell MAMA has declined to reveal the exact location of the incident to protect the identities of those affected.

One of the threatening statements included: “You f*cking b*tch, I’m going to stab you for wearing that headscarf”.

In 2017, over half of the Muslim women (53 per cent, n=353) who contacted Tell MAMA wore clothing that identified their Islamic faith (where data was available, n=669). Tell MAMA verified 57 reports of threatening behaviour in 2017, accounting for almost one in ten reports.

During the interim reporting period in the first half of 2018, Tell MAMA verified reports which showed that over half reports involved incidents where Muslim women were the target.

Police enquiries remain ongoing.

The Metropolitan Police recorded 116 Islamophobic hate crimes in May 2019, a slight decrease from the 130 reports in the same reporting period a year earlier.

Credit: The Metropolitan Police.

March saw the sharpest rise in reports to both Tell MAMA and the Metropolitan Police following a far-right terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand which left 51 Muslims dead.

Tell MAMA has created tailor-made safety tips for young people to download for free as high-resolution PDFs.

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