Muslim man degraded by threats of violence and sexual humiliation

February 11, 2019 Article

A Muslim bus driver was assaulted, called a ‘f*cking P*ki’, and, to cause further humiliation, the lone passenger, who refused to leave the vehicle at its designated destination, said he would ejaculate onto a photograph of the driver.

The incident occurred on the evening of February 3.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the driver, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how the passenger, who boarded the bus in a drunken state and with an open bottle of alcohol, until the driver informed him that he could not continue the journey with the alcohol present. The passenger began to argue with the driver but then smashed the bottle on the concrete outside.

The driver then allowed the man to board despite a lack of funds on their Oyster card, having accepted their pleas that the bus was soon to finish its route.

When the bus arrived at its designated final stop, and the driver requested for the passenger to leave, the man turned aggressive and abusive, swearing at the driver and using his mobile phone to take photographs of him. The man then said he would share the photos with his friends and ‘w**k over them’, and blew kisses at the driver.

He also made crude sexual gestures with his hand towards the driver, in the hope of compounding the sense of humiliation.

The driver was then pushed when attempting to exit his driver’s cabin.

If the driver reduced the physical threat of violence by locking himself in his cabin, after being pushed, it did not, however, remove the threat of verbal abuse and threats, as the man shouted ‘f*cking P*ki’ and ‘you p***y, you’re afraid of the white man’. The perpetrator concluded their racist abuse by adding that he would ‘rip’ the driver’s head off.

The Metropolitan Police were made aware of the abuse during the incident, and, upon learning of this development from the driver, the perpetrator then fled the scene.

Tell MAMA has continued to document how the traditional racial epithet ‘P*ki’ has become a racialised way to target Muslims, irrespective of ethnic background.

Tell MAMA will be writing to the bus company in question to raise concerns about driver safety.

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: bus, hate crime, London, News, public transport

Member of Young Conservatives said Tommy Robinson was ‘right’

February 4, 2019 Article

The Admin Executive for the Blackpool North and Cleveleys branch of the Young Conservatives praised the far-right extremist Tommy Robinson on Twitter, a Tell MAMA investigation has uncovered.

Jay Daniel, who tweets under the username @Jay_Daniel19, wrote on June 22, 2017, “Say what you like about @TRobinsonNewEra It doesn’t stop him from being right.”

Credit: Twitter/@jay_daniel19

Other tweets from @Jay_Daniel19 to Mr Robinson appear several times in 2017, with the final tweet, a positive reaction GIF from the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, sent on March 19, 2018 – 9 days before Twitter banned Robinson from its platform.

A notable tweet to Robinson contained a quote, removed from its original context, from the 1899 edition of Winston Churchill’s The River War, on June 28, 2017.

Credit: Twitter/@jay_daniel19

Others have chronicled Churchill’s views on Islam and other races. His wartime cabinet, in 1940, also set aside £100,000 to build London Central Mosque, as a thank you to the Muslims who fought alongside the British.

On August 17, 2017, he tweeted a YouTube video from the far-right media outlet Rebel Media, which featured Robinson discussing acid attacks.

Credit: Twitter/@jay_daniel19

 

The personal Facebook account of Mr Daniel had ‘liked’ Tommy Robinson’s official page.

Credit: Facebook

Tell MAMA has uncovered other concerning tweets of an Islamophobic and anti-Muslim nature. Including the claim that “one would struggle to come to the conclusion that Islam doesn’t instruct its followers to commit violence.” Yesterday evening, during a wider discussion, he told a Muslim woman, “Preaching hate is dangerous and your religion relishes in it.”

Credit: Twitter/@jay_daniel19.

Tell MAMA was also made aware of tweets sent from Mr Daniel’s account which concern the racial epithet ‘P*ki’.

Credit: Twitter/@jay_daniel19

During an online discussion yesterday evening, he tweeted, “Well you can’t even call someone from Pakistan a ‘paki’ or a ‘Pakistani’ without being racist these days so I understand your confusion.” When challenged by other users, Mr Daniel added: “As you can see from my picture, I’m not the palest of blokes… occasionally people call me a Mexican or a paki or a nigga… still life moves on.”

Credit: Twitter/@jay_daniel19

The racialisation of Muslims and Islam means that traditional racial epithets, like ‘P*ki’, are directed at Muslims, irrespective of their ethnicity.

As of writing, Mr Daniel has not responded to Tell MAMA’s request for comment and has since removed his Twitter and Facebook accounts from public view.

Questions remain, however, as to the use of the official Blackpool North and Cleveleys Young Conservatives Twitter account to defend Mr Daniel.

A statement from the Blackpool North and Cleveleys Conservatives confirmed that the individual would be expelled from the Conservative Party, adding that local MP Paul Maynard condemns racism in all its forms and that the investigation will be dealth with in a serious manner.

Our investigation will be sent to the Conservative Party to assist in their investigation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: Conservative Party, News, Tommy Robinson

Pro-Nazi, racist, and Islamophobic graffiti spotted in Birmingham

January 7, 2019 Article

Racist and Islamophobic graffiti targeting Muslims and black communities have appeared on a wall in the Erdington area of Birmingham over the weekend.

The racialised graffiti, which incorporated Nazi-appropriated iconography, referred to Muslims and ‘P*kis’ as paedophiles and rapists, and that ‘blacks are cowards with knives + beat women’.

Concerns about the graffiti first appeared on social media on January 6.

The image of the racist and Islamophobic graffiti was posted online on January 6. Credit: Twitter.

The Nazi iconography is likely a reference to the wolfsangel (wolf’s hook) ­– an ancient runic symbol used to ward off wolves, which, throughout history, has also appeared on the coat of arms of various German towns and cities, including Idar-Oberstein. The imagery has appeared in illustrated editions of the 1910 novel Der Wehrwolf by the German journalist Hermann Löns (1866-1914). For Professor Klaus Neumann, author of Shifting Memories: The Nazi Past in the New Germany, Löns’s poems and stories were popular with the far-right due to its illustration of the Blut und Boden ideology (Blood and Soil). This ideology, popularised in the nineteenth century, grew in popularity following WWI, focused on German identity of genealogy/descent and territory/land, according to Dr Rebecca Futo Kennedy. This ideology underpinned the Nazi agricultural policy.

The Nazis continued to valorise and celebrate the life and works of Hermann Löns, invoking his works in warfare and the popular imagination, leading Der Wehrwolf to become a German bestseller by 1945. Others have questioned this influence.

The Wolfsangel symbol, under the Nazis, became synonymous with the notorious 2nd SS Panzer Division, the “Das Reich”, who, in the days following the Normandy landings, killed 672 people, mainly women and children, in a war crime which involved forcing 450 women and children into a church before burning it to the ground in occupied France. The surviving men were shot dead. The 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division used this symbol in its divisional insignia, committed war crimes in Greece in 1944.

A further clue about the nature of the runes in the graffiti owes to the phrase “Sons of the Reich”, which is misspelt and faded, is also the title of a book history of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, written by Major-General Michael Reynolds.

Tell MAMA has continued to document several examples of how this language around CSE targets and harms Muslims. The rhetoric continues to appear online, as noted in our interim report for the first six months of 2018.

Academics have argued that the racial epithet ‘P*ki’ is used to group Muslim men more broadly as sexual deviants, or, to frame such serious crimes through a narrow racial lens, which the Child Sexual Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) has cautioned against in previous reports. And, researchers added, in 2011 that, “It is likely that the sexual exploitation of victims of a minority ethnic background are under-represented in the data.”

A report from The Children’s Society, published last year, explored the impacts of CSE among South Asian girls in the West Midlands, found that “young South Asian women – like many other young people from different backgrounds – are unfortunately targeted for exploitation by those within and outside of their communities. However, their presenting rates are likely to be even lower due to a range of barriers to disclosure and reporting.”  One such barrier concerned the additional trauma beyond the abuse itself, as the burden of silence to protect bodily and family honour added further strain to the mental health of victims.

West Midlands Police have been made aware of the graffiti.

In 2017, vandalism was the third most common Islamophobic incident category reported to Tell MAMA, up 56 per cent from the previous reporting year, with 81 reports (10 per cent).

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: Birmingham, CSE, graffiti, grooming, News

Men shouted ‘terrorist’ and ‘P*ki b*stard’ at Muslim woman in niqab

December 10, 2018 Article

A Muslim woman, who wears the niqab, spoke of her fear after being racially abused and called a “f*cking terrorist” by two men when returning to her car after leaving work.

The incident occurred in the Lancashire area on October 10, Tell MAMA has declined to reveal the precise location of the incident to protect their identity.

One of the men called her a “f*cking terrorist” as she began to climb a stairway into the car park.

The gendered nature of the abuse, coupled with their physical prowess – with each man standing at around 6ft, compared to her smaller stature – at around 5ft, only added to her sense of fear and intimidation which resulted in an increased walking pace.

Before reaching the safety of her vehicle, however, one of the men shouted, “f*cking P*ki b*stard” at her.

The woman, who wears the niqab, is a white convert, and such abuse demonstrates how racialisation is less about the biology of race and more to do with a ‘radical’ form of othering, which, can go beyond hate crime and verbal abuse, and into acts of discrimination that curtail the fundamental rights of Muslims in the UK. For example, in 2017, Tell MAMA documented two cases where Muslim women who wear the niqab were told to remove their face veils when attending school open days with their children as staff cited ‘security reasons’. A clear example of how othering can result in viewing Muslims through the lens of ‘securitisation’.

It’s also a further example of how racialised abuse directed at Muslim women often relates to their outward Islamic identity and reinforces what academics have argued: that some perpetrators make no distinction between Muslims and their faith.

Tell MAMA has continued to document the often–disproportionate abuse, harassment, and violence Muslim women face for wearing the niqab.

The woman has not reported the incident to Lancashire Police but wanted to report to Tell MAMA in confidence, adding, that since wearing the niqab, has experienced more abuse and harassment: including being sworn at when in supermarkets; such is the everyday ‘low-level’ nature of abuse.

She described the perpetrators as being white males in their late thirties.

A rising number of reports to Tell MAMA – of threatening behaviour, abuse, violence, and discrimination has prompted the release of an interim report, covering the first six months of 2018, further demonstrates the gendered and intersectional nature of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred.

You can get advice through 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: Lancashire, News, Niqab, racialisation

Man shouted ‘black b*stards’ at Muslim women in hospital waiting area

December 4, 2018 Article

Receptionists at a hospital in Birmingham failed to stop the racial abuse directed at two Muslim women until they were requested to call security.

The women, who both wear the hijab, were in the waiting area when a man shouted: “you don’t belong in this country” and “you shouldn’t be in this country” in their direction.

He continued to abuse the women without challenge from reception staff or members of the public, even when he continued to call them ‘black b*stards’.

One of the Muslim women challenged the abuse and replied: “If you are what represents Britishness, I don’t want to be British”.

The abuse only stopped when one of the women approached the reception desk and requested that security intervene.

The incident occurred on November 17.

A family member of one of the women contacted Tell MAMA and consented to have this story told anonymously.

The racial abuse directed at the women, who are South Asian and not black, demonstrates how racialisation has less to do with biology and more to do with a ‘radical’ form of othering which concerns power relations – be it in institutions, or, in this case, daily interactions. Or, to put it another way: racialisation concerns the political, economic, and political marginalisation of groups due to physical markers and cultural factors.

This form of racialisation, however, is a departure from tradition, where ‘the black-white divide was preeminent’, and demonstrates how the reconstruction of ‘the Asian’ foregrounds a construction of ‘the Muslim’ which overlooks the ethic and cultural diversity of Muslims in Britain. In this framework of ‘othering’ where aspects of political discourse and sensationalist media portrayals further normalise the idea that the beliefs of Muslims are at odds with mainstream society and have become synonymous with ‘deviance’, ‘un-Britishness’ and terrorism. Criminalisation, therefore, preempts empathy with the affected groups.

It’s why Tell MAMA, in its submission on a definition of Islamophobia/anti-Muslim hatred, argued that any understanding must be grounded in the concepts of racialisation and cultural racism.

A rising number of reports to Tell MAMA – of threatening behaviour, abuse, violence, and discrimination has prompted the release of an interim report, covering the first six months of 2018, which has coincided with the above submission.

The perpetrator was described to Tell MAMA as being a white male in his fifties.

We will be writing to the hospital, which we have declined to share publicly to protect the identity of the women, to complain about the conduct of their reception staff.

You can get advice through 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: Birmingham, Hate Speech, News

Work Countering Anti-Muslim Bigotry is Human Rights Work

December 2, 2018 Article

In all of the ongoing debates about ‘definitions’ of ‘Islamophobia’ or ‘anti-Muslim hatred’, there is one simple term that has been lost. That is – the defence of human rights. Muslims, just like any other community have the right to live and be who they want to be without fear, obstruction, prejudice and institutional bigotry.

Now there is also another debate which is subtly raging and that is to push prejudice against Muslims into the realm of racial protections and no-one has discussed this. These provide a lower threshold for, say public order offences, to have additional sentencing added on because there was a racial bias to the crime. It is clear that there are intersectional elements between race and anti-Muslim bigotry in some cases and that cannot be denied. It is a fact. However, in all of the nuanced, sometimes confrontational ideological and academic positions, the reality that the work is based on the fundamental protection of equality and human rights is overlooked.

Within criminal and civil law, anti-Muslim and intra-Muslim bigotry are covered. Whilst there is a real need for a definition to provide a working framework moving forward, let us not forget that at the root of work countering anti-Musim bigotry and for some, Islamophobia, is the defence of basic human rights. These are universal and non-negotiable.

 

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Categories: anti-Muslim hatred, definition, human rights, Opinions, Racial Bias

Islamophobic hate mail targets schools and mosques in London and Yorkshire

November 12, 2018 Article

A racist and Islamophobic letter sent to a south London mosque echoes a similar hate campaign against mosques and Islamic schools in 2013.

The latest campaign features imagery which seeks to defame the Prophet Muhammad and a DVD-R disc with the pornographic title ‘The Finale The P**** Girls of England’.

Tell MAMA has verified at least three different versions of this hateful material.

Variations include handwritten remarks about paedophilia, as others reference sexual acts, or deploy the highly offensive racial slur ‘n—–‘.

The author(s) of each letter uses variations of the spelling Muhammad, which includes Muhammud (misspelt), Mohamed, and Mohammed.

Tell MAMA can confirm that the letters have, so far, targeted schools, mosques, and community groups in the London borough of Redbridge, in south London, and parts of Yorkshire.

The letters use the same single-use first-class stamp and were sorted and processed in Romford, with one such letter, seen by Tell MAMA, was processed at the mail centre in Romford on October 31.

Due to the offensive nature of the materials, we have declined to share the images in full. Nor do we want to encourage copycat crimes.

As with a similar hate mail campaign in September 2013, one of the images also used he phrase ‘Ashraf Al Mursaleen’ – a term of reverence, which means the most honourable of messengers. Given this information was, however, in the public domain, it could, also, be a copycat.

The handwriting in the letters seen by Tell MAMA suggests that this latest campaign has some coordination, or, is from one individual. In the example below, there is a similar gap between the first and second letters, as the letters G and L in ‘girls’ also contain stylistic similarities.

A direct comparison of lettering from sources sent to Tell MAMA.

We are reissuing our safety tips and practical advice for community members.

What to do if you receive hate mail

 

All letters and envelopes must be kept and handled minimally to preserve evidence

Place the letter and the envelope in a clean and sealable plastic bag to stop further contamination

Call the non-emergency 101 number to contact the police (or Tell MAMA can do this on your behalf)

We are liaising with the relevant police forces on this issue which, again, is being treated with the utmost seriousness.

Our safety tips for individuals and Islamic institutions are free to download.

You can get advice through 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: Hate Mail, London, News, Yorkshire

Pitiful Response from RyanAir Staff Shows That Staff Need Training in Dealing with Racism

October 21, 2018 Article

A video circulating showing an elderly man abusing a black woman on a RyanAir flight has caused a social media backlash and rightly so. The video shows the individual calling the woman an “ugly black b*****d” and then goes onto shout, “don’t talk to me in a foreign language, you stupid ugly cow”.

The abuse continued even when the victim’s daughter stands up to the abuser and says that her mother is disabled. His response was, “I don’t care whether shees f******g disabled or not – if I tell her to get out she gets out”.

The response from RyanAir staff was pitiful and ended up with the perpetrator remaining on the flight and the victim being moved out of her seat. At no point can staff be seen to challenge the individual and move him off the flight.

The incident re-enforces the need for RyanAir staff to feel confident enough to challenge and remove racist perpetrator’s off their planes. In this incident, it was the victim who was moved and the response was inadequate and re-enforced in the mind of the perpetrator, a view that aggression and racism leads to a result. We call on RyanAir to review their training and support to staff after this incident, so that they can feel confident in challenging racist customers on their flights.

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Categories: abuse, News, Opinions, Ryanair

Racial hate crimes surpass sectarian ones in Northern Ireland

October 9, 2018 Article

Racially aggravated hate crime surpassed sectarian hate crime for the first time in Northern Ireland, a new report has found.

The findings appeared in the latest Good Relations Indicators published this week by the Executive Office which oversees the coordination of policies and programmes to promote tolerance, peace, and fairness in Northern Irish society.

There were 609 recorded racially aggravated hate crimes compared to 576 recorded sectarian crimes in the previous year.

This trend repeats across hate incidents, defined as a non-criminal incident which is perceived, by the victim or witness, to be motivated by hatred, prejudice, or hostility to a person’s perceived protected characteristic (be it race, religion, or gender identity). Racial hate incidents decreased by 2 per cent, from 1,054 reports in 2016/2017 to 1,025 reports last year, as reports of sectarian incidents saw a slight decrease, from 995 reports in 2016/17 to 879 reports in 2017/18.

Hate incidents flagged as religiously motivated rose by 104 per cent, from 44 reports in the previous year to 90 reports in 2017/18.

Not all hate incidents will satisfy the criminal threshold nor receive a police response but help the police and partner agencies understand where hatred and racism are impacting communities.

Figures released by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) last year, however, found that 83 per cent of recorded hate crime did not result in a prosecution or warning to offenders.

Superintendent Emma Bond of the PSNI told the Guardian last year that improvements to its force training will ensure that officers present the strongest evidence to the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland. Adding, that some victims of hate crime seek non-criminal justice outcomes, which includes restorative justice.

Amnesty International UK, however, suggests that this criminal justice gap owes in large part to the role of loyalist paramilitary groups and those linked to such domestic terrorist groups.

Attitudinal surveys found last year that growing number of people in Northern Ireland are concerned about rising racial prejudice over the last five years – a concern which cuts across all age groups, according to the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, where 93 per cent of individuals polled did not self-identify as a person of colour.

The survey also found that more than half of people in Northern Ireland would not accept a Muslim (52 per cent) or an Irish Traveller (56 per cent) as a relative through marriage. A similar figure would not accept a Muslim as a close friend (47 per cent). In broader terms, a quarter of people polled would not accept a work colleague from a minority ethnic background.

Despite wide acceptance that migrant workers provide an economic boost and that negative media coverage taints perceptions of migrants, there were many polled who believe that such workers put a strain on health services and that their children put a strain on local schools.

Such a contrast in attitude was evident in the in the Good Relations Indicators, as a clear majority (80 per cent) believe that Protest and Catholic communities add to the diversity and richness of Northern Irish society. This belief drops to 68 per cent when asked if minority ethnic communities increase the richness and diversity of Northern Irish society.

Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International UK said: “This scale of racial prejudice in 2018 should shock us to our core”.

Minority ethnic communities account for 1.8 per cent (32,400) of the resident population in Northern Ireland, per the 2011 Census.

More than eight hate crime incidents were reported to the PSNI every day in 2016. But the PSNI reported that Northern Ireland had bucked the trend of rising hate crime following the EU referendum result.

High-profile examples of racist or Islamophobic hate crime in Northern Ireland last year included graffiti which read “EU rats out” along with a swastika and the dumping of pig parts outside of an Islamic centre in Belfast.

Following his release from prison, Paul Golding has continued to focus his outreach in areas of Northern Ireland, in areas like Ballymena, with a renewed Northern Irish chapter of the far-right street defence movement Britain First.

Credit: @BritainFirst/GAB

DUP MLA Paul Frew condemned a Britain First video where the group targeted Romanian and Bulgarian communities in Ballymena last week.

Britain First is hoping to use anti-discrimination laws in Northern Ireland to sue Facebook after the social media platform removed its official pages last year.

Paul Golding still faces legal issues in Northern Ireland related to alleged comments made at a Britain First rally last year, as does Jayda Fransen.

Britain First had a public fall out with the controversial Belfast City Councillor Jolene Bunting last July.

Generation Identity, a far-right ethnopluralist and ethnonationalist group targeted a statue in Belfast earlier this year as part of a wider protest calling for a ban on the burqa.

Tell MAMA verified six incident reports in Northern Ireland last year but encourages Muslims in the region to continue to report incidents of discrimination, vandalism, and Islamophobia.

The PSNI is one of many police forces in the UK which have partnership agreements with our service where such partnership work provides added support for victims, and, where needed, to improve police accountability.

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: Britain First, hate crime, News, Northern Ireland, PSNI

Opinion: Conspiracy Theories and the Pied Pipers of Hate

September 3, 2018 Article

The slide into a bizarre world of believing conspiracy theories and voicing openly toxic and bigoted views took place slowly over the last decade whilst many of us were not able to fathom how quickly and extensively social media had taken charge of our lives. As the Founder and previous Director of Tell MAMA, which supports victims of anti-Muslim hate, the world that I know of today, as someone reaching his fifties, is virtually unrecognisable to the one in which I worked just a decade ago and where there was real hope that levels of racism, prejudice and intolerance were finally on a downward slope.

Today’s world is also a far cry from that in which I grew up. As a refugee from Amin’s Uganda in 1972, and having fled a second time from Africa in 1983 because of military instability in Kenya, I suffered at first hand the openly racist abuse meted out to Asians and African-Caribbean communities in Kent where I was schooled. Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, that open racism existed, flourished and led to the murder of young black men such as Stephen Lawrence. Such open hatred impacted on many young men and women from BME communities, though the economic boom of that period helped to also temper some of the racist anger and bigotry. Anti-racism work, equality marches and work-based equal opportunity schemes seem to have turned the tide against division that many of us assumed would mean a country more at ease with its diversity.

Whilst the UK is in a far better place than the ’80s, the reality is that, as a country, we have slid backwards towards openly aggressive far-right marches rallying thousands of people, national political instability and a rising sense of mistrust which is acutely felt between BME communities and the two main parties. This, mixed with a recent economic crisis, has created the perfect storm for social insecurity and it is this insecurity that some have played upon in fomenting divisive and openly hostile views toward groups of people in our society. It is also within this environment of insecurity that people have sought comfort within narratives of division that blame others and which provide a sense of meaning to them, however twisted that may be.

For such individuals, conspiracy theories become reality since the world around them is unstable and frightening. Grasping onto something almost tangible, that explains the complexity of life in a simplistic fashion, fills the void that many of us currently feel in an increasingly frightening world. This is why, for example, conspiracy merchants who peddle views of an ‘Islamic takeover’ or of hordes of Muslims outbreeding other communities, manage to find a receptive audience. With less money in people’s pockets, communities aggressively vying for resources in austerity, and a sense of confusion as to where we are heading as a nation, you can see how easy it is for people to believe that there are hidden factors at play. The culprits, in their opinion, are more than likely Muslims, Jews or migrants.

Both Muslims and Jews have felt a sharp rise in hostility towards them and hate crime figures show such a rise over the last five years. Much of this is due to hate online and, furthermore, since 2012, when I founded Tell MAMA, it was clear to me that social media companies would not remove hateful and criminal material, nor would they take down far-right, neo-Nazi or Islamist extremist accounts. Their business model was based on getting traction for their technological revolutions through more accounts opening up. In doing so, they helped create the fog and smoke of disinformation and gave an amplified voice to extremist groups masquerading as ‘free speech’ martyrs. These companies, whilst levelling the playing field for more voices to be heard, also exposed people to views and opinions that would have been marginalised for a reason. Yet their platforms also legitimised toxic views by placing those views into a worldwide market of ideas where extremist groups were better equipped to promote them.

Let me explain. Marginalised, divisive and racist groups by their very nature had to be far more energetic and driven to try to win supporters. Before the advent of social media these people had to host events, print leaflets and remain active at a street level. That all took time and money and, to make it worse, they also looked pretty scary. However, such groups were always driven; they had to be to survive.

Now post their divisive messages on social media with a ‘friendly face’, remove the racist insignia and blame migrants, Muslims and foreigners, and strangely there was a more receptive audience as people’s fears and insecurities rose over the last decade. Additionally, as many of us played catch-up to try to challenge extremist and divisive views, these individuals and groups already had a head start since they were naturally driven and could see the power of the new platforms. It was a toxic, heady mix that was to have a severe impact on our society, as we are now seeing today.

This is why we must mobilise and defend the social values we enjoy in our country, and which are under threat. It is not just those, as this paper has highlighted, who try and divide local communities, who we must challenge; it is also those beyond our shores, who support extremist groups and seek to destabilise our democracy by fomenting instability, whom we must remain vigilant against. If we take our eye off the ball in these crucial years, it is not only our values which may change – it could be our very understanding of reality. Now that truly is frightening.

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Categories: anti-Muslim hate, conspiracy theories, democracy, division, hate, hatred, hostility, incitement to violence, instability, integration, intolerance, Islamism, marginalisation, News, offline, online, Opinions, prejudice