Police investigate unprovoked racist assault on Muslim teen

November 18, 2019 Article

West Yorkshire Police are investigating a vicious, unprovoked racist assault on a Muslim teen, resulting in injuries their parents described as making them ‘cringe’.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the family member, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how a group of three white males in their late teens (of a similar age to the victim), had harassed him and shouted “oi” and “come over”, and when the Muslim teen declined and began to walk away, one the men attacked him from behind.

The sustained assault lasted for several minutes until two passersby intervened and the perpetrators fled the scene.

The assault occurred at around 18:00 GMT in the Bradford area, Tell MAMA is withholding further details of the location to protect the identities of those affected.

His injuries included severe bruising to one of his eyes, cuts, and other contusions, which resulted in lumps on their forehead, which were x-rayed and assessed in A&E.

The family have expressed concerns that West Yorkshire Police are not treating the assault with the seriousness required, and Tell MAMA is monitoring the situation closely.

In 2018, Tell MAMA verified 98 assaults, a slight reduction on the 2017 figure of 149, but remains the second-largest incident category offline, the largest being abusive behaviour (n=400, 54 per cent). We analysed the trends in language, finding several themes: terrorism, paedophiles, hatred of foreigners, blame, competition, insulting/derogatory remarks about Islam, and expressions of confidence by the perpetrator that no punishment will follow.

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: assault, Bradford, News, West Yorkshire Police

Taxi driver left shocked after passenger wished to put Muslims inside of a ‘nuclear chamber’

October 3, 2019 Article

A Muslim taxi driver spoke of his shock and disgust after a passenger, who travelled with their wife and child, had asked him to imagine a scenario where all Muslims were placed inside of a large ‘nuclear chamber’ before the family had arrived at their home.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the driver, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how he often did his best to ignore the racist abuse he faced from some passengers – including being called a “P*ki” and told to “go home” – but the brazenness of this comment was impossible to ignore.

Working in and around the Stoke-on-Trent area, he added, that racism is a growing problem, noting further shock at how emboldened this individual was when expressing their genocidal fantasy.

Nor did he report the incident to Staffordshire Police, citing a belief that attitudes within the force would hinder or stop an investigation from taking place.

He also spoke of his concern that minorities in the UK are there to be ‘used and abused’, deemed useful when needed and tossed aside when not.

The shocking incident took place on August 24 at around 23:30 GMT.

An important thematic theme explored in Tell MAMA’s recent annual report was how dehumanising language ‘others’ and marginalises minorities.

The report argued that: “Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism, prejudice, and bigotry harms Muslims irrespective of political influence, role in public life, or, as individuals who use social media for everyday matters. Generalised forms of hateful speech serve to dehumanise Muslims by linking them broadly to criminality, sexual violence, and terrorism, by those who apply this maximalist thinking to Islam”. Adding that “The mainstreaming of such language” risks undermining and narrowing undermine “how we view and interpret the fundamental right of religious practice”, and, as the genocides of the twentieth and twenty-first-century show: hate speech and dehumanising language helps to accelerate the conditions for group-based violence. As David Livingstone Smith, professor of philosophy at the University of New England, and director of the Human Nature Project argues: “Dehumanisers do not think of their victims as subhuman in some merely metaphorical or analogical sense. They think of them as actually subhuman”.

Hate speech does, after all, have no fixed definition, but it serves to spread hatred on characteristics like race, faith, and ethnic origin. Mari Matsuda’s seminal response to racist hate speech, published in 1989, articulated how various strands of racism – from the individual to structural or political acts of racism, reinforce the ‘conditions of domination’ as Ricard Delgado noted in 1982, that hate speech and racist language helps to normalise discriminatory practices and behaviours.

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: dehumanisation, hate crime, Hate Speech, News

Men screamed “you fcking dirty Pki terrorist” at Muslim teen as he got off a bus

September 24, 2019 Article

A group of men screamed “you f*cking dirty P*ki terrorist” and “you shouldn’t be allowed to be here” at a Muslim teen as he exited a bus in the Leeds area on July 13.

He was wearing a thobe and a prayer cap having returned from his local mosque. Speaking to Tell MAMA, he described his unease and ‘embarrassment’ at reporting the incident to West Yorkshire Police, adding that others should, however, but consented for Tell MAMA to report the incident anonymously for intelligence.

The racist and dehumanising language used is demonstrative of how racialisation, and, other forms of othering, make racial epithets like “P*ki” indistinguishable from Muslim identity, in the minds of perpetrators. A concerning trend, however, which academics have observed occurring in the UK for decades. Scott Poynting and Victoria Mason argue: “It is true that, after 11 September 2001, the representation of the Asian ‘Other’ in the UK increasingly undergoes a transformation from Asian or ‘Pakistani’ to Muslim, but this was already underway since the Rushdie affair in 1989, and arguably since the Iranian Revolution in 1979”.

Tell MAMA has continued to document how the hateful slur “terrorist” has targeted Muslim men and women in public spaces, the workplace, when volunteering, or in employment, on public transport, or when having a driving lesson.

Wishing to remain anonymous, the Muslim teen described the perpetrators as being white, male, in their late teens or early twenties.

In 2018, almost one-third of verified reports to Tell MAMA occurred in public areas (28 per cent, n=208).

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Categories: hate crime, Leeds, News, West Yorkshire Police, Yorkshire

Muslim man told “this is a Christian country and Muslims have no right to be here” on crowded train

September 19, 2019 Article

The British Transport Police (BTP) are investigating an incident on the London Underground after a male passenger harassed and told a South Asian Muslim man that it’s a “Christian country and Muslims have no right to be here”, adding that Muslims made him feel “sick” and were “ungrateful” and “terrorists”.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how the racist passenger boarded the Central line at Bond Street station and appeared in a drunken state, and before being targeted, observed how the perpetrator had asked other passengers for cannabis and invited (unsuccessfully) various women to ‘sit on his lap’ before his attention turned to a woman (in front of the Muslim man) noting her crucifix necklace, and asked if she was a Christian, to which she replied ‘yes’, and he demonstrated a tattoo on his arm confirming his own Christian beliefs, shouting, “this is a Christian country!”.

He then elbowed the Muslim man and again reiterated this was a ‘Christian country’ as his Islamophobic and anti-Muslim rant continued.

Due to the perpetrator’s aggressive and drunken state, he feared that the man would turn violent. To remove himself from further abuse, and the potential of violence, he exited the train at Queensway Station and took alternative trains home.

For a moment, he considered challenging the racist passenger, informing him that over a million Muslims had thought for the UK during both World Wars, that thousands of Muslims arrived and settled to rebuild the country, so people like him “could sit on this train in peace and security and make those vile comments” but, in his own words, “it would have been futile trying to reason or educate an ignorant anti-Muslim drunkard”.

Having not experienced such abuse before, it left him with mixed emotions and an added fear that his daughters and wife, who wear hijabs, would be targeted in the future. He told Tell MAMA: “I have mixed emotions ranging from fear, concern, anger and disappointment, and do not feel comfortable travelling on public transport like this again”.

A lack of intervention from members of the public on that crowded train over the August bank holiday felt just as bad as the abuse and harassment he faced, adding, that this demonstrated to him how the normalisation of anti-Muslim language had made some ‘too immune’ to intervene.

After returning home, he reported the Islamophobic incident to the BTP online.

He described the perpetrator as being a male, in their early twenties, who is of mixed ethnicity.

The weaponisation of a Christian identity (despite data pointing to a falling rate of Christian belief, in contrast to rising forms of atheism, a small rise in those identifying as Muslim, as 55 per cent of people surveyed did admit to believing in a God figure) in this example, demonstrates how radical forms of othering, are direct products of colonial thinking regarding the position of religious minorities, and how racialisation facilitated racial hierarchies despite Muslims and Islam being part of British life for centuries.

In 2018, Tell MAMA verified 59 anti-Muslim and Islamophobic incidents on transport networks.

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Categories: Central Line, News, TFL

Muslim family shouted at and called “P*kis” in a car park in Manchester

August 23, 2019 Article

A Muslim family were subjected to racist abuse and slurs as they walked through a car park in the Manchester area.

The incident occurred on June 2 at around 13:40 GMT.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, one of the women, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how a group of individuals in the car had shouted “bob heads” as they imitated the Indian headshake, called them “P*kis”, and shouted other abuse.

Both women were wearing the hijab and abaya when the incident occurred, but neither woman is Pakistani or South Asian, demonstrating how Muslims irrespective of ethnicity, are often racialised by perpetrators.

They reported the incident to Greater Manchester Police.

She described the perpetrators as being three white males and a white female, all between the ages of 18 and 25.

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Categories: Greater Manchester Police, 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.

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Categories: News, Sussex Police, taxi driver, Uber

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

How Islamophobia harms the mobility of Muslim women

May 24, 2019 Article

A Muslim who was called a “f*cking P*ki” by a woman in the Sheffield area is now so concerned about her safety that has since avoided returning to the location of the incident, fearful of experiencing further racism.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how the unprovoked nature of the racist abuse caused a deeper shock, given that it was in front of her young child and her mother.

She added that her husband has cautioned against her visiting that area again, and where she had felt the area was safe, she has since changed her mind, adding that this has hindered her ability to perform her daily tasks.

South Yorkshire Police closed their investigation into the incident after CCTV footage of the incident was inadequate.

The Muslim woman added that she was concerned that such insidious forms of racism have resurged and found a platform in the mainstream.

She described how the perpetrator was white, female, and in her 20s, and felt targeted because of her ethnicity and religious clothing.

Tell MAMA has long evidenced how Islamophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice curtails the mobility of Muslim women: the right to walk down the street or to access public transport free from abuse, violence, or discrimination, the right of religious expression and practice in workplaces and educational institutions without hindrance from management, to the expectation of equality as consumers.

As our report, The Geography of anti-Muslim Hatred, in 2015 warned: “The inability to counter Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate is a failure to ensure the security and right to equal access of public spaces by Muslims in Britain due to their religion and creed.”

The racialised, gendered nature of Islamophobia, its overlap with misogyny, and the disproportionate targeting of Muslim women continue to demonstrate the importance of an intersectional analysis which is, in short, argues for the ‘politics of survival for black women’ and presents a framework to stop the “essentialism of difference”.

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Categories: News, South Yorkshire police, Yorkshire