Minister Backs Football Teams Who Walk Off Pitch If They Are Racially Abused

April 11, 2019 Article

Football “cannot be used as a cloak for racism”, said the sports minister as she condemned the recent abuse suffered by players.

Mims Davies also said the Football Association must look at changing the rule where football teams are fined if their players walk off the pitch due to racist abuse, saying it “sends out the wrong signal”.

Ms Davies, after high-profile interventions by England internationals Raheem Sterling and Danny Rose, told the Commons: “Football cannot be used as a cloak for racism and intolerance and this is a sign that players have had enough, fans have had enough, and this Government has had enough. So stop it.”

She also backed those who want teams to leave the field if they hear racist chanting, adding: “It’s absolutely right that players can take the right actions and we should stand with them.”

Ms Davies later told MPs: “It cannot be right for clubs to be fined for players taking action and walking off the pitch if they are receiving racist abuse. It is vital that players are supported.

“This fine sends out the wrong signal. The FA must review whether their rules and the guidance they give to clubs is effective in these situations. “

Delivering a statement on discrimination in football, Ms Davies said that while the vast majority of fans are a credit to the sport, “sadly it is being used by certain groups and individuals to spread hate”.

After a number of “appalling scenes of racism” the same week the Premier League’s “no room for racism” campaign was launched, the minister said: “We simply cannot have millions of people, in particular our young people tuning in, or witnessing first hand, the type of vile abuse that has been apparent of late.”

The minister held a summit on the issue in February, and came up with steps to help eradicate racism from football.

They included to review if football’s current sanctioning regime and to ensure the partnership between football authorities can improve the identification and sanctioning of offenders at matches.

Ms Davies added: “I also want to see initiatives to help increase the numbers of people from BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds into football professions beyond playing.”

Ms Davies said her intention is to “announce these in partnership with football before the end of summer, adding: “I want to see change ready for the next season.”

Labour shadow culture secretary Tom Watson said: “I agree with the minister when she says players should never be punished for walking off a pitch after receiving racist abuse.

“And I was disappointed to hear that the Wythenshawe Town manager James Kinsey has been sanctioned for taking his team off the pitch after alleged racism from a linesman.”

Among his suggestions, Mr Watson added: “Given that so much racist abuse directed at players is online, will the minister explicitly include hate crimes aimed at sporting figures in the online harms consultation?”

Labour MP Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) recalled how she avoided Newcastle United’s St James’ Park because of the “racists there” 30 or 40 years ago, but praised the club and fans for kicking them out. She said: “That hasn’t happened in certain European countries, which are frankly still in the dark ages.

“So could the minister look at taking Uefa to the European Court of Human Rights – footballers are working when they play the beautiful game, they have a right to work in an atmosphere where abuse is absolutely not tolerated.”

Ms Davies said she intends to meet with Uefa and Fifa, noting they can work with the UK to make change happen.

SNP MP Hannah Bardell (Livingston) said it is illegal to be gay in Qatar, the host of the 2022 World Cup, adding: “We need to take stronger action against these countries and consider withholding teams perhaps going to those countries to send the strongest possible message.”

Tory MP Nigel Huddleston (Mid Worcestershire) asked if fines are harsh enough to stamp out abuse, to which Ms Davies replied: “I think everything should be on the table here – heavy fines for people who don’t react and above all we should be showing leadership, top and bottom, at every level – and money, frankly, should be no object.”

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Categories: football, Football Association, Minister, News

Police Arrest Six Teenagers After Newcastle Mosque Attack Where Qurans Were Ripped Up

March 26, 2019 Article

Police have arrested six teenagers after an Islamic centre was ransacked in an attack in which copies of the Quran were ripped up and windows were smashed.

The incident happened at the Bahr Academy on Benwell Lane, Newcastle – formerly the set of the children’s TV show Byker Grove – at 9pm on Monday.

Northumbria Police said there was significant damage and have classed it as a hate crime.

In January, there was a similar break-in and vandalism at the centre and the offenders were never caught.

In the latest attack, copies of the Quran were ripped up and dumped on the floor, and windows were smashed.

The force said an 18-year-old woman, two 16-year-old boys, two 14-year-old boys and a 14-year-old girl have been arrested and remained in police custody.

Neighbourhood Inspector Alan Davison said: “This is a very distressing incident for members of the Bahr Academy, particularly as it is the second break-in this year.

“Although there is not the same racist graffiti as we saw in the first incident, we are treating this as a hate crime.

“We are aware of the impact incidents of this nature can have on the community and I want to be clear that this type of behaviour is completely unacceptable.”

Officers will work with the academy to put measures in place to protect the centre and police will carry out high-visibility patrols.

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Categories: Bahr Academy, Newcastle, News

Church of England Votes to Tackle Racism Targeted at the Traveller Community

February 23, 2019 Article

The Church of England is to give more support to tackling racism and discrimination directed towards the travelling community, with a bishop declaring it is “still tolerated”.

The church’s governing body, the General Synod, voted in favour of a motion on Saturday to speak out publicly against racism and hate crimes directed against Gypsies, Irish Travellers and Roma.

The Synod voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion, with 265 supporting it and one voting against.

The Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell – who put forward the motion, told the synod: “If one of us in any situation was to use racist language about some other person or group, it is very likely in today’s society that we would, and rightly so, be immediately called out.

“Racism against Travellers and Roma and Gypsies is still tolerated.

“The Equality and Human Rights Commission have found that discrimination and racism towards Gypsies and Travellers is common, frequently overt and seen as justified.

“The police have said that a prejudice against Gypsies and Travellers in endemic in our society, and often fuelled by stereotypes in the media.”

A report by Anglia Ruskin University was cited, which found that nine out of every 10 Traveller children had experienced racist abuse.

He then added: “Sorrowfully, we, the church of God are no exception, there are examples of the racist hostility and exclusion meted out by the church.

“Gypsy, Traveller and Roma people deserve particular support, hence the motions call to the leadership of the church to speak on these issues for every diocese to think about appointing a chaplain.”

The motion would call for each diocese to be encouraged to appoint a chaplain to Travellers, to help the potential for church growth, and work to combat racism in the church and wider community.

The Synod then discussed instigating a commission on sites for Gypsies and Travellers to encourage the local and national church to make land available for new sites managed by Housing Associations.

Mary Durlacher, a parishioner in the north of Chelmsford diocese, spoke in opposition and said: “Being near to the A12, we found one day, that one of our two churches had a car park completely full of Travellers.

“Police advice was, don’t go there, let us deal with it, in the meantime it meant no services, and on a Friday of a bank holiday, the church was inaccessible.

“People wanting to visit their relatives or their families buried in the churchyard couldn’t, there was a lot of upset and there was fear because there is a link with a rise in petty crime – I don’t know the exact figures, but there is a correlation.

“They did leave, but they left on the Saturday, about three o’clock and we had quite a job.

“There was the issue of excrement and my husband and I got on our gloves because the smell was quite interesting. They hadn’t done too much damage but they might be back said the police”.

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Categories: Church of England, Irish Travellers, News, Traveller Community

‘P*kis Out’: racist graffiti spotted on Manchester rooftop

February 18, 2019 Article

Racist graffiti, which calls for the removal of ‘P*kis’, has been spotted on a rooftop in Manchester.

Tell MAMA was made aware of the graffiti on social media on February 18, but indications suggest that the graffiti is not recent.

The logo of the neo-fascist and neo-Nazi group, the National Front, appears on the chimney of the property.

Residents of Manchester famously turned out in large numbers to the Northern Carnival Against the Nazis in 1978, and, despite its dwindling numbers, has continued to maintain a visible presence in far-right protests in the area in recent years. The movement’s capacity for violence was felt, for example, in the Oldham area of Greater Manchester in 2001.

Tell MAMA has continued to document examples of how some have felt emboldened by the EU referendum result to carry out acts of Islamophobic or racist violence, acts of vandalism, or, in some cases, discriminatory practises. This graffiti may pre-date discussions of Brexit, but remains of deep concern.

The racialisation of Muslims is demonstrative of how traditional racial epithets, like ‘Paki’, have become woven into the language of Islamophobic and anti-Muslim discourses.

In the interim of 2018, Tell MAMA verified 25 reports of vandalism and property damage, with 81 verified reports of vandalism in 2017 reporting cycle.

Tell MAMA will be raising the graffiti with Greater Manchester Police.

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: Greater Manchester Police, hate crime, Manchester, News

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