JAILED: Racist who threatened and abused taxi driver

June 3, 2021 Article

A racist who robbed, threatened, and abused a taxi driver in a shocking Islamophobic hate crime received a three-year prison sentence last week (May 27).

Samuel Thomas Egerton, 23, of Grange Road, Cheddleton, pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and religiously aggravated fear or provocation of violence at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

Egerton filmed himself subjecting the taxi driver to racist abuse, stating: “You’re getting terrorised by English people because you’re a dirty P*** b*****d bruv. Dirty Muslim b*****d.”

Egerton also used the homophobic slur “f*****,” threatened to “smash his head in” and steal his taxi, before using more racist language, “P*** f*****s, I’ll take his taxi off him if he doesn’t take me home,” the recording captured.

The footage Egerton filmed went viral on January 18, 2020, triggering a police investigation that resulted in Egerton’s arrest three days later, admist national public outcry and political condemnation locally.

It emerged that the racist incident took place in the early hours of August 4, 2019.

Prosecutor Steven Bailey said: “He filmed the driver on his phone. The driver was scared. The defendant was chanting, ‘England till we die’.”

After subjecting the taxi driver to horrific racist abuse and threats, Egerton robbed the driver of £19 and fled the scene after pulling on the handbrake – which caused the vehicle to swerve – and was travelling at 25mph.

StokeOnTrentLive reported that police had initially looked at a community resolution order until the video appeared online.

In a victim impact statement, the taxi driver spoke of their fear of working nights and his loss of confidence.

Judge Paul Glenn rejected the mitigating claims for a non-custodial sentence and said: “You immediately quibbled about the price and you handed over £13 and then began shouting about being British, about being white. The driver was scared.

“You continued in your diatribe. You made disgusting racist remarks. You threw in a few homophobic comments for good measure.”

Whilst the judge did accept that Egerton was ‘remorseful and ashamed and that it was spontaneous, he added that the serious nature of crime required an immediate prison sentence.

A headline on StokeOnTrentLive read “Footy coach cries like a baby as he’s jailed for vile rant.”

Detective Constable Jon Snape, of CID North, said: “Samuel Egerton subjected the taxi driver to a terrifying ordeal. He demanded cash from the driver, was racially abusive and threatened him. Thankfully, the driver was not harmed but he did steal cash from him.

“He has now received a custodial sentence for his actions that morning.”

Chief Inspector Mark Thorley, of the Staffordshire Moorlands Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “I, along with others, saw the social media footage of this horrendous act of racially motivated abuse and was disgusted. I am reassured that the investigation which quickly followed has led to this point where the offender has been brought to justice and the victim of this crime has been supported. The actions of this person do not reflect the majority of the Moorlands community who I know from the contact I have had are as shocked as myself.

“We will continue to ensure that the Staffordshire Moorlands continues to be the safe place it is to live, visit and work.”

For taxi drivers, Tell MAMA’s Safety, Security, and Beyond campaign ensures drivers know their rights, how to report anti-Muslim hate and Islamophobia, and how to report hate crime. We can report incidents to the police on behalf of drivers or take reports in confidence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: hate crime, News, Staffordshire Police, taxi drivers

Moving forward: Reponse to the Professor Singh investigation into the Conservative party

May 25, 2021 Article

Responding to Professor Singh’s independent Investigation into Alleged Discrimination within the Conservative party, Iman Atta OBE, director of Tell MAMA said:

All political parties in this country should have a zero tolerance to anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia. Tell MAMA is well placed given the decade of work monitoring, tackling and supporting victim of anti-Muslim hatred, to assist all political parties going forward.

There is no room for complacency what so ever in tackling this form of poisonous hatred

‘No longer can some local Conservative associations suspend and re-admit people who have expressed anti-Muslim hatred. This is not going to wash anymore. There is a line about hatred, once crossed, there are repercussions’

Given the prescriptive remit of the Singh investigation, we undertook a dip test of Twitter accounts from elected Conservative party councillors, for evidence of discriminatory content or language directed at or about Muslims, to be investigated whilst highlighting our continued concerns about structural failings to address the misconduct of some councillors online, and the need for structural reforms to ensure the party has a rigid and transparent complaints apparatus.

We have long reminded politicians across all political life of their responsibility in the language they use as to not normalise harmful stereotypes and how it influences public discourse.

The Conservative party must now adapt to stringent recommendations and policies to fully investigate reports, with transparency, to reassure Muslim communities that complaints will be handled diligently and with due care. It must take forward the recommendations of the Singh investigation, to address inadequacies with clear timescales of action, and identify further steps to rebuild trust.

Accountability is not a static motion; it requires movements towards meaningful change and engagement. It must address and challenge anti-Muslim and Islamophobic attitudes in party members, acknowledge past mistakes and stop denying the scale of the issue, and create pathways forward. Confidence in the complaints system is contingent that it sufficiently deters and prevents further harm and wrongdoing, too often, the timing, nature of the sanction, and transparency around the decision-making process lacks sufficient accountability, meaning inadequacies in its structure do not address the fundamental problems.

We need more than tick-box exercises and one-off diversity training sessions, into more structured ways to address structural and interpersonal biases and discrimination. A cultural change must occur.

Tell MAMA has continued to offer training and recourses to political parties, including the Conservatives, to ensure their social media guidelines, codes of conduct, and guidance are stringent in understanding that a zero-tolerance approach means just that. And, where required, Tell MAMA offered training materials and sessions for councillors and party staff about anti-Muslim hatred, discrimination, and Islamophobia.

Regarding the conduct of councillors online, in tandem with new robust party mechanisms internally, we urge the Government to amend Section 27 (2) of the Localism Act 2011, meaning that councillors will be presumed to be acting in an official capacity which will allow local authorities to apply a code of conduct for members when claiming to act (or give the impression of such) when fulfilling their role as a member of the local authority. These recommendations were outlined in the report “Local Government Ethical Standards – A Review by the Committee on Standards in Public Life” published in 2019. Given the sheer concerning levels of online reports cited in the Singh investigation, there must be added impetus to review and implement these recommendations. Too often, the conflation and confusion between personal and professional council accounts have meant some avoided sanction for comments that have no place in politics and fail The Seven Principles of Public Life. For example, just last year, Dorset councillor Beverley Dunlop was cleared and found to be posting in a personal capacity after writing on Facebook: “”I hate to ban anything really but I’d suggest we start with mosques.” Such discriminatory remarks have no place in elected positions or politics more broadly. It was also alarming to learn that Cllr Dunlop faced death threats, which no public official should face.

Our investigation revealed examples of one councillor engaging with a known anti-Muslim and Islamophobic extremist on Twitter, long after their ban on entering the UK became public knowledge.

The report mentions how Boris Johnson’s comments resulted in “a large increase of anti-Muslim events reported to Tell MAMA” but does not comment further. For context, that 375% rise in reports from 8 incidents the previous week, to 38 in the following week. Of the 38 incidents in the first week, 22 (57.89%) were directed at visibly Muslim women who wore the face veil (niqab) or other veiling practices. Examples include Muslim women being called “letterboxes” on the street by men, or called ‘post box,’ or targeted with harmful comments from others when queuing at a doctors surgery.

Due to the report not naming our submission, we are unable to comment about the outcomes of the new social media cases we identified and have forwarded to CCHQ.

We have been consistent in our calls for an enquiry into this issue since the London Mayoral Elections of 2015, as have many others. As we await the response of the Conservative party, we also wait on how the Equalities and Human Rights Commission responds.

The Singh investigation must also respond to serious allegations that evidence of discrimination for the report was overlooked or ignored.

 

The post Moving forward: Reponse to the Professor Singh investigation into the Conservative party appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Categories: anti-Muslim hatred, Consevative Party, discrimination, News

Moving forward: Reponse to the Professor Singh investigation into the Conservative party

May 25, 2021 Article

Responding to Professor Singh’s independent Investigation into Alleged Discrimination within the Conservative party, Iman Atta OBE, director of Tell MAMA said:

All political parties in this country should have a zero tolerance to anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia. Tell MAMA is well placed given the decade of work monitoring, tackling and supporting victim of anti-Muslim hatred, to assist all political parties going forward.

There is no room for complacency what so ever in tackling this form of poisonous hatred

‘No longer can some local Conservative associations suspend and re-admit people who have expressed anti-Muslim hatred. This is not going to wash anymore. There is a line about hatred, once crossed, there are repercussions’

Given the prescriptive remit of the Singh investigation, we undertook a dip test of Twitter accounts from elected Conservative party councillors, for evidence of discriminatory content or language directed at or about Muslims, to be investigated whilst highlighting our continued concerns about structural failings to address the misconduct of some councillors online, and the need for structural reforms to ensure the party has a rigid and transparent complaints apparatus.

We have long reminded politicians across all political life of their responsibility in the language they use as to not normalise harmful stereotypes and how it influences public discourse.

The Conservative party must now adapt to stringent recommendations and policies to fully investigate reports, with transparency, to reassure Muslim communities that complaints will be handled diligently and with due care. It must take forward the recommendations of the Singh investigation, to address inadequacies with clear timescales of action, and identify further steps to rebuild trust.

Accountability is not a static motion; it requires movements towards meaningful change and engagement. It must address and challenge anti-Muslim and Islamophobic attitudes in party members, acknowledge past mistakes and stop denying the scale of the issue, and create pathways forward. Confidence in the complaints system is contingent that it sufficiently deters and prevents further harm and wrongdoing, too often, the timing, nature of the sanction, and transparency around the decision-making process lacks sufficient accountability, meaning inadequacies in its structure do not address the fundamental problems.

We need more than tick-box exercises and one-off diversity training sessions, into more structured ways to address structural and interpersonal biases and discrimination. A cultural change must occur.

Tell MAMA has continued to offer training and recourses to political parties, including the Conservatives, to ensure their social media guidelines, codes of conduct, and guidance are stringent in understanding that a zero-tolerance approach means just that. And, where required, Tell MAMA offered training materials and sessions for councillors and party staff about anti-Muslim hatred, discrimination, and Islamophobia.

Regarding the conduct of councillors online, in tandem with new robust party mechanisms internally, we urge the Government to amend Section 27 (2) of the Localism Act 2011, meaning that councillors will be presumed to be acting in an official capacity which will allow local authorities to apply a code of conduct for members when claiming to act (or give the impression of such) when fulfilling their role as a member of the local authority. These recommendations were outlined in the report “Local Government Ethical Standards – A Review by the Committee on Standards in Public Life” published in 2019. Given the sheer concerning levels of online reports cited in the Singh investigation, there must be added impetus to review and implement these recommendations. Too often, the conflation and confusion between personal and professional council accounts have meant some avoided sanction for comments that have no place in politics and fail The Seven Principles of Public Life. For example, just last year, Dorset councillor Beverley Dunlop was cleared and found to be posting in a personal capacity after writing on Facebook: “”I hate to ban anything really but I’d suggest we start with mosques.” Such discriminatory remarks have no place in elected positions or politics more broadly. It was also alarming to learn that Cllr Dunlop faced death threats, which no public official should face.

Our investigation revealed examples of one councillor engaging with a known anti-Muslim and Islamophobic extremist on Twitter, long after their ban on entering the UK became public knowledge.

The report mentions how Boris Johnson’s comments resulted in “a large increase of anti-Muslim events reported to Tell MAMA” but does not comment further. For context, that 375% rise in reports from 8 incidents the previous week, to 38 in the following week. Of the 38 incidents in the first week, 22 (57.89%) were directed at visibly Muslim women who wore the face veil (niqab) or other veiling practices. Examples include Muslim women being called “letterboxes” on the street by men, or called ‘post box,’ or targeted with harmful comments from others when queuing at a doctors surgery.

Due to the report not naming our submission, we are unable to comment about the outcomes of the new social media cases we identified and have forwarded to CCHQ.

We have been consistent in our calls for an enquiry into this issue since the London Mayoral Elections of 2015, as have many others. As we await the response of the Conservative party, we also wait on how the Equalities and Human Rights Commission responds.

The Singh investigation must also respond to serious allegations that evidence of discrimination for the report was overlooked or ignored.

 

The post Moving forward: Reponse to the Professor Singh investigation into the Conservative party appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Categories: anti-Muslim hatred, Consevative Party, discrimination, News

Worshippers attacked with eggs at east London mosque

May 6, 2021 Article

Police have launched an investigation after worshippers at a mosque in east London were attacked with eggs.

Local politicians have condemned the incident at the Ilford Islamic Centre as a “disgraceful act of hatred and violence” that has “no place” in the community.

The Metropolitan Police said it received a report of racially aggravated criminal damage at around 11pm on Tuesday evening at a mosque in Albert Road, Ilford.

The Federation of Redbridge Muslim Organisations (FORMO) tweeted that eggs and other items had been thrown at worshippers and that five people were hit, but none seriously injured.

The Met said that so far there have been no arrests.

The Muslim community is observing the holy month of Ramadan, which ends next week.

Ahmed Nahwaz, director and secretary of the centre, said the incident was “a shame” but the community remained strong.

“I was caught by surprise because leading up to this we had a very quiet and peaceful 20-odd nights, and then this happened,” he told the PA news agency.

“We weren’t expecting it this kind of time in the period of reflection for everyone, having gone through Covid.”

“It’s a shame (but) we’re used to it,” said Mr Nawaz.

“We’re a strong community and we take it on the chin. It makes us weary rather than fearful.”

Mr Nawaz said police and local authorities had been “very supportive” following the incident but that attacks against the Muslim community were often “glossed over” in the media.

“We just want to be treated like humans, just like everyone else,” he said.

Sam Tarry, Labour MP for Ilford South, said: “I am shocked and saddened to hear of this Islamophobic attack against Ilford Mosque.

“These disgraceful acts of violence and hatred have no place in Ilford, and I hope that the perpetrators face justice as soon as possible.”

Jas Athwal, Labour leader of Redbridge Council, said the council would continue to work closely with police and that security in areas surrounding the mosque would be increased.

“Racist incidents like this have no place in our borough and we will work with our friends and neighbours at Albert Road Mosque, and the police to ensure the safety of all worshippers.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Stephen Clayman, in charge of policing for the Redbridge area, said: “We take all reports of hate crime very seriously and have launched an investigation.

“Incidents like this will not be tolerated and my officers will be undertaking enhanced patrols in the area to provide reassurance to the local community and visitors to the mosque.”

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call police on 101. They can also report to Tell MAMA on 0800 456 1226 who will ensure that any information is passed onto the police and relevant authorities.

Credit: PA News

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Categories: East London mosque, Eggs, FORMO, Ilford Islamic Centre, mosques, News

Racist teens abuse mother who challenged their behaviour in front of her children

April 26, 2021 Article

Walking on the street with her young children, a Muslim woman faced racist abuse from a group of aggressive teens after she challenged the remarks from one of them who said, “get your kids out my f******* way”.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the woman described how she felt targeted for being South Asian and wearing the hijab as the teens responded with racist, mocking, and stereotypical accent in an incident which occurred not long after she collected her children from school on March 30 in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

We are not disclosing the exact location to protect their identity, but Tell MAMA reported the incident to the police on their behalf, she did not report it immediately, but she did double check that the nearby store had captured it on CCTV.

She added that she felt that the teens were ‘taken aback’ when she challenged them, adding her belief that they singled her out because of her hijab, mentioning that one of the teens was expressly loud when using the f-word, as one of her young children noting how they did not like those boys.

The perpetrators are all described as being white and around the age of fifteen.

More broadly, academics have researched the impacts of linguistic racism and linguistic stereotyping to how it impacts bullied South Asian children through a racialised lens of anti-Muslim prejudice and Islamophobia to how such harmful stereotypes became popularised in popular culture in the United States.

As evidenced in various research reports by Tell MAMA, such gendered dynamics, which often operates through racialised and misogynistic frameworks, further demonstrates how harmful stereotypes embolden men to target Muslim women.

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: Hijab, London, MET Police, News

Neo-Nazi who called for civil war guilty of spreading racist hate on Twitter

April 23, 2021 Article

A neo-Nazi convicted of various racist hate crime offences is due for sentencing at Portsmouth Crown Court on May 14 following a lengthy investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE).

Tobias Powell, 32, from Wythering Close in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, appeared at Worthing Magistrates Court on April 16 and was found guilty of four counts using threatening, abusive or insulting words to stir up racial hatred, contravening section 19 (1) of the Public Order Act 1986.

On Twitter, between July 31, 2018, and October 8, 2018, Powell spread racist messages calling for violent civil war, used white supremacist talking points, and supported the banned neo-Nazi terror group National Action.

They also posted a photo of their Nazi tattoo, according to the CTPSE press release.

When CTPSE officers searched the address of Tobias Powell on December 13, 2019, they seized white supremacist literature and various electronic devices – Powell had used Adolf Hitler as his Apple ID name.

Weeks after the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by a neo-Nazi terrorist in June 2016, Powell tweeted that the late MP was an “enemy of the people”.

The CTPSE press release also reveals that Powell emailed the-then prime minister Theresa May, referring to her as a ‘snake’ in an email with ‘Brexit stitch-up’ in the subject line. A letter sent to Powell’s local MP Nick Gibbs referenced Sharia law.

The conviction generated various questionable headlines, however. The Chichester Observer headlined its coverage “Bognor Regis man with Nazi tattoo convicted over string of hate crimes” as Planet Radio headlined their coverage: “Bognor man convicted of hate crimes over racist social media tweets”.

The Telegraph referred to Powell as a “Far right extremist” in its headline and as a “far right sympathiser” in the article’s opening sentence.

In contrast, the MailOnline dropped its original headline, “far-right sympathiser who called for convicted of hate crime”, to a more accurate version, which now reads: “Nazi-tattooed far-right thug, 32, who called for a race war and had Apple ID under Adolf Hitler’s name faces jail”.

An earlier version of the MailOnline headline before its correction.

An earlier version of the MailOnline headline before its correction.

The original headline still appears on social media image crawls, as the original URL string reads “Far-right-sympathiser-32-called-race-war-convicted-hate-crime-offences.html”.

The Argus newspaper, in contrast, correctly headlined their story, “Bognor Neo Nazi Tobias Powell admits racist hate crimes”.

Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, Head of CTPSE, said: Whilst this was not a terrorism case, the nature of the rhetoric Powell had shared on social media, meant that it was only right for specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing to conduct a thorough investigation.

“We know there is a fine line between hate speech and terrorism. Showing support for terrorist organisations is not acceptable and if you do that, you should expect to be investigated by us.”

Chief Inspector Jon Carter, Arun and Chichester District Commander for Sussex Police, said: “This case shows the importance of thorough investigation of any use of the Internet to spread hate and dangerous material,” adding that Powell posed no risk to the local community.

 

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Categories: hate crime, Neo-Nazi, News

Group of men shouted abuse and threw stones towards mother and daughter in park

April 19, 2021 Article

A mother and her daughter were walking through a local park in south London when a group of eight white men shouted anti-Muslim and Islamophobic slurs and threw stones at them.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the daughter, who wishes to maintain their anonymity, described how the attack, which occurred on the afternoon of March 20, began when the men, noticing both women wear the hijab, shouted, “Allahu Akbar, you bombers” amid laughter and more abuse about their hijabs, and threw stones towards them.

She wanted to use her phone to call the police but felt unable to get away from the men, fearing they would snatch her phone at the moment, adding that her mother remained brave throughout the ordeal.

The men continued to follow them in a general direction but soon left, and out of necessity, the mother and daughter took a longer route to leave the park before returning home to speak with the police.

The daughter did not wear her hijab when leaving the house the following day, fearing further attacks or abuse.

The Metropolitan Police investigated the Islamophobic hate crime but closed the report, citing a lack of available CCTV, as the daughter hinted to our casework team that the men targeted them and picked an area lacking in cameras.

To protect their identities, we are not disclosing further identifying information – but they describe the area they live in as ‘heavily white’ – and as South Asian Muslims, had not faced such levels of violence and harassment before.

In 2018 alone, a clear majority of known perpetrators in verified reports to Tell MAMA were male (73 per cent, or 482 of 663), and 61 per cent were white men.

Gendered anti-Muslim and Islamophobic tropes about Muslim women who wear the hijab (or other forms of religious clothing) perpetuate harmful stereotypes about their apparent ‘meekness’, as other academic works explore the intersectional, racialised, and misogynistic targeting of Muslim women.

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: hate crime, Hijab, MET Police, Metropolitan Police, News

12 on trial in Germany over ‘plot to attack Muslims and overthrow government’

April 13, 2021 Article

Twelve Germans have gone on trial accused of being part of or supporting a far-right group that plotted to carry out deadly attacks on Muslims with the aim of stoking civil unrest and overthrowing the government.

Members of the so-called Group S had allegedly hoarded firearms, axes and swords for the planned attacks, which prosecutors say were foiled by their arrests in February last year.

Federal prosecutors accuse 11 members of the group of seeking to “rock and ultimately overturn the state and social order of the Federal Republic of Germany”.

Their alleged targets included Muslims, political enemies and parliament.

Eight of the men are accused of founding a “terrorist organisation” in September 2019, led by two suspects identified only as Werner S and Tony E.

Their surnames were not released for privacy reasons.

Three others are accused of membership of the terrorist organisation, while the 12th defendant is charged with supporting the group.

The men largely communicated by phone and via messaging apps, but also met in person several times, prosecutors said.

The trial before the regional court in the south-western city of Stuttgart is expected to last several months.

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Categories: anti-Muslim hate, Far Right groups, Germans, Group S, News, Stuttgart

TalkRADIO, the Daily Express, and Daily Star remove false story about mosque

April 1, 2021 Article

TalkRADIO, the Daily Express, and Daily Star have all removed content after the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) had “no reason to believe” allegations made on a radio broadcast that a paramedic had been denied entry to treat a heart attack patient at mosque due to their sexual orientation, following an internal investigation.

The TalkRADIO interview appeared on their Twitter account on March 27, before removal, and read: “Gay paramedic Tom says he was stopped from entering a mosque in Oldham to render assistance to a heart attack victim and lives in constant fear after death threats.” The original tweet had gained over 300 retweets before its removal.

Various far-right websites and Facebook pages had shared the content or reposted it on their websites, adding further layers to their ideological bivouacs, an issue long-highlighted in Tell MAMA’s reports and research. To not give undue attention further, we are not naming these examples.

A day later, the Express newspaper embedded a segment of the TalkRADIO interview under the headline, “Gay paramedic says he was ‘refused entry’ to a mosque” but did not expand the story further.

That same day, however, a more detailed variation of the falsehood appeared on the Daily Star, headlined: “Gay paramedic says he was refused entry to a mosque to treat heart attack patient” as the sub-heading placed the mosque in Manchester, not Oldham, as TalkRADIO has tweeted, though on its official Facebook, TalkRADIO had listed the mosque’s location as Manchester (as confirmed by the URL link) in a now-deleted post.

The Daily Star article quoting from the interview claims that the caller who identified as a pracademic had made a complaint to the North West Ambulance Service, who had, in turn, ‘spoken to the Imam’. Other comments transcribed from the interview perpetuated anti-Muslim and Islamophobic falsehoods about ‘no-go zones‘, which continues to endure.

Given the serious nature of the allegations, the North West Ambulance Service investigated, and in a statement published on March 29, the thorough investigation concluded that “the local management team have not been informed of any such exchange taking place”.

The statement added: “we therefore have no reason to believe that the allegations made by someone maintaining to be an NWAS member of staff are true,” adding that they maintain good relations with faith leaders across the region and do not see the comments as ‘representative of the situation’ in their local communities. The NWAS tweeted the statement two additional times in reply to TalkRADIO and the interview host, Cristo Foufas.

The Official NWAS LGBT Network Twitter account tweeted, “We’ve been made aware of this incident and are confident this was not a member of our staff,” adding how they value the work of faith leaders in the local area, and “look forward to renewing these Positive relationships very soon.”

The Daily Star also deleted tweets that had shared the falsehood on March 28.

Credit: Twitter.

As of writing, neither the Daily Star nor the Daily Express has acknowledged the removal nor apologised.

Cristo Foufas, however, during a segment yesterday on TalkRADIO, stated that they had made multiple attempts to contact the caller but had yet to receive a response, saying: “That it could be that we’ve been duped. It could be that his story was an absolute load of rubbish, and the trust I have, when people call this show, was broken, and that I was and my team were duped by that call, and if we were, I’m really sorry.”

He added that an ‘immediate decision’ had been taken from management to remove all content of the interview from social media following the tweet from the NWAS as they could not verify the details further.

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Categories: Daily Express, Daily Star, Media, media framing, mosque, News, TalkRadio

Racist spat at Muslim woman and shouted “you f****** Arabs” in park

March 26, 2021 Article

A racist man spat at a Muslim woman and shouted, “you f****** Arabs” in a park in west London.

To protect their identity further, Tell MAMA has declined to disclose the precise location but can confirm that it occurred on February 2.

Speaking with our casework team, the Muslim woman described how the racist attack left her in deep shock as she had never been targeted in such a manner before, adding she had only recently begun to wear the hijab and an abaya.

An Islamophobic hate crime report followed, but she declined to pursue the matter further, fearing that the perpetrator may find out and target them again, as a Metropolitan Police officer offered their reassurance and told her to give them a call if she changes her mind.

She described how the man was stumbling across the park with a can of alcohol in their hand and was of Eastern European origin in his mid-to-late thirties.

Nor is this the only example of a man spitting or coughing at a Muslim woman during the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic reported to our service.

The racist language targeted at the Muslim woman again demonstrating the importance of how racialisation works, as some academics describe the process of “ascribing sets of characteristics viewed as inherent to members of a group because of their physical or cultural traits.” It goes beyond skin tone to include various attributes including cultural traits – be it language, clothing, or religious practices.

Other academic research explore the gendered, intersectional ways racialisation targets Muslim women.

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