Over 100 Mosques Targeted and Attacked Since May 2013

November 15, 2016 Article

As part of the #No2H8November campaign of public information, we within Tell MAMA have highlighted the fact that over 100 mosques and Islamic institutions have been targeted and attacked since May 2013 to September 2016.

Something that you would not hear in the Daily Mail, it is a shocking reflection of the growing levels of hatred and intolerance that need challenging for the sake of safer communities and for cohesion and stronger integration within our country. We bring you the results below:

Number of mosques attacked since 2013

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Categories: 100, attacks, Hate Crimes, Islamic institutions, Map, mosques, News

Anti-Muslim Hate on National Rail and TfL Services, Jan to Sept 2016

November 5, 2016 Article

Anti-Muslim Hate Incidents on Transport Hubs, Jan-Sept 2016

We have mapped out the following incidents on National Rail and Transport for London services – from January to September 2016.

We have known that transport hubs and routes to and from work and those going into City Centres, have clusters of anti-Muslim hate incidents, as people are more likely to come in contact with others and be within close proximity.

The map highlights the cluster areas and we are also aware that after the Paris terrorist murders in November 2015, nearly 1 in 3 cases that were reported to us at a street level, took place on public transport. We hope that the following information adds to the picture that is building up regarding the state of anti-Muslim hatred and how it impacts on the day to day lives of some people.

Anti-Muslim Hate Incidents on Transport Hubs, Jan-Sept 2016

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Categories: 2016, anti-Muslim hate incidents, British Transport Police, BTP, Hate Crimes, hate incidents, National Rail, News, TFL

8 Year Old Boys Inculcated with Anti-Muslim Hatred

October 27, 2016 Article

A young Muslim woman walked cuddling her 15 month old baby to the local grocers to get some basic food items. As she walked to the store, 3 young children – one who wore a ski mask, started taunting and insulting her. She stated that they were no more than 8-10 years old.

Taunts and abuse included, “Muslim B****” as they laughed and giggled at the Hijab clad mother walking to the store. As she walked on, the young children started to throw stones at her leading her to try and protect her young child. Upset and shocked, she called for help and shouted at the young children. As people looked to assist her, the young children ran off.

We have previously raised in our 2015 annual report that nearly 1 in 10 of the street based anti-Muslim hate incidents that were reported to us, came from schools. We also highlighted the fact that for the first time in 2015, the average age of the perpetrator of anti-Muslim hatred had fallen from 15-35 to 13-18 years old, a significant drop.

Clearly, in such cases, anti-Muslim sentiment has been picked up from somewhere. The likelihood is that it probably has been picked up from parents or carers and in the home environment. Which makes it even more important for schools to remain vigilant and to challenge such comments and behaviour on site and off-site.

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Categories: anti-Muslim hatred, boys, children, Hijab, News

Met Police launch appeal after Muslim woman assaulted on Oxford Street

October 18, 2016 Article

A visible Muslim woman was assaulted earlier this month when a white male attempted to rip off her hijab.

The victim was walking alone on Oxford Street (Marble Arch end) on 4 October when a white male, described as being between 30-40 years, approached her and repeatedly told her to remove her hijab.

The Muslim woman, in her 40s, refused. The suspect then grabbed her hijab and attempted to remove it through force. He did displace the pins which held the hijab in place but was unable to remove it.

Westminster Police are investigating CCTV.

The suspect is described as being aroung 5’5, of medium build, with slicked back greased black hair. He wore light blue jeans and a grey sweatshirt.

Our 2015 annual report found that Muslim women are more likely to be attacked than men in most settings. The largest proportion of perpetrators are white males.

chart

The attack also demonstrates how Muslims are often the target for hate when using public spaces or out shopping.

We urge anyone with information to contact Westminster Poice via 101 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

If you have experienced a similar incident or know the victim, we urge you to also contact our confidential support service on 0800 456 1226.

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Categories: hate crime, Hijab, London, News

The Brexit result had a lasting impact on race and religious hate crimes

October 13, 2016 Article

Data from the Home Office has confirmed a stark rise in hate crimes following the EU Referendum on June 23.

Religious hate crime has jumped by more than a third in 2015/2016. Racist hate crimes had rose by 15 per cent. Therefore, the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police in July 2016 was 41 per cent higher than in July 2015. But if we look closely at the figures, we see that the referendum result had a lasting impact on both strands of hate crime, and mirror, in some ways, the spike in incidents reported to Tell MAMA following the result.

In response to intense media interest following the Brexit vote, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), took the unusual step of requesting weekly returns from police forces in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, to measure hate crime figures in a more ‘timely’ manner. The NPCC ended their weekly collection of hate crime data in September after the numbers had declined in August.

Home Office data found that faith-based and racially aggravated hate crimes grew incrementally following the result. On the day of the referendum, 31 police forces nationwide had recorded 106 religiously or racially aggravated hate crimes. In under a week, that figure grew to 168. By June 29, faith-based or racially aggravated hate crimes totalled 174. On July 1, it jumped to 207 – a 95 per cent rise on the June 23 figure. Throughout July, the daily hate crime figure for both strands did not drop below the June 23 figure of 106. In August, hate crime incidents for both strands rarely fell below 100 daily incidents across the 31 police forces. Towards the end of August, however, the number of offences did eventually return to levels seen prior to the referendum.

Tell MAMA had warned in early July that “With the backdrop of the Brexit vote and the spike in racist incidents that seems to be emerging, the government should be under no illusions, things could quickly become extremely unpleasant for Britain’s minorities”.

Broadly speaking, half of all faith-based hate crimes in 2015/16 were public order offences. That creeps up to 59 per cent for racially aggravated offences. Assaults against individuals due to their faith and/or race remained stubbornly high. Thankfully, however, less than 10 per cent of assaults resulted in injury. But these figures demonstrate how such hate crime limit the mobility of Muslims in Britain. In terms of criminal justice outcomes, charge/summons for public order offences under a racial or religious crime flag (22 per cent) were higher than summons for non-aggravated equivalent offences.

hatecrime

In our 2015 annual report, we found that hotspots of anti-Muslim hate occur when Muslims use public and private transport networks, walk in public spaces of cities, and where they do their shopping. Muslim women are more likely to be attacked than men in most settings. The largest proportion of perpetrators are white males. This means that the largest proportion of incidents involves Muslim women, usually wearing Islamic clothing – be it the hijab, abaya or niqab. Verbal abuse from men often carries misogynistic, racist and Islamophobic overtones. 84 per cent of all incidents in London recorded by Tell MAMA and the MPS occurred within 200 metres of a bus stop and 48 per cent of all incidents occurred within 100 metres of a bus stop.

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Categories: Brexit, EU, hate crime, News

Brutal racial assault in Birmingham shows racism is still in society

October 5, 2016 Article

A 23-year-old man was brutally assaulted and racially abused in Birmingham City Centre at around 1am on September 16. The victim recalled the slur “f**king p*ki” being shouted at in his direction by 5 or six men. As he continued walking, the assault followed, which left him requiring stitches. The severity of the attack left with a deep wound to the forehead, a deep wound under his eye and other cuts near his nose and mouth area.

When Tell MAMA spoke to the victim he stated:

It was an awful attack and it just saddens me more than it was racially motivated. I didn’t think that existed in Birmingham, such a diverse city.

I just want to raise awareness and for something to be done. If the man who did this gets away with assaulting a stranger, imagine what he will do next.

If you were in the Hurst Street area on September 16 we urge you contact us in confidence on 0800 456 1226. Alternatively, you can call 101 and speak to West Midlands Police.

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Categories: assault, Birmingham, News

Statement from Tell MAMA on the Conservative Party Conference

October 5, 2016 Article

Today is a key day for the Conservatives with the Prime Minister making a key-note speech which will affect each and every one of us in our country in the future. The Prime Minister is someone who has also championed work on tackling hate crimes and has done much to ensure that fairness and equality in issues like hate crime work and stop and search is championed. Today is her day and for the future of the Party and we value the incredible amount of work she has done in these areas as the Home Secretary.

This is why we believe that we do not want to become the story which affects this Party conference and there are far more important things that are stake. This does not however, mean that the behaviour shown to us by Conservative conference and G4S staff will be set aside when we had booked and tried to gain access to our fringe yesterday.

In particular, to register, book, turn up and be denied access to our own fringe event and to have G4S staff placed around our staff and insult them, whilst openly making homophobic comments against an LGBT member of staff is unacceptable and these comments were heard by senior managers within Tell MAMA. Furthermore, to be then threatened with violence by two G4S staff and to be denied access to our fringe when we are there to inform people about anti-Muslim hatred, does not bode well.

Our work is difficult enough as it is challenging some groups within Muslim communities who sell a view that Muslims are perpetual victims. We have to constantly challenge that destructive view. There are others beyond Muslim communities who believe that Muslims should not be seen nor heard. There are also those who believe that anti-Muslim hatred does not exist and that Muslims ‘bring it upon themselves’. In the middle of these toxic views, we try and undertake our work and under a barrage of abuse, threats and intimidation over the last 5 years, both from groups selling the perpetual victim narrative and those on the extreme far right.

Our work forms a central plank of the Hate Crime Strategy of this Government.

Yesterday, if we can be honest, it seemed that the very dignity of victims that we try and preserve through our work, was stripped from our staff.

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Categories: anti-Muslim hate, Conservative Party conference, fringe, News, Teresa May

The black metal origins of an anti-Muslim meme

September 8, 2016 Article

The recent arrest of a suspected neo-Nazi, Sean Creighton, 44, on a terrorism offence contained an interesting footnote. He allegedly possessed a badge with “burn your local mosque” written on it. This idea, to burn a local mosque, has appealed to neo-Nazis and Islamophobes in Europe and North America.

The image, however, comes from the artwork of an obscure black metal band named Mogh, who released a live album in 2012.

Mogh describes itself as a “Persian/Israeli/German extreme black metal project”. Its influences range from nihilism, the occult and the Orient. The band uses anti-Islamic imagery and symbolism in its album artwork and merchandise. The band has marketed itself as “anti-Islamlic black metal” on t-shirts bearing the “burn your local mosque” design.

In spite of the above, the band were ‘shocked’ to learn that their artwork had been used to incite racial hatred.

In a statement, Mogh said: “It shocks us because of many reasons. Mogh is an international conceptual art and band which includes members from Germany, Syria, Iran, Bulgaria and Peru.

Mogh philosophy believes in every person as a star regardless of its race and believes religion in any form steals that identical essence and makes you an systematic slave.”

Mogh state they have lost family members in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.

Later variations of the “burn your local mosque” image had removed Mogh’s satanic logo. Social media accounts have used it as an Islamophobic call to arms.

In New York, a venue closed after hosting a neo-Nazi music festival last May. A Twitter user posted photos from outside the venue, which included a neo-Nazi owed van covered in hate stickers. One such sticker included “burn your local mosque”.

cool stickers bro pic.twitter.com/wPlr6oZgF6

— New York Year Zero (@newyorkyearzero) May 30, 2016

Mark Bennett, 48, was jailed last July following a racially aggravated public order offence at a mosque in Bristol. Bennett and others had placed rashers of bacon on the door handles of the mosque. They had shouted racial abuse at a member of the mosque, thrown bacon sandwiches at the mosque, and tied a St George’s flag to the railings with the words “No Mosque”.

A Facebook page, linked to Bennett, had posted the “burn your local mosque” image, with the caption “Fire in the hole..!!!”

Two Instagram users in the United States have promoted “burn your local mosque” patches in recent months. Both posts encouraged individuals to message for further details. The user ‘houndsnhogs88’ promoted the patch a day after the terrorist attacks in Brussels. He captioned the post: “After much deliberation, I’m finally putting this on my vest #burnyourlocalmosque #JeSuisBruxelles #fuckIslam #stopIslam”.

On November 14, 2015, Patrick Keogan had allegedly made online threats against two Islamic centres. In one alleged Facebook post, Keogan included an image of a mosque in flames, captioned with the text “burn your local mosque”. His attorney argued that the allegations do not constitute “crimes of violence.” The judge, however, found probable cause to charge Keogan.

Tell MAMA staff became aware of the image last year. On February 27, 2015, the Facebook page of the Sunderland North East Infidels had uploaded the image. In early 2016, Tell MAMA received numerous reports of social media accounts sharing the image. A Twitter account linked to the notorious troll John Nimmo had targeted Tell MAMA staff with this image in 2015.

By April 2016, Tell MAMA reported that an individual had been arrested for posting this image online.

The “burn your local mosque” meme had built a European audience since at least 2014. On November 6, 2014, an online post in German promoted the “burn your local mosque” patches atop bullets. A reverse image search revealed the use of the image as an avatar on a Polish language forum that same year.

Nor does this idea exist in a vacuum. It’s possible to buy patches which read ‘burn your local church’.

In spite of its obscurity and niche genre, the imagery, while offensive, became, by accident, a means for racists to allegedly target Muslim communities.

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Categories: Burn Your Local Mosque, Hate Speech, metal, Neo-Nazis, News, racially aggravated offences

Trip to Skegness Ends Up In Abuse for Muslim Family

August 29, 2016 Article

This is the actual account of a case that we received within the last few days and which highlights how intolerance and prejudice can shape the impressions made on families and also the perception of other communities. The impacts of such prejudice are felt deep and wide within families that are affected and fuel further insecurity. This is the anonymised text from the case of a family who visited Skegness for the first time.

“Me and my family went for a family trip for the first time to Skegness with a local community centre. Together there were 12 people, of which 7 of us wore hijabs.

“Once we reached to the main area where there were shops, we noticed a lot of people just staring at us as if we were some form of aliens. It didn’t really bother us until we walked past the pub and a man shouted “terrorists”.

“My sister and I just looked at each other and didn’t bother looking back at the man and we were shocked at what he had said. As we went to the beach again, a lot of people continuously stared at us. We just smiled back, but it made us think how ignorant these people are.

“We then went to buy some seaside ‘rock’ and the lady at the shop said “don’t you get hot in them”, referring to our hijabs. My sister replied “no” and they were not that thick and showed her the material of her hijab. She did not say anything after that and we left the shop.

“We saw another Muslim lady there and we were so happy to see her. She gave us a ‘salaam’ and smiled at us. She was the only Muslim I saw there.

“This was our first family trip with our kids to Skegness and I don’t think I would like to go again seeing the behaviour of the people there. It really made us sad and made us miss the area we are from and also made us reflect on how different people are in England.

“It opened my eyes to the nasty comments Muslims get.”

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Categories: Family trip, Hijab, Muslim women, News, Skegness

#MakeaMovieIslamic Hashtag Shows Hows Race and Religious Bigotry is Normalised for Some

August 28, 2016 Article

Yesterday evening, (27th August 2016), was a perfect example of how race and religious bigotry is normalised for some who chose Twitter to promote their prejudiced views through.

There are some who believe that faith is open to ridicule. That is not the issue here, since people can ridicule any faith or set of beliefs and no doubt many will challenge their views. What is deeply problematic is the inclusion of groups of people, anti-Muslim tropes and a sprinkling of racism thrown in for good measure. It also shows the kinds of people drawn to this hashtag.

Some Twitter accounts therefore slipped quite easily between Islam and their prejudice against Muslims and their bigotry and prejudice was clear to see. Take for example @sydneyatheist below, or references to Prophet Muhammad and anti-Muslims tropes thrown around that Muslims are ‘paedophiles’, even though two words come to mind – Jimmy Saville – for a start. Or take open racism through the @JulianusPowell account where it calls a group of angry bearded Muslim men, “Planet of the Apes.”

Or take @harbi607 and the dehumanization of a woman wearing the burqa and niqab (face veil), into ‘the thing.’ Or @WillPPritchard who also throws in some anti-Semitism for good measure. Or @SuperOldHolborn whose views are so skewed that they warrant challenging by others on Twitter.

These are just some of the accounts that were active using this hashtag. Yet, to be fair, we must also add that the hashtag did not catch on and that some accounts, (listed below), started to challenge some of the prejudice being promoted.

Which brings us onto the final point. There will be small scale campaigns like this in the future that will target communities, including Muslims. Twitter is not removing material unless there is a targeted threat or if there are copyright issues with pictures for example. Whatever changes Twitter implements in the future, it is imperative that more people are active in challenging such accounts, and with accounts like @JulianusPowell, ensuring that they are reported in.

If Twitter fails to act on such accounts promoting open racism, we will ensure that they are highlighted with the social media agency. Until more accounts do not challenge hatred, prejudice and bigotry, the very platforms many of us use to connect with others will be used by those who find it easy and acceptable to promote their hatred. We cannot allow that to continue unchallenged.

#MakeAMovieIslamic

Planet of the apes. pic.twitter.com/E5mFT5jeFq

— Enoch The Apostate (@JulianusPowell) August 28, 2016

The Thing #MakeAMovieIslamic pic.twitter.com/wxCf0kCU9X

— Harbi (@Harbi607) August 28, 2016

Rebel without a head#MakeaMovieIslamic

— David Vance (@DVATW) August 27, 2016

#MakeAMovieIslamic

Dial Muslim for Murder

— #FreeMilo (@SydneyAtheist) August 27, 2016

#makeamovieislamic Honey, I blew up the yids.

— Bill Pritchard (@WillPPritchard) August 27, 2016

Today I'll be offended by
✘ Child rape gangs
✘ FGM
✘ Murder
✘ Slavery
✘ Poverty
✓ A hash tag#makeamovieislamic

— Sir Holborn VC & Bar (@SuperOldHolborn) August 27, 2016

#MakeAMovieIslamic Meet the Goat Fockers

— chris lee (@heckmonwyke) August 27, 2016

Some however, challenged those accounts using the #MakeaMovieIslamic hashtag, showing that counter-speech can make a difference, though more accounts needs to challenge such bigotry and prejudice.

Four Beheadings and Your Funeral #MakeAMovieIslamic

— ⬇Top tweet as always (@gxzs) August 27, 2016

#MakeAMovieIslamic is a disgusting hashtag designed perpetrate hate. What are you doing about it @Twitter?

— Baroque Chic (@BaroqueChic) August 27, 2016

#MakeAMovieIslamic is one of the most hateful and bigoted trends I have seen. I will not ignore abuse rather I will speak out against it.

— Dr Aadil Patel (@Draadilpatel) August 27, 2016

Proof islamophobia has passed dinner table test is the hashtag #MakeAMovieIslamic, if it were about another group, there would be outcry

— Aafaq (@iamaafaq) August 27, 2016

Can't believe how many ignorant people are using this hashtag to perpetuate hate and islamophobia #MakeAMovieIslamic

— مريم زارا (@Lil_Me3ms) August 27, 2016

If #MakeAMovieIslamic triggers you but this map of verified refugee crime doesn't, you're part of the problem. pic.twitter.com/THHgbwaaIC

— Kelly (@platoonofjudoon) August 27, 2016

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Categories: #MakeaMovieIslamic, anti-Muslim hate, harbi607, JulianusPowell, News, SuperOldHolborn, WillPPritchard