Islamophobia: A Racial or Religious Discrimination
On Sunday, An-Nisa Society (who have for over 35 years been addressing the issue of Islamophobia) gave their insight into the ugly manifestations of anti-Muslim hatred, bias and prejudice
Moving beyond hate crime which is more obvious - they spoke about institutional Islamophobia in the public sector.
Firstly Muslims are citizens of this country and have a right to equal treatment under the law. The Equality Act 2010 includes religion and belief as a protected characteristic. No one is doing us a favour to tackle Islamophobia- it’s a legal duty. We need to change our mindsets as Muslims and demand equality
The public sector delivers services that are by law required to meet the needs of all communities. From housing, criminal justice system, health services, education to civic engagement and more
However Muslims are facing the highest levels of socio-economic deprivation, alienation and marginalisation across all these areas. This is when you look at faith monitoring. Yet the policies currently address things from an ethnic perspective which do not target interventions in the correct way. Therefore the public sector is failing in its duties
The roots of Islamophobia can be traced back to the birth of Islam. The event presentation went right back to the early manifestations - and how these hatreds and prejudice are deeply embedded within institutions
Islamophobia is a faith-based hatred and has been around since before scientific racism and the racial theories and classifications.
Therefore Islamophobia cannot be dealt with under the strand of racism. It needs to be dealt with under ‘religion or belief.’
Racial categories have led to the ‘asianisation’ of British Muslims. However Muslims are multi cultural, multi racism and multi lingual. Muslims are therefore excluded from representation across current classifications - as faith is often ignored.
It was a very insightful event that gave some tangible ways to properly deal with Islamophobia.
Read An-Nisa’s report - Islamophobia: From Denial to Action here: https://khansistersblog.wordpress.com/islamophobia-from-denial-to-action/
If anyone is interested in training for their public sector/DEI teams - please email: info@an-nisa.org
