Netpol has published an important investigation into the policing of recent Gaza protests, which shows that racism is one cause of over-aggressive policing.
The stories of two women being arrested for carrying a placard with Arabic writing on it, and a man being arrested for wearing a green headband with Arab writing on it, are shocking (see p6).
This is partly about racism against people of colour and partly racism against Muslims.
There is, quite rightly, great public concern at any sign of antisemitism. What we need is just as much concern and just as much energy in countering anti-Muslim racism.
A recent survey by More in Common, with the Together Coalition, found that 30 percent of people in Britain believe that ‘Islam is a religion of violence’: 11 percent strongly believe it and 19 percent somewhat believe it.
The poll, carried out in February, found that 30 percent of British people strongly believe in at least one anti-Muslim stereotype.
The other stereotypes they tested were: ‘Muslims will never be as British as other British people are’; ‘Most British Muslims in the UK do not hold British values’; and ‘British Muslims are more loyal to other Muslim countries than to Britain’.
More in Common pointed out that, in their own polling of 10,000 British people in 2020, they found that British Muslims were far more likely to value their British identity as personally important than the wider public.
Some 35 percent of British Muslims ranked ‘being British’ as very important to their identity (selecting 7 on a scale of 1 to 7), compared to only 23 percent of the population as a whole.
Muslims were also much more likely to say they were proud to be British than the wider public.
Unfortunately, the peace movement is not free from Islamophobia.
In this issue, we’ve printed two statements on how to counter anti-Muslim racism, both from very mainstream sources (and both on p17).
Tell MAMA is virtually part of the British establishment, while also documenting Islamophobia and helping Muslims who’ve been targeted.
The other piece, dating back five years, comes from an EU-funded study into how to counter Islamophobia.
These are far from being the last word in terms of giving guidance on how to root out anti-Muslim racism, especially for people with a radical analysis of society’s problems. However, both articles do give some useful tips and perspectives that PN can bear in mind as it goes further along this journey.
Our fundamental position will be that Islam and its followers should be held to the same standards as other major religions such as Christianity and Judaism.