‘Islamophobia’: A contested term in UK discourse
Recent claims that Islamophobia does not exist has prompted questioning over whether the term, which some argue conflates the anti-Muslim and the anti-Islam, is a useful one to use.
Recent claims that Islamophobia does not exist has prompted questioning over whether the term, which some argue conflates the anti-Muslim and the anti-Islam, is a useful one to use.
The UN special rapporteur on racism, Professor Tendayi Achiume, has criticised the Prevent duty for fuelling distrust among ethnic minority communities and for impacting racial equality in the UK. Her comments came as she observed that Brexit has contributed to an environment of increased “explicit racial, ethnic and religious intolerance” in the UK.
Muslims Against Anti-Semitism (MAAS), “a collective group of British Muslims who believe that antisemitism within Muslim communities has gone on for far too long”, have established their organisation and its mission statement with a post in the Telegraph and the Times entitled “We Muslims have one word for Jews. Shalom”.
At the end of April, the French daily Le Parisien published a manifesto on what is being referred to as ‘new anti-Semitism’. About 300 renowned personalities from the most diverse sections of society signed the appeal, including among others former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister Manuel Valls. Essentially, the term ‘new anti-Semitism’ is taken to…
In the Independent, Mamadou Bocoum writes that British Muslims need to remember during Ramadan that they cannot take their security for granted anymore, and that the community must work together and with the police and the government to protect their collective freedoms.