The National Union of Students (NUS) has published its report ‘The experience of Muslim students in 2017-18’. The report highlights the obstacles Muslim students experience in higher and further education, including raising concerns about the effect of the Prevent initiative.
The paper, from the University of Portsmouth and the University of Birmingham, has found that middle-class British Muslim parents are homeschooling their children because they are being subject to racist bullying in mainstream schools.
Events were held in cities around the UK to express solidarity with the Muslim community on ‘Punish a Muslim Day’. However, given the institutional and structural nature of Islamophobia, it has been warned one day of support is not enough.
Three men have been arrested on suspicion of pipe bombing a Minnesota mosque in August 2017. The attack has revealed anxiety about the spike in bigotry targeting American Muslims, which has led CAIR to urge mosques and Islamic centres to take steps to protect themselves against potential attacks.
MFest, which will be held at the British Library in London on 27th-29th April, will celebrate Islamic literature, ideas, and culture, and aims to challenge the idea that Islam and Muslims are a monolithic and static block, which is one of the fundamental features of Islamophobia.
