‘I feel scared’: Muslims in the UK question sense of belonging after riots | News about racism

Liverpool, United Kingdom – On Friday, a holy day for Muslims, fewer women attend prayers at local mosques across the UK. Those who dare are exchanging safety tips. Move in groups, avoid crowds, keep car windows closed.

Here in Liverpool, the sun is shining and the school summer holidays are in full swing. But it is one of the English cities where far-right race riots have erupted this week. There is a strange atmosphere. There are almost no children on the streets. The gates of a historic church are locked.

“I’m a pretty strong person and I still feel scared, you know? I’m scared,” said Saba Ahmed, a resident who works at a multicultural center that serves local communities.

“It just doesn’t feel right.”

Fears spread across the city as Islamophobic and racist riots broke out following the murder of three young people in Southport, less than an hour’s drive from here.

Rumors on social media falsely claimed that the suspect was Muslim and an asylum seeker. Misinformation, since none of it is true, fueled the worst bout of violence to hit the country in years.

The riots, which occurred in dozens of areas, were extinguished thanks to thousands of anti-racism protesters who outnumbered them in a show of solidarity with those affected. Police handed down heavy sentences to protesters, which also deterred others from joining.

But many Liverpudlians, and many other Britons, are now questioning years of integration.

Observers blamed politicians and some sectors of the media for protesting immigration while demonizing Muslims and asylum seekers.

“After the ‘War on Terror’, political debate and legislation around counterterrorism has centered on targeting Muslim communities as a threat to national security,” said Shabna Begum, head of the Runnymede Trust, a racial equality think tank. and civil rights.

“And now they have been identified as a cultural threat to British democracy based on long-standing arguments that Muslim civilization is barbaric.”

Over the years, mainstream politics and some media outlets have absorbed this narrative which has paved the way for the “normalization of Islamophobic rhetoric” in the UK and therefore the dehumanization of Muslims, she explained.

As political attention has turned to a rise in undocumented migrants crossing the English Channel, many say brown and black asylum seekers have been lumped into the same category.

Muslims, refugees and people of color were randomly attacked in the riots.

According to For Chris Allen, associate professor of criminology at the University of Leicester, both Labor and the Conservatives have contributed to the vilification of Muslims, paving the way for the general population to slander minority groups.

“This is, in part, the legacy of the Brexit campaign’s toxic rhetoric about popular views on immigration, which continued right up to the recent general election,” Allen said, adding that politicians had failed to call out Islamophobia when the found.

The mocking contempt of “journalists” will never stop me from reporting racism and Islamophobic hatred. pic.twitter.com/cQoNKDzJ78

– Deputy Zarah Sultana (@zarahsultana) August 5, 2024

On a recent morning television show, Labor politician Zahra Sultana was asked why it is important to identify Islamophobia and the racialized nature of many attacks in combating racism. As she tried to respond, she was interrupted by the panel, which many on social media said exemplified an attempt to silence discussions about racism.

“We need to call it racism and we need to call it Islamophobic, because if we don’t, we won’t be able to solve what’s going on. Language is very important,” Sultana said on the program.

TellMAMA, which monitors anti-Muslim hate crimes, he said Islamophobic incidents have more than doubled in the last decade.

During Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, anti-Muslim hate crimes have increased – according to TellMAMA, such incidents tripled in the first four months of the conflict. Research by the Strategic Dialogue Institute also show a sharp increase in anti-Muslim content on online platforms during the same period. Similarly, UK groups monitoring anti-Jewish hate crimes reported an increase during the war.

According to Imam Adam Kelwick, the missing element is dialogue.

Outside the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool, he has just returned from an unusual meeting over a coffee.

He sat at a table with a far-right protester who was among dozens who recently demonstrated in front of the mosque.

At the time, Kelwick tackled the situation by crossing police lines and offering burgers and fries to the angry crowd. He embraced the protesters and promised more dialogue.

“What happens when you get together is that you start talking and listening. You begin to discover that many of the other side’s concerns are yours as well,” Adam said. “All it takes is human interaction.”

He plans to open the mosque’s gates on Saturday to engage in more discussions with members of the far right.

But while he tries to speak, others need time to heal.

“There was a feeling that we were so integrated into the community – all the progress of recent years seemed to have been thwarted in the course of one night,” said Tawhid Islam, member and trustee of the Liverpool Region Network of Mosques. “A seed of doubt has been planted and people wonder, ‘Am I part of this community if I’m not white?’”