All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia

This tag is associated with 9 posts

“Passing the Dinner Table Test Retrospective and Prospective Approaches to Tackling Islamophobia in Britain” (New Article)

Posted by Bigmouth ⋅ April 21, 2013 ⋅ Leave a Comment

A quick post to announce the publication of my new article, “Passing the Dinner Table Test Retrospective and Prospective Approaches to Tackling Islamophobia in Britain”. As it is ‘open access’, despite being published in a peer reviewed academic journal – SAGE Open – you can still download a pdf of the article for free. To do so, click here.

If you want to know what the article is about before downloading, I’ve pasted the abstract below:

“Through establishing the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia and Cross-Government Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred, the Coalition government has afforded significance to Islamophobia. Focusing on definition, evidence, and politics, this article considers British governmental policy approaches to tackling Islamophobia over the past 15 years. Tracing religiously based discrimination from the 1980s to the publication of the Runnymede Trust’s 1997 groundbreaking report into Islamophobia, this article explores how the New Labour government sought primarily to address Islamophobia through a broadening of the equalities framework. Against a backdrop of 9/11 and 7/7, a concurrent security and anti-terror agenda had detrimental impacts. Under the Coalition, there has been a marked change. Considering recent developments and initiatives, the Coalition has seemingly rejected Islamophobia as an issue of equalities preferring approaches more akin to tackling Anti-Semitism. In conclusion, definition, evidence, and politics are revisited to offer a prospective for future British governmental policy.”

IASS News: “IASS Academic Chris Allen’s Research Praised by British Politicians”

Posted by Bigmouth ⋅ February 1, 2013 ⋅ 2 Comments

Reproduced below is some news featured on the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Applied Social Studies (IASS) website.

To view the actual page, click here.

Alternatively, you can read it below:

Chris Allen’s research into Islamophobia has been publicly praised by two high profile politicians.

At an event in London on the evening of 24th January 2013, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi – Minister for Faith and Communities and former Chair of the Conservative Party – and Simon Hughes – Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark – not only drew on findings from his research into Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred but also praised him for its timeliness and impact.

Informing Government about Islamophobia & Anti-Muslim Hate

Posted by Bigmouth ⋅ October 29, 2012 ⋅ 3 Comments

Following on from my recent submission to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Islamophobia, I thought that I’d make available in one place all of the various submissions I’ve made to government over the past two years – both to the APPG but so too the Cross-Government Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hate also.

As well as hopefully prompting debate and discussion, making these resources available will provide a lot of information relating to improving understanding Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate as they cover ‘the basics’. So here goes:

Written evidence to the APPG on Islamophobia: Muslims, Islam and the British media

Written evidence relating to the representation of Muslims and Islam in the British media submitted to the APPG on Islamophobia on 24th October 2012.

APPG on Antisemitism summary review report

A summary review of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Antisemitism’s report which was undertaken on behalf of the Cross-Government Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hate (housed in the Department for Communities & Local Government) in May 2012. The review sought to inform the Working Group’s thinking in relation to realistic and tangible outcomes.

Islamophobia and the Media: written evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia

Posted by Bigmouth ⋅ October 22, 2012 ⋅ 1 Comment

Further to my previous support for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Islamophobia, I was recently invited to present written and oral evidence at the APPG’s forthcoming meeting focusing on the role and impact of the media on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate.

The meeting will focus on the question “Do the media in Britain deliberately perpetrate an ‘us-them’ mentality between society and Muslims?” and will be held from 6-7pm on Wednesday, 24th October in the House of Commons. It is my understanding that the meeting is open to the public.

Due to personal circumstances, I am unable to attend the meeting and offer oral evidence.However, I have submitted written evidence and have a colleague representing me during the discussions. As part of this, I have pulled together the following headline research findings from the past decade: Continue reading »

Nine recommendations to the APPG on Islamophobia

Posted by Bigmouth ⋅ November 21, 2011 ⋅ 1 Comment

Following on from the news last week that I was invited to present evidence to the AGM of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Islamophobia, I thought that I would share the nine initial recommendations I made.

These are very basic but I think that the enquiry into Islamophobia is still at a very basic stage: there is still no real consensus about what it is, where it is, what it does or looks like, and how much of it exists out there in today’s society. These nine recommendations – I hope – would begin to address some of these issues and provide some information that we could then build upon.

Nine recommendations to the APP on Islamophobia

1. Explore the need for establishing a working definition of Islamophobia. In line with official definitions of such concepts as ‘disability’ or ‘religion or belief’ to better communicate the role of the APPG and to support government, institutions and policymakers to engage with the phenomenon.

2. Make a categorical commitment to the term and concept of Islamophobia, communicating a clear refutation of the smokescreen and distracting discourses about its perceived inappropriateness.

3. Significant further information/ investigation is necessary in relation to Islamophobia. Set out below are what might be the first steps in this process:
– Establish a comprehensive existing knowledge-base of Islamophobia. From this basis a gap analysis exercise can be undertaken to identify critical areas where additional research/ investigation is required.

IASS academic presents expert evidence on Islamophobia

Posted by Bigmouth ⋅ November 17, 2011 ⋅ 1 Comment

Following the formal announcement that the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Islampophobia has been relaunched, the Institute of Applied Social Studies (IASS) has published an article about my involvement on its website. To view the article on the University of Birmingham’s website, click here.

I have also reproduced it below:

IASS academic presents expert evidence on Islamophobia

Having been commissioned to produce a report for the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Islamophobia earlier this year, IASS’s Chris Allen was yesterday invited to present expert evidence to a meeting of the APPG. Convened in the Houses of Parliament, around 40 Parliamentarians from across the political parties attended including Simon Hughes, Jack Straw, Nicholes Boles, Jeremy Corbyn, Khaled Mahmood, Roger Godsiffe, Richard Burden, Louise Mensch and John Hemmings, amongst others.