Muslims

Article: “For their attackers, mosques are seen as places of ‘difference’”

Following on from the excitement of having published last week in the Huffington Post, I was as excited to then publish an article in the New Statesman.

Entitled, “For their attackers, mosques are seen as places of ‘difference’” the article can be read by clicking here. But if you want to try before you buy (as I said, it’s free to read, don’t worry) I’ve pasted the first few paragraphs below:

It remains to be seen whether the blaze which destroyed a community centre and mosque in Muswell Hill, north London this week was a reprisal attack against Muslims in Britain for the murder of drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich a fortnight ago. If so, it will be another to add to the dramatically increased number of incidents to have been reported to Tell MAMA, the government-funded third party monitoring project which records anti-Muslim attacks.

In this climate however, it is no surprise that mosques have come under attack. According to Tell MAMA, around 12 have been targeted of late, the most worrying incident being in Grimsby where three petrol bombs were thrown. This is no surprise to me though because as my research over the past decade has shown, mosques have become convenient targets onto which the fears and anxieties about Muslims and Islam that ordinary people have are projected.

To continue reading, click here.

Article: Why the ‘Daily Telegraph’ And ‘Daily Mail’ Are Wrong About Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime

I’m especially excited to have been accepted as a blogger at the Huffington Post.

As such, I’m as equally excited to have published my first blog article, “Why the ‘Daily Telegraph’ And ‘Daily Mail’ Are Wrong About Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime”.

You can read the article in full by clicking here, but if you want to try before you buy (it’s free to read, don’t worry) I’ve pasted the first few paragraphs below:

Having researched Islamophobia and anti-Muslim phenomena for more than a decade, I’ve come to realise that for some people the ‘number’ of incidents are far more important than the reality of the lives of those affected.

I often wonder what ‘number’ would make those who downplay the problem – as Andrew Gilligan did in this weekend’s Sunday Telegraph (with a follow-up story in today’s The Daily Mail) – finally acknowledge that Islamophobia is a social problem that needs to be tackled.

For me, the ‘numbers’ issue is problematic, not least because it is largely initiated and perpetuated by Islamophobia’s detractors. For whatever reason this group either repeatedly declares that Islamophobia does not exist or attempts to undermine those trying to tackle it. In the world of these detractors, if there aren’t any ‘numbers’ then this is categorical ‘evidence’ that Islamophobia does not exist.

It is no surprise therefore that the ‘numbers’ put forward by Tell MAMA, relating to the sharp increase in anti-Muslim incidents recorded since the brutal murder in Woolwich almost a fortnight ago, have undergone the same scrutiny. What the ‘numbers’ show is that since the barbaric murder of Lee Rigby, the number of Muslims who have become victims of prejudice, discrimination, bigotry and hate has increased. This cannot be denied.

To continue reading, click here.

New Article: “EDL uses an old playbook to spread message of hate”

Following the hideous scenes in Woolwich yesterday, I was invited to write a piece for a new independent news and commentary site, The Conversation.

The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public. To find out more, click here.

I’ve reproduced part of the article below. If you want to read it in full, you can do so here.

EDL uses an old playbook to spread message of hate

It was unsurprising that little more than a few hours after yesterday’s horrific murder, the far-right arrived in Woolwich. Emboldened by the afternoon’s events, the English Defence League’s (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson announced:

“They’re chopping our soldiers’ heads off. This is Islam. That’s what we’ve seen today … Islam is a religion of peace. It’s not. It never has been. What you saw today is Islam. Everyone’s had enough.”

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New Article: “Between Critical and Uncritical Understandings: a case study analyzing the claims of Islamophobia made in the context of the proposed ‘Super-Mosque’ in Dudley, England”

A quick post to announce the publication of another new article,  “Between Critical and Uncritical Understandings: A Case Study Analyzing the Claims of Islamophobia Made in the Context of the Proposed ‘Super-Mosque’ in Dudley, England”. As with a few of my other recent articles, this is ‘open access’ despite being published in the peer reviewed academic journal, Societies. If interested therefore, you can download a copy of the article for FREE here.

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

Research highlights how usage and claims of Islamophobia tend to be simplistic and without nuance. Using a case study approach, this article considers the claims of Islamophobia made in relation to the proposed Dudley ‘super-mosque’. Setting out a narrative of the ‘super-mosque’, this article draws upon primary and secondary research to consider the claims and discourses of the major actors in the Dudley setting: the Dudley Muslim Association, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, the far-right especially the British National Party and the English Defence League, as well as individual political figures. Considering each in detail, this article seeks to evaluate the extent to which each of the actors and the claims of Islamophobia made against them might be valid. As well as exploring claims of Islamophobia within a ‘real’ environment, this article seeks to critically engage the opposition shown towards the mosque, the way in which the opposition campaigns were mobilized and engineered, and how the ideological meanings of Islamophobia was able to be readily utilized to validate and justify such opposition. In doing so, this article concludes that the claims and usage of Islamophobia was weak and that a more critical and nuanced usage of the term is urgently required.

Open access, it’s the future !!!

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

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.”

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“All Muslims are the Same: from external Others to homegrown bombers and beyond” ESRC Conference 7-8th March 2013

I recently participated in an ESRC Conference held at the University of Warwick on 7th & 8th March 2013. Entitled, “Whose Security? Migration-(In)security Dilemmas Ten Years After 9/11″ I had been invited to present a paper on the way in which Muslim communities had become increasingly seen as ‘suspect communities’ and how this had begun to play out in the public and political spaces. My paper was titled, “All Muslims are the Same: from external Others to homegrown bombers and beyond”.

From the title alone, you might be surprised to see how the image of Zayn Malik from One Direction is relevant to the paper. Well so that you can find out, I’ve pasted a rough transcript of my paper below including relevant links where appropriate:

“All Muslims are the Same: from external Others to homegrown bombers and beyond”

Events over the past few weeks have reminded me just how important the discussions taking place in this conference continue to be.

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