The latest report on Tell MAMA’s work, prepared in conjunction with Teesside University’s Centre for Fascist, Anti-fascist and Post-fascist Studies (CFAPS) has now been completed. Here are the headline figures.
- There were 734 self-reported cases between 1 May 2013 and 28 February 2014; of these, there were 599 incidents of online abuse and 135 offline attacks, combining for an average of more than 2 cases per day.
- Of the 18% of offline anti-Muslim attacks recorded by Tell MAMA; 23 cases involved assault and another 13 cases involved extreme violence.
As has already been widely reported, there was a sharp increase in incidents in the wake of Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder: ‘there were nearly four times more online and offline reports (373%) in the week after 22 May 2013 than in the week beforehand.’
Another important trend is the disproportionate impact of anti-Muslim bigotry on women. Whereas most victims of hate crime are men, in the case of crimes against Muslims 54% of those affected are female. As CFAPS notes, the greater visibility of Muslim women (because of religious head coverings) is clearly a key factor here. But I also note how much sheer misogyny there is in the online abuse of Muslim women, some of whom are also having to deal with equally unpleasant treatment from (some) Muslim men.
CFAPS reports improvements in Tell MAMA’s data collection practices, in line with recommendations made by stakeholders such as the DCLG and CST. (Richard Benson, formerly CEO of the CST, is now the co-chair of Tell MAMA.) A criticism sometimes leveled at Tell MAMA is its inclusion of online abuse. However, as CFAPS points out, such incidents are far from trivial.
Online threats against person, family or property can be very frightening and negatively impact upon an individual’s well-being. This can extend to the posting of personal information (address, phone number, even details of loved ones), or threats to graduate from online harassment to offline stalking.
CFAPS indicates divergences between the Runnymede Trust’s definition of Islamophobia and Tell MAMA’s take on anti-Muslim prejudice. Whereas Runnymede notes as a ‘closed’ response to Islam:
Islam seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, engaged in ‘a clash of civilisations’.
Tell MAMA identifies as one aspect of anti-Muslim prejudice:
Associating Muslims collectively to terrorism, extremism, terrorist attacks and murder.
The report focuses on the phenomenon of ‘cumulative extremism’, when ‘one expression of extremism is instrumentalised and used as justification by another, opposed one’. Last year, the brutal murder of Lee Rigby was clearly the key trigger, and has been weaponised by the far right:
[T]he newly-launched Britain First party – led by ex-BNP communications director Paul Golding – ‘tried to get the words “Remember Lee Rigby” printed as their slogan on the ballot paper for the [May 2014] European elections – and nearly succeeded, until the Rigby family personally objected.’ This should not be surprising, for anti-Muslim hate crime in Britain has become a populist staple in the far-right’s armory this century.
Tell MAMA gets attacked from both sides. For example, some Muslims target them for forming alliances with ‘Zionists’, for selecting Peter Tatchell as a patron, for interacting civilly with people from Quilliam, even for tending to avoid the term Islamophobia. Its other critics can loosely be divided into bigots who will hate them no matter what they do, and sceptical secularist types with some sincere concerns who will thus, logically, welcome what they see as moves in the right direction. Pretty much everyone attending the recent Tell MAMA dinner will have spotted other guests whose views they found challenging. But it is positive – in fact it is essential – that Tell MAMA continues trying to engage with as wide a range of people as possible, without compromising on key issues.
