Event Report: Tackling Islamophobia: Reducing Street Violence Against British Muslims

Mar 5, 2010 | News & Press

The Muslim Council of Britain hosted a special closed-meeting to discuss the growing spate of attacks in all its forms against British Muslims on March 3rd at the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons.

The event entitled ‘Tackling Islamophobia: Reducing Street Violence Against British Muslims’ brought together distinguished Parliamentarians, academics, journalists, police, public servants, and community representatives who all endorsed calls for the establishment of an All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Islamophobia with a view to holding a parliamentary inquiry on Islamophobia in the UK.

The meeting took contributions from experts and responses from parliamentarians and was concluded with a Q&A session with the audience who comprised of individuals from over 80 organisations.

Mohammad Sarwar MP who sponsored the event said ‘Islamophobia is a big challenge’ and offered his full support for an All-Party Parliamentary Group.

Internationally renowned journalist and political commentator Peter Oborne said ‘tolerance defines our constitution and the British people. If the UK is to live up to its tradition of tolerance, this needs to be taken seriously. Islamophobia needs to be abolished’. He added that the committee had a ‘big job to do’. Mr Oborne previously presented a Dispatches programme on Channel 4 in July 2008 called It Shouldn’t Happen to a Muslim where he argued that the demonisation of Muslims has become widespread in British media and politics.

Robin Richardson former director of the Runnymede Trust who was the Editor of the groundbreaking report Islamophobia: a challenge for us all (published in 1997), highlighted the various forms which encompass Islamophobia: ‘discourse, violent behaviour, discrimination and social exclusion.’

Dr Phyllis Starkey MP, Chair of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee fully endorsed the initiative and emphasised the importance of focusing on ‘respect’ as opposed to ‘tolerance’.

Shadow Minister for Justice, David Burrows MP urged people to contact their local MPs to motivate them to get more involved. ‘The community must show the extent of the problem and make politicians act’.

The Liberal Democrat Communities and Local Government Minister Dan Rogerson MP said that a parliamentary group is an ‘excellent way forward for these issues’ adding that ‘it would be a means of defending UK values of tolerance and respect for human rights’.

Other Parliamentarians who spoke in support of the initiative included Baron Ahmed of Rotherham who said ‘demonisation of Muslims and Islam has become fashionable’, Baron Sheikh of Cornhill who said the ‘media and politicians need to refrain from inflammatory reporting: freedom of expression must be exercised with responsibility’ and the cross-bencher Baron Hylton of Hylton who stressed the need to ‘promote good community cohesion and civic involvement’.

Other messages of support were received from Jeremy Corbyn MP and Diane Abbott MP.

A host of academics added to the discussion: Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer from the European Muslim Research Centre who in January published the report ‘Islamophobia and Anti Muslim Hate Crimes: a London case study’ said discrimination is becoming ‘privately rationalised and understood’. Islamophobia and Anti Muslim Hate Crime have ‘tangible affects on the UK as a whole’ and that ‘anything done to tackle this will benefit the whole of the UK’. Co-director Dr Robert Lambert MBE added that ‘the Far Right’s position of making Muslims the enemy is being rationalised by what is portrayed by the media’. He said that recommendations from the community would provide a ‘clear driver’ on this issue.

Maleiha Malik, from Kings College London, emphasised that ‘British history teaches us that minorities should not be feared’, while Dr Chris Allen from Birmingham University academic mentioned that despite Islamophobia being a ‘real experience’ it is still not taken seriously enough. ‘For the past 15 years we have had a number of reports, from a number of sources of the ‘hardening of attitudes and perceptions’ and there is still a lack lustre response. Why?’ He welcomed the call for a parliamentary group, saying it was ‘long overdue’.

‘Practitioners who work in this area also added to the discussion. Abdurahman Jafar, Chair of the Muslim Safety Forum said there is a ‘lack of institutional recognition and understanding’ regarding these issues while the President of the National Association of Muslim Police Zaheer Ahmed reiterated the fact that ‘Islamophobia and Anti Muslim Hate Crime have been affecting the Muslim community for years’. ‘Today is the start of raising awareness of these issues at a national, strategic level’.

In his keynote address, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said ‘at a time when Muslim communities are being exhorted to do more to tackle violence by a handful of extremists who purport to be Muslims, it is vitally important that our government and police are equally pro-active in seeking to tackle extremist violence against British Muslims and the Islamophobic climate that gives rise to it.’

He added, ‘the need for fair and equal treatment for British Muslims is even more pressing because many Muslims do not have sufficient confidence to report attacks against them to the police. There is therefore an urgent need to restore Muslim community confidence to tackle the problem of under-reporting of violent crime in much the same way as has been achieved with other minorities in the recent past. Time has come for politicians to finally take this issue as seriously as racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia’.

He ended by saying ‘the formation of an All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes would be a crucial step and one that would inspire confidence in Muslim communities’.

The event was co-ordinated by Kawsar Zaman from the Muslim Council of Britain and supported by the Muslim Safety Forum, the Cordoba Foundation and the European Muslim Research Centre.

For more information, please check the MCB website`

Event Report:Cordoba Seminars- Reflection of a Former Grenadian Revolutionary

Feb 3, 2010 | News & Press

Major Leon ‘Bogo’ Cornwall, in his own words a ‘prodigal son’, was born as a Methodist. He would later become disillusioned with the church for ‘failing to be relevant to the issues of young people’, and in the early seventies, would be attracted to the Black Power Movement and later on to Marxist / Leninist ideals which offered him a new vision for the world and his country.

Speaking at the Cordoba Seminars organised by The Cordoba Foundation in East London on February the 1st, 2010, Major Cornwall explained how justice, peace and equality was what he was after, where the vulnerable would have a significant place in society. In 1979, Major Cornwall would leave his family and join the People’s Revolutionary Army, which overthrew the government and established what was essentially a socialist government and which would work towards ‘Grenada being a better, more prosperous and cultured nation’.

However the Revolution was short-lived as Cornwall admits, ‘the internal struggles between members and the failure to grasp the totality of the situation’, meant that disputes arose. By 1983, the leader of the Revolution (and president of Grenada) was himself overthrown and executed by his colleagues, prompting an invasion by the US army.  Major Cornwall and sixteen other colleagues were caught and imprisoned. Though they were sentenced to death, the sentences were changed to life imprisonment and Major Cornwall spent some 27 years in prison before being released in September 2009.

Today, Leon Cornwall is a changed man. Having rediscovered God and religion in prison, he says that ‘my vision for a world has not changed, but my philosophy of how to go about it has’.  He now professes non-violence and education as a movement of social change. So transformed is he, that everywhere he goes, he acknowledges his mistake for the Revolution and asks for forgiveness:  ‘I am deeply sorry for the pain, the sorrow, the loss, the chaos, the confusion that was brought to Grenada  through our impulsive, thoughtless actions’ he remarked at the seminar.

From his own life story, it is evident Major Cornwall believes that part of the problem associated with the demise of the Revolution was that the revolutionaries had turned away from God and therefore lacked a spiritual base. “The Revolution gave men and women power, with the gun as the source of that power. Many were accountable only unto themselves and few dared question the doings of the leaders. For many of the players, the Revolution was a god. This left us in deep trouble, unable to appreciate human weaknesses and unable to make sound spiritual decisions when they truly mattered”, reflected Major Cornwall.

Major Leon Cornwall’s story is incredibly moving and inspiring. It is not about social recognition or acceptance but it is about leadership taking responsibility for their actions on their people and for any catastrophe that may have been caused by their actions. In today’s climate, as world leaders are being challenged to take responsibility for their actions, they would do well to learn from Major Cornwall’s humility in acknowledging his mistakes.

The full speech by Major Leon Cornwall at the Cordoba Seminars is published here