Following the EU referendum, reports of racism in the UK rose dramatically. We spoke to three British Muslim women at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Festival - a gathering which aims to combat terrorism and extremism - about what it’s like to wear a headscarf post-Brexit.
Last month, the head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council said the debate had directly led to an increase in reporting of hate crimes.
“It is very clear in the last couple of weeks that more people have been aware of experiencing such incidents than we have had before,” explained Mark Hamilton.
Reports to police increased by 42% in the two weeks surrounding the vote - equating to more than 3,000 hate crime allegations across Britain.
“Some people took that as a licence to behave in a racist or other discriminatory way,” Hamilton added at the time. “We can not divorce the country’s reaction to the referendum and the increase in hate crime reporting.”
Anti-Muslim hate group Tell MAMA warned of heightened racism following Brexit.
The group’s annual survey had found a 326% rise in Islamophobic incidents during 2015. Chairman Shahid Malik said the UK stood in “unchartered territory”.
[TOP RATED COMMENT] If there is tension expressed, it is because the tension was unaddressed. It is that simple. When liberals and left stop playing Islam's political game of victimhood and listen to the grass roots, the tensions will be addressed in an atmosphere of honesty.
Brexit resulted not because of racism but clearly-Islamic agendas, not of the peaceable Ahmaddiya type, but the kind that led to the murder of a decent, Glasgow shopkeeper, which sees every political victory as the March of Islam to defeat those who live in "the House of War." It is hardly surprising that many identified European, post-War, PC pseudo-liberalism as a kind of Trojan Horse.
There is also the natural fear of people who see their culture and homeland gradually being handed over by moral surrender to alien cultures that make them feel like a marginalised group in their own country. This is deliberate cultural imperialism by a religion that produces few examples of functioning and fair democracy.
Burkini bans and racist attacks are unintelligent, but they are symptoms of the national debate we need to have. As long as we continue to use the narrative of nasty-white-racists-against-innocent-Muslims, it will not happen. Huffpost editors and writers have a serious responsibility here they are currently neglecting. [The Huffington Post UK] Read more
