Press release: UK wide Survey into anti-Muslim hate crime launched

A pioneering survey designed to quantify the level of antipathy faced by Muslims in Britain is being relaunched next week amid fears that it has increased over the course of the last 5 years.

The research project, which is the only one of its kind in the UK and pulls on the 17-year experience of the IHRC of recording and responding to anti-Muslim bias, will assess the scale and nature of discrimination and hostility confronted by Muslims on a day to day basis.

Its aim is to present comprehensive, academically rigorous data to policy makers about the experiences of Muslims and also provide an essential resource for Muslim community groups in their advocacy and campaigning work.

In the last such survey in 2009-10 an alarmingly high proportion of repondents reported experiencing anti-Muslim hatred, discrimination and violence. Approximately 54% had been on the receiving end of verbal abuse, 64% had been stared at by strangers and 41% had been subjected to threats or unfair accusations.

The new survey comes in the wake of a jump in Islamophobic incidents reported to the IHRC following the fatal attack last summer on British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, London.

The last five years have also seen a dramatic rise in public tolerance of xenophobia to the extent that ideas policies formerly considered unacceptable have now become mainstream. Politics has also suffered a lurch to the right with the issues of integration, security and immigration assuming centre-stage and creating an apparently more hostile climate for Muslims.

The survey form is available for completion online at https://www.ihrc.org.uk/activities/projects/10972-survey-muslim-experiences-of-hostility-a-discrimination-uk-2014 

IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh said: “At a time when the Muslim community is further demonised and targeted by law and policy, in media and political discourse, and on the streets through the rise of the far-right, this is a much needed opportunity for Muslims to give voice to their experiences and demand change.”

Notes to Editors:

The 2010 report can be accessed online at https://ihrc.org.uk/publications/reports/9736-getting-the-message-the-recurrence-of-hate-crimes-in-the-uk

For media enquiries please email media@ihrc.org or call 4420 8904 4222 or 447958 522196[Ends]

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IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Email: info@ihrc.org