IHRC’s updated report on the number and nature of anti-Muslim hate attacks in the UK in the wake of 9/11.

This report was presented at the IHRC seminar, ‘9-11: The Hidden Victims’ held in September 2002.

Download the report here.

Due to the lack of any organized UK wide effort to monitor reprisal attacks against Muslims after 9/11 IHRC committed itself to do so. It found through its work both a sudden and drastic surge in aggression towards Muslims. Almost a year on, the initial escalation in serious violent attacks against Muslims, since the immediate aftermath, seems to have fallen, but this is still far from the ideal situation. Muslims still have violence directed towards them simply because they are Muslim. The level of implicit Islamophobia however after an initial drop, has remained significant throughout the year.

Islamophobic images seem forever forced in to the minds of non–Muslims as a direct result of the media onslaught on 9/11 and thereafter. With the approach of the one year anniversary of the attacks, the media, if it continues to be as irresponsible as it was immediately after 9/11, will reconstruct the fervour against Muslims through the stereotypes it relays to the nation, where Muslims are depicted as the archetypal international terrorist as well as the unsuspected neighbour. Bearing in mind that the media is a source of reference for most people, it is crucial that it is not used to incite hatred. If the media continues to use its power in a way that is foreseeably damaging to the safety of a minority group, it will almost certainly fuel antagonisms that will lead yet again, to more aggression towards that minority.

Collating information in a methodical way has been difficult to say the least. IHRC has gathered reports of incidents themselves as well as from other organisations that are trying to do the same. Other than this however, there has been very little if any input of resources into assessing in any systematic way the impact of 9/11 on Muslims. However recent research conducted in Leicester found that out of the five religious groups assessed, ‘Muslims were found to have not only the greatest risk of being victims of both implicit racism and general discrimination before September 11th but also the highest increase in experiences of racism and discrimination since that day and consequently the greatest risk of being victims’.1 The report goes further and concludes that religion is more important than ethnicity in indicating which groups are most likely to experience racism and discrimination post-September 11th . 2 This seems to indicate an openly significant shift in perspectives with regards to society in general. In addition racist organisation such as the BNP have capitalised on this new found tolerance of intolerance against Muslims to propagate their agenda. Their appeal seems to have suddenly broadened.

Although councils across the country do generally monitor racially motivated crime, those who were willing to share their information still failed to take into account whether such crime was on the grounds of religion. 3 This is yet another factor which hindered attempts to gather information as well as attempts to break down and divide the results on regional bases, as any attempt to do so would simply yield grossly inaccurate results.

The lack of any involvement, specifically government initiatives, to tackle the growing intolerance has been criticised by organisations other than ourselves. Minority Rights Group International has also warned that ‘without positive engagement by the government with the causes of Islamophobia, polarisation between communities and expressions of antagonism against British Muslims will continue.’4 It is interesting to note that other minority groups have also added their voices to the chorus of Islamophobia. ‘Mistaken identity’ posters have gone up in parts of the country stating ‘Sikhs are not Muslims, Sikhs are not terrorists’. Although this may seem like a misfired attempt at protecting the Sikh community, it seems that right wing factions of the other communities such as parts of the Hindu community are also doing their bit in collaboration with the BNP.5 Although these attitudes are not the case for every member of either the Sikh or Hindu community it is nonetheless an alarming situation and one which spells disaster for Muslims.