** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE** Rights group Muslim Engagement & Development (MEND) have launched a new report The Great Debunk: Challenging Islamophobic Conspiracy Theories, which examines how false narratives about Muslims once limited to the far-right fringes have entered mainstream political,...
In May of this year, the leader of the far-right group Britain First was convicted of a terror offence. Paul Golding refused to hand counter-terrorism police officers the passwords to his phone and laptop hard drive after being stopped at Heathrow Airport in October 2019 upon his return from Russia...
MEND has joined with 84 other civic actors from around the world to protect the rights of stateless individuals. In the UK, refugees face racism, Islamophobia, and discrimination on a daily basis and their rights must be protected. As governments across the world confront the COVID-19 pandemic,...
BBC reporter, Sima Kotecha, was recently forced to cancel a live broadcast after she and her team were “subjected to racist and abusive behaviour” from a member of the public in Leicester. Kotecha was preparing to report live after prime minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown speech on BBC One,...
MEND is full of inspiring and accomplished volunteers. In this contribution, one of our volunteers from Wales discusses the importance of relationship building between the police and local minority communities In the daily lives of most people, the police are perhaps the most visible representation...
Earlier this month, a far-right extremist, Filip Golon Bednarczyk, pleaded guilty and was convicted for terror offences after admitting to possessing explosive material with plans to make bombs at home. He had downloaded the Christchurch extremist’s manifesto and shared memes supporting the...
Following the removal of Lord Carlile as the Independent Reviewer of the PREVENT programme in December 2019, as a result of legal action launched by Rights Watch UK, the status of the review was left in disarray. However, the Government has recently launched an open competition to appoint the next...
In response to the disproportionate impact of BAME deaths, Public Health England is conducting an inquiry to explore the disproportionate impact of the virus on ethnic minority communities. While the review is undoubtedly a welcome move, the decision to appoint Trevor Phillips (who has been...
In recent times, MEND has received numerous reports from concerned citizens regarding the presentation of Muslims in the press amid the COVID-19 crisis. Considering the general media negativity surrounding Muslims, communities are concerned about the potential for unintentional associations between...
In response to the Israeli government’s plans to annex large areas of the occupied West Bank, almost 130 MPs have written to Boris Johnson urging him to impose economic sanctions against Israel if they proceed with the annexation. Plans to forcefully seize areas of West Bank, including the...
While the world comes to a standstill in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Islamophobia industry continues to thrive. Harmful Islamophobic conspiracy theories that Muslims are to blame for the spread of the virus are being propagated. This has led to abusive online posts calling for the...
