** 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,...
The Yorkshire Post reports on concerns expressed by local Muslims on the increase in attacks on Muslims in the Yorkshire region as a consequence, among other factors, of depressing socio-economic circumstances. The role of social media sites in organising and galvanising anti-Muslim sentiments is...
US magazine, Newsweek, stokes some controversy this week with its cover story and article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on ‘Muslim Rage,’ dealing with the protests that have been taking place in Libya, Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia in reaction to the YouTube video ‘Innocence of Muslims’. Hirsi Ali...
Jeff Sparrow in Counterpunch comments on the provocation throw up by the film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ and the tropes used by modern day Islamophobes and their anti-semitic antecedents. “This is a film produced at a time in which, across Europe and the United States, the far right has...
The Scotsman reports on the banning by Edinburgh City Council of a proposed Scottish Defence League march on 29th September. The report states that the ban was invoked due to the alleged recruitment of ‘football casuals,’ who are claimed to have Nazi associations, and the posting of a message...
The 2012 British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) has been published. The survey aims to monitor and interpret British “attitudes towards social, economic, political and moral issues.” This year’s report is the 29th in the series and reveals interesting trends regarding attitudes towards...
The Observer on Sunday covered results from a poll conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Extremis project which revealed that of the 1,750 respondents, “37% admitted that they would be more likely to support a political party that promised to reduce the number of Muslims in Britain and the...
There has been an interesting debate taking place on the issue of freedom of speech and censorship following the widespread protests in reaction to the inflammatory, anti-Muslim Youtube trailer for the film ‘Innocence of Muslims’. Responding to the furore caused by the video, the White House...
The Huddersfield Daily Examiner has reported on a protest by an extreme far right group which took place outside a court during the trial of a teenager, Azhar Ahmed. Ahmed has been found guilty of posting offensive messages on Facebook following the deaths of six British soldiers. From the local...
A local paper has reported that six EDL supporters who were recently convicted for religiously aggravated disorder have been sentenced with a combined fine plus costs of almost £6,000. The incident to which the sentencing is related took place at Middlesbrough train station last December. From the...
The Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph both recently reported on the comments by the presenter of BBC’s Radio 4’s Feedback programme, Roger Bolton, on the corporation’s treatment of religion and the “growing view among the audience that Christians in particular were being treated unfairly in...
