** 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 Sun newspaper reports on Facebook comments posted by a supporter of the English Defence League praising Anders Breivik for his “do[ing] what he thought was right”. Philip Horn, of Gillingham in Kent, wrote that Breivik was “…just one of many like myself who wish their country to return...
The Nottingham Post reports on the 10 month sentence handed down to two men who subjected an Asian family to a torrent of racial abuse. The pair have also been barred from coming within 200 metres of the family’s newsagents store. The pair demanded to know the family’s religious affiliation...
The Midlands Business News reports that Birmingham’s Central Mosque has collected 2.5 tonnes of food, donated by Muslims in the city, for a local charity working with needy and vulnerable people. From the local paper: “Generous worshippers at a Birmingham mosque have donated 2.5 tonnes of food...
The Waltham Forest News reports that the Metropolitan Police Service is facing criticism from local campaign group, We Are Waltham Forest, for not banning a planned protest in the borough by the English Defence League, set to take place in a few weeks’ time. From the local paper: “Campaigners...
BBC Radio 4 this week broadcast a documentary looking at the growth in the market for halal products globally. Whilst ‘halal’ has traditionally been narrowly understood in relation to meat products, the concept of halal has extended to cover more than just the way Muslims slaughter animals. The...
There has been an interesting blog piece written by Marko Attila Hoare, who was formerly a section director at the Henry Jackson Society before he resigned earlier this year. In his blog, Hoare expresses his dismay at the manner in which the HJS has moved from promising beginnings as “a centrist,...
The Independent and the Daily Telegraph have both reported on the latest quarterly figures from the Electoral Commission on political party funding in the UK. The latest figures show that Labour still receives a significant proportion of its funding from trade unions, whilst the majority of...
There has been coverage over the past few days of two incidents which touch on the issue of Islamophobic and anti-Semitic bigotry and the right to freedom of speech. One incident, reported in the Scotsman and on BBC News, concerns the leader of the far right Freedom Party in Austria,...
The Mail on Sunday published an article by Pakistani journalist, Nadira Naipaul (wife of the novelist V S Naipaul) in which she comments on what she describes as the ‘ghetto’ existence of Asian communities in the UK and the horror of traditions, such as forced marriages and honour violence,...
Islamophobia Watch reports that less than one week on from holding protests against a mosque in Sunderland, the National Front are now campaigning against plans to convert a building into Islamic centre in south London. From IW: “No doubt flushed with the “success” of its recent...
