** 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,...
Director of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, Morten Kjaerum, presented the agency’s annual report for 2010, “Fundamental Rights: challenges and achievements” in Brussels last week. The FRA report covers EU member states’ performance in respect of the nine thematic areas in...
The Equality and Human Rights Commission today published a report on “Religious Discrimination in Britain: A review of research evidence, 2000- 2010”. The report is in the papers today following Trevor Phillips’ interview with the Sunday Telegraph on its findings. Excerpted...
The Sunday Telegraph published an interview with the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, ahead of a landmark EHRC report on religious discrimination in the UK. Mr Phillips talks on the role of the EHRC in defending the rights of believers in religious traditions...
Several papers have picked up on the story of ‘poison packages’ suspected to contain anthrax being sent to mosques in London, Birmingham and Luton; (see Daily Express, The Mirror and Friday’s Evening Standard). From the Evening Standard: “Muslim leaders across London are on high alert...
The Islington Gazette has a front page story this week concerning a suspected anthrax attack at Finsbury Park mosque. From the paper: “A package containing a suspicious white powder, an anti-Islamic message and offensive pictures of Muslim women was posted to the Imam of the mosque, in St...
Unmesh Desai, Labour councillor and Prevent lead for Newham Council, responds in the Guardian’s Comment is Free to a Guardian column last week by the New Statesman’s Mehdi Hasan on the new Prevent strategy. Desai argues that “you cannot treat violent and non-violent extremism...
The joint select committee on human rights yesterday published a report, Terrorism Act 2000 (Remedial) Order 2011: Stop and Search without Reasonable Suspicion, looking into the legal and human rights implications of an exceptional power granted to police forces to conduct stop and search...
Andrew Gilligan peddles what appears to have become something of a hobby horse for him, the claim that anti-Muslim hate crime is diminishing. Gilligan uses the Independent on Sunday article on the MCB annual general meeting this year and excerpts from the speech given by the secretary general of...
The Sunday Express front page yesterday covered news of “experts in Islamic extremism” to be recruited to the Department of Education to “identify dangerous radicals in schools” as part of the new Prevent strategy. From the paper: “Experts in Islamic extremism have been drafted in by...
There’s a very interesting story picked up by the Daily Express today on a French Muslim couple who are to challenge the French government’s ban on the burqa as restricting their right to free movement within the EU. The Daily Express indignantly headlines the piece “French Muslims use our...
