#IAM2020 London Launch

The London region kicked of Islamophobia Awareness Month by taking the stage on MEND’s Facebook live feed on the evening of the 30th of October with a number of fantastic guests.

We were first joined by Sian Berry a member of the London Assembly and the Green Party who spoke about the importance of policy makers working with grassroots organisations to help tackle discrimination in society. This was followed up by Stephan Edwards the chair of ATKINS BAME network who shared his thoughts on how we can best tackle workplace discrimination. We look forward to delivering a presentation to ATKINS staff this month.

Metropolitan police officer Waheed Khan then joined us to update us on the recent hate crime figures and what the police are doing to reduce that number. Following on we invited to the virtual stage Weyman Bennett from Stand Up To Racism. Weyman has been fighting the good fight for decades, virtually no one can match him when it comes to sheer experience of dealing with the far right.

As we know Islamophobia is often perpetuated by the biased and negative media coverage of Muslims and so who better to comment on that than Stephen Colgrave, co-founder of Byline Times. He invited all budding journalists to visit the Byline website to take up the amazing opportunities on offer. Shaykh Suliman Gani then took to the stage to tell the audience how important it is for Muslims to stand up against Justice and oppression the same way our beloved Prophet (pbuh) did. After igniting that fire in the hearts of the viewers Omar Salha took the torch to tell us how Ramadan Tent Project brings communities together to counter the stereotypical myths about Muslims. We were then joined by recently appointed director of Muslim Youth Helpline, Maaria Mahmood. She announced that MYH has been around now for 19 years and has only seen an increase in calls of young British Muslims suffering from the effects of Islamophobia.

The evening then concluded with two heavyweights in the Muslim social media space. The Chief Editor of Islam21C Dr. Salman Butt who explained how much we can learn from the story of Moses and Pharaoh mentioned in the Quran in relation to the contemporary battle against Islamophobia. Last but not least we were joined by Ali Dawah who told us why he is so passionate in fighting the far right figure heads in the UK.

If you missed all of this dont fret, you can catch up right here: https://fb.watch/1t7Df2U90Y/