Statement on Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley’s comments about MEND

MEND is deeply disappointed with the comments by Sir Mark Rowley, the outgoing Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who stated in a speech on Monday 26 February that MEND was “seeking to undermine the State’s considerable efforts to tackle all hate crime”.

We wholeheartedly refute this allegation and find it deeply troubling and inaccurate for the following reasons:

• We worked tirelessly with around 20 police forces in order to successfully get Islamophobic crimes recorded as a separate category of crime. This led to the announcement in October 2015 that all forces would be required to implement the Home Office directive of recording Islamophobic crimes separately by April 2017.

• We have worked to empower communities to report Islamophobia to the police, ensuring that crime is recorded correctly and justice is served through the criminal justice system.

• We have encouraged local communities to sit on the CPS’s Community Accountability Forums, helping to scrutinise and promote best practice in the prosecution of hate crimes.

• MEND has hosted a number of hustings prior to Police and Crime Commissioner elections, allowing local communities to quiz prospective PCCs on their hate crime strategies in particular.

• MEND has provided annual submissions to the Office for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as part of their hate crime reporting projects, with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) commending us as “best practice for civil society organisations”.

• Our Islamophobia Response Unit (IRU), launched in April 2017, is currently working on helping over 200 victims of hate crime and anti-Muslim discrimination.

MEND openly invites Sir Mark or any other representative of the Metropolitan Police the opportunity to meet with us in order to dispel any misunderstandings he may have of our work and inform him of the positive contributions we are making to empower British Muslim communities.