Preston Police: Islamophobia Training
Categories: Past Event Articles
Monday February 15 2021
On Wednesday 27th January, 2021, MEND Preston delivered two sessions on Islamophobia to the community teams at Preston Police Station.
Minority communities in the UK often have tense relationships with local forces and it is essential for steps to be taken to foster trust between the two and start to address existing issues. Following misunderstandings in the local community, Preston Police felt it was important for MEND to speak about Islamophobia to the neighbourhood team to give them some understanding of the marginalization that Muslims face in the UK.
During the session, we spoke about the reasons negative interactions occur between the police and the Muslim community. We discussed underlying baggage that can inform how these interactions occur using unconscious bias, confirmation bias, historical racism and institutional racism as examples of this. We then touched on ways to address these issues including having an awareness of Islamophobia. This nicely led us on to looking into the extent of Islamophobia in the UK. MEND showed the attendees the stats that support Islamophobia as a relevant an increasing problem. The attendees were particularly interested in hate crime figures due to their profession.
The next portion of the workshop was dedicated to looking at the factors that MEND believe contribute significantly to the way Muslims are portrayed and perceived. These factors included legislation and biased media reporting. Following the presentation, we engaged in interesting conversations around Islamophobia and the relationship between the police and the Muslim community.
We hope to continue to collaborate with Preston Police to allow them some insight into the factors which can affect the interactions that occur between them and the police.
Many thanks to Sgt Dan Wood and Sgt Anne Otter for coordinating with the Preston team to organize this workshop.
If you’d like us to deliver Islamophobia awareness workshops to your institution, be sure to get in touch at [email protected]