Action Alerts

GB News recently aired a segment where it was claimed that some Pakistani men celebrate Eid by “inviting families round to rape white women.”

News reports continue to suggest that the government is close to releasing its new definition of Islamophobia/anti-Muslim hostility. MEND and partner organisations believe it is vital that it adopts the term Islamophobia, rather than the narrower and inadequate phrase “anti-Muslim hostility.”...

British commentator Sami Hamdi, a well-known journalist and outspoken critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, was arrested in the US on Sunday, seemingly due to his vocal criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Hamdi – a UK citizen – was detained by agents from US Immigration and...

Earlier this week, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy made two false and divisive statements in Parliament about the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending their club’s match against Aston Villa. She wrongly claimed this was “the first time since the early 2000s that a decision...

It has been reported that the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) are planning to ban Israel from participating in their leagues over the ongoing genocide in Gaza. UEFA was reportedly close to enacting the move, but put it...

The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry has confirmed what many human rights experts, journalists and survivors have long warned: genocide is occurring in Gaza. The UN Commission found that Israel has committed four of the five acts defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention, including...

Over the weekend, what has been described as the biggest far-right protest in British history took place in London. The so-called Unite the Kingdom rally, which saw over 100,000 people take to London’s streets, was led by far-right activist and notorious Islamophobe, Tommy Robinson. While...

The Islamophobic far-right is on the march, and seemingly growing bolder. In recent weeks, there have been a number of attacks on mosques and Muslim-run businesses throughout the UK. For example, two attacks on a mosque in Stockport in recent months have left the community there feeling deeply...

Pressure is increasing on Keir Starmer from within his own government to formally recognise a Palestinian state after France announced that it will do so at September’s UN General Assembly meeting. Senior cabinet ministers, including Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Health...

A government working group has recently issued a call for evidence from organisations and individuals on the Government adopting a definition of Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia. It is absolutely crucial that Muslims and those who believe in standing up to racism submit to this inquiry in order to...

  The UK government has suspended new free trade talks with Israel and sanctioned illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, citing Israel’s “morally unjustifiable” escalation of violence in Gaza. This follows the killing of hundreds more Palestinians in recent days during a new...

MPs will return the Assisted Dying Bill to Parliament this Friday where they are expected to debate and potentially vote on key proposed amendments. The bill, formally titled the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, would allow adults diagnosed as terminally ill, with six months or less to...

The government is planning significant cuts to disability benefits, which could have the effect of forcing disabled people into work. A coalition of 16 charities has issued a joint letter to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, warning that these cuts could have a “catastrophic impact”, with 700,000...

Last month the issue of child sexual exploitation (CSE) and so-called grooming gangs once again dominated national headlines, sparking growing concern. Let’s be clear: these crimes are heinous and perpetrators must face the full force of the law, while innocent victims should be given justice and...

On 16 December 2024, MPs will debate two critical petitions relating to Palestine-Israel. These petitions highlight important issues of human rights and the UK’s role in the ongoing conflict in the region. The first petition, with over 283,000 signatures, calls on the UK Government to...

On 21 October 2024, Shockat Adam, independent MP for Leicester South, submitted a Bill to Parliament urging the UK to formally recognise the state of Palestine. If passed, Britain will join 146 UN member states in diplomatically recognising the State of Palestine. This would be a significant step...

Following the recent Islamophobic far-right riots, a coalition of numerous Muslim civil society organisations and mosques from across Britain – including MEND – is calling upon the government to take greater action to protect and further the safety of Muslim communities. We are asking...

  On 25 July 2024, Baron Pearson gave a highly disturbing Islamophobic speech to the House of Lords, making inflammatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), the Quran and Islam, and resorting to the use of Islamophobic tropes to demonise British Muslims. Pearson went on to repeat ideas...

Multiple MPs are supporting an amendment to the King’s Speech demanding that the British government take action to prevent the further loss of life in the war-torn Gaza Strip. This includes “suspending arms exports to Israel” and “support[ing] an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.” It also says...

Luke Akehurst has been selected by Keir Starmer as a Labour candidate to contest the seat of North Durham in the upcoming general election. Akehurst has a long record of Israeli war crimes denialism and there is abundant evidence that he acts as a lobbyist for Israeli state interests and has...

On 10 February 2024, Lord Ian Austin posted a highly offensive and Islamophobic tweet on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter which read: “before you go to bed, nip down and check you haven’t inadvertently got a death cult of Islamist murderers and rapists running their operations...

On 11 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began a 2-day hearing on the case brought forward by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. South Africa made a strong case, providing sufficient evidence on genocidal acts committed by Israel which...

The government’s controversial Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill, informally known as the anti-Boycott Divestment & Sanctions Bill (BDS) is set to return to Parliament on January 10th for its third and final reading. This is the last opportunity that MPs will have to...

On December 6, 2023, the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Action Legal Network (GLAN) launched a legal challenge against the UK Goverment via the High Court, aiming to suspend the reprehensible arms sales to Israel, raising critical questions about our...

There will be a vote, this week in Parliament on a ceasefire in Gaza. Please write to your MP, using the step by step guide below to ensure they vote for a Ceasefire. Image Source: Pamela Drew / Flickr

On October 29th, The Telegraph published a hate-filled, Islamophobic article by former Downing Street Chief of Staff, Nicholas Timothy. In his article, Mr Timothy paints a grossly distorted picture of the recent protests that have taken place across Britain in support of the millions of civilians...

Yesterday, Robin Simcox, a highly controversial figure notorious for his affiliation with the Islamophobic Henry Jackson Society and for being a prominent propagator of controversial counter-terrorism measures against British Muslims’ appeared on BBC Radio 4, villifying people marching in support...

Live on Good Morning Britain Richard Madeley asked Layla Moran MP: “You have family connections in Gaza, did you have any indication of what was going to happen ten days ago, two weeks ago, was there any word on the street!” This is a horrific malignment of a British MP, just because she is of...

Tonight’s BBC Question Time panel set to discuss the ongoing situation in Israel and Palestine is unanimously pro-Israeli. The panel will consist of Victoria Atkins of the Conservative Party, Yvette Cooper of the Labour Party, former Labour adviser and proponent of the Trojan Horse hoax Sonia...

In a display of poor journalism, Kay Burley of Sky News repeatedly misquoted the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, on three occasions in one day. Ms. Burley asserted that Mr. Zomlot had claimed, “the Israelis had it coming.” However, this assertion by Ms. Burley stands in...

  Use the template below to write to your local MP explaining why the Anti-Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Bill, presented to parliament today and which aims to ban public bodies from imposing boycotts on Israeli products, is harmful to freedom of speech in Britain. ALSO, attend your...

It has come to our attention that several cinemas across the UK are set to screen the anti-Muslim and Hindutva propagandist film (complete list of cinemas here), ‘The Kerala Story’. This is alarming, and the screening of such a film would no doubt fuel Islamophobic tensions and...

Notorious Islamophobe Rasmus Paludan intends to burn the Quran in Wakefield. Use the action alert below to urge the Home Secretary to bar him entry in to the UK.

Put in a COMPLAINT to Chelsea & Westminster Hospital for removing the innocent artwork of Palestinian children from Gaza following pressure from a pro-Israel lobbying group. The controversial ‘UK Lawyers for Israel’ put in a complaint to the hospital in early February, claiming that Jewish...

I​​t has come to our knowledge that Sadhvi Ritambhara has been invited to tour the UK, where she will visit various temples. We are deeply alarmed about this and strongly oppose Sadhvi Ritambhara’s presence in the UK owing to a number of severe concerns (outlined below). We encourage you...

Programme title: Zee News Date of broadcast: 07/09/2022 Time of broadcast (24 hour clock): 00:00 Channel / station: Zee TV Subject: Zee News Leicester incident report breaks ofcom code Description: The news channel for Zee TV (ZeeNews) - which is on sky channel 808 - broadcast...

  On the 12th September, Parliament is set to debate the Bill of Rights (#RightsRemovalBill). The Rights Removal Bill will remove the rights and protection of the public while increasing the Government’s power to abuse human rights without accountability. Time is running out!  

Councils are undergoing local elections, with polling day on the 5th May. The importance of voting in local council elections is that Muslim communities will have a say in who represents their concerns locally. For instance, where communities are concerned about growing Islamophobia, voting for...

The Israel Arms Trade (Prohibition) Bill is currently in its second reading in the House of Commons. The purpose of the bill is to prohibit the sales of arms to Israel and the purchase of arms for Israel. It further seeks to make associated provisions about an inquiry in relation to Israel into the...

Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, the Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has submitted a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling on all local councils in Scotland to adopt the APPG definition of Islamophobia and accompanying guidelines. The definition states: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and...

The Government is currently running a consultation on its plans to ban conversion therapies. This will include targeting talking conversion therapy with a new criminal offence, thereby criminalising faith-based support for individuals struggling with their sexuality or gender identity.

In recent days, there has been a great deal of concern about changes to citizenship stripping powers planned in the Nationality and Borders Bill that is currently before Parliament. However, it is important to remember that many of the powers to strip someone of their citizenship are already in...

Next week, MPs will vote on the Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The Bill represents numerous harmful reforms, which, if passed, carry the power to curtail free expression, stifle dissent, and criminalise marginalised groups (especially Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities) through...

According to media reports, Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party,  recently withdrew from his scheduled attendance at a Ramadan Tent Project Open Iftar event. This was following concerns that one of the organisers retweeted a tweet supporting boycotts against Israeli dates grown on...

Al-Nu’man ibn Bashir reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5665, and Sahih...

Around one million Uyghur Muslims are being held in “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, China. There are daily reports of beatings, solitary confinement, sexual abuse, forced labour, torture, starvation, brainwashing, and forced sterilisation. On 22nd March Parliament will be voting on an...

On Tuesday 19th January, the Government narrowly won a vote in Parliament to defeat changes to the Trade Bill that would have outlawed trade deals with countries that the High Court rules are committing genocide, such as China against the Uyghur population. The Government defeated this change...

Assalamo Alaykum, MEND is writing for your assistance on an urgent and very serious consequence of the Coronavirus Outbreak relating to possible forced cremation of deceased Muslims. The emergency Coronavirus Bill 2019-21 (as its currently drafted) will allow designated local authorities to...

On Thursday 31st October, Lord Malcolm Pearson went on national television (Sky News) to make a number of unsubstantiated, derogatory, and Islamophobic claims including: “Muslim birth rate is going up 10 times faster than ours”; “In 12 years-time, 11 local authorities, including Birmingham,...

The latest reports indicate that 50 people have already been confirmed dead in acts of far-right terrorism in Christchurch, New Zealand. These atrocities are a stark reminder of the global consequences of far-right Islamophobia and hatred which leave innocent individuals vulnerable to such...

In an article in the Telegraph this week, Boris Johnson described women who wear the Burka as looking like “letter boxes” and “bank robbers” and stated that he would ask Muslim women from his constituency to “remove it” so that he could “talk to [them] properly”. MEND is deeply...

On 24th January 2018, the Government announced that Sara Khan (co-founder of Inspire) will be the new Commissioner for Countering Extremism, prompting over 100 mainstream Muslim community organisations and leaders to sign an open letter objecting to the appointment. Before the question even arises...

Following MEND’s action alert a few days ago, hundreds of Muslim parents have complained to Ofsted and so have teaching Unions about Amanda Spielman’s comments on questioning young Muslim girls about wearing Hijab. We are now asking you to kindly and urgently contact your MP and request they...

Amanda Spielman, Chief Inspector of Schools at Ofsted, recently announced that schools’ inspectors will be allowed to question primary school pupils who wear hijab, with the reasons given being recorded in schools’ inspection reports. Alongside this, Spielman said that the “hijab could be...

On October 18th, Conservative MP Bob Blackman hosted a parliamentary event entitled ‘Tolerating the Intolerant’. The keynote speaker was Indian far-right activist Tapan Ghosh, well-known for his violent and extreme Islamophobic views. These personalities should never be allowed into Parliament....

In the Times’ article headlined “Christian child forced into Muslim foster care”, published online and in print on 28 August 2017, Andrew Norfolk made a number of misleading and distorted statements providing a biased and inaccurate account of the situation, involving a five-year-old girl...

In an appearance for Sky News on 20 June, notorious Islamophobe Melanie Phillips, incited hatred against Muslims and misquoted Egypt’s president as saying “We cannot anymore have a situation where 1.6 billion Muslims are trying to murder the rest of the world.”  She insinuates...

Dear Activist, As salaamu alaykum. We are writing to request your urgent help with our campaign, together with Hacked Off, on press reform. We wrote to you a while back asking you to contact the Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, and your local MP, urging them to reject the rival Royal Charter...

Assalamu Alaikum You will be aware that the man apprehended for the murder of Palmira Silva in Edmonton, north London, on Thursday 4 September, Nicholas Salvador, is reported to be a Muslim convert according to sources quoted by various newspapers.  The sources have not been verified or...

British Muslims are used to regular attacks by Islamophobes posing as sub-standard journalists but disgraced Katie Hopkins’ latest outburst has hit a new low and offended thousands of British Muslims.  She made vile and false accusations in a tweet against the Prophet Muhammad (saw), a copy...

1.  Two Palestinian children were shot dead by Israeli soldiers on 20 May, days before 3 Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered.  Hamas denies any involvement in the deaths of the 3 Israeli teenagers yet Israel, which began aerial strikes on Gaza within days of the bodies of the...

Dear Activist, We hope you will have learnt of the appalling article by Richard Littlejohn on his Daily Mail page on Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad and the Muslim Research and Development Foundation. The article repeated an array of Islamophobic tropes expressing virulent anti-Muslim bigotry. The article...

Dear Activist, As-salaamu alaykum, We are writing to request your urgent assistance concerning a consultation opened by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt. Hon. Maria Miller, on the press industry’s rival royal charter, known as the PressBoF Charter. The press...

We are at a critical moment in the history of Press Regulation as Parliament will, this Monday, 18th March, debate proposals advanced by the Conservatives for a Royal Charter introducing a new system of press regulation.  The proposals contained in the Royal Charter do not address what we...

We wrote to you last week regarding the Leveson recommendations, asking that you contact your MP and ask them to support the full implementation of the recommendations. On our part, we are working with one of the leading campaign groups in this area Hacked Off, who are fully supportive of our...

It’s been over a week since the publication of Lord Justice Leveson’s report on press reform and we are still waiting for the Government to fulfil its commitment to take the recommendations forward on a cross-party basis.  Labour and the Liberal Democrats have fully supported...

We would like to draw your attention to some recent developments on Palestine-Israel, and in the Occupied Territories, and to urge you to carry out a quick and simple task: On 24th July , EU Foreign Ministers unanimously agreed to an upgrade in EU trade relations with Israel. Despite...

As of this week the General Synod of the Church of England will meet and will, during the course of its sitting, vote on a very important private members’ motion proposed by Dr John Dinnen, Synod member for Hereford. The motion concerns Church volunteers who are sent to vulnerable...

ENGAGE has prepared a number of resources for individuals to make use of to ensure that the loss of 1,400 Palestinian lives during the recent heavy bombardment of Gaza is not forgotten and any crimes committed by Israel fully investigated. Where crimes are proven to have been committed we must...