Brent Council is due to adopt the All-Party Parliamentary Group's definition of Islamophobia at Full Council on Monday July 8th if a a motion from Cllr Ahmad Shahzad (Labour - Mapesbury) is adopted. The definition is not without its critics, including claims that it too closely mirrors the controversial IHRA definition of Anti-Semitism and confuses race and religion. Critiques can be read HERE and HERE. The motion claims that the Council has adopted the IHRA definition and its examples, but does not mention that it accepted an amendment to the examples that was contradictory. LINK
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-->Standing up to racism, discrimination and prejudice in Brent
This Council notes:
Brent Council adopted the definition of antisemitism in September 2017, including its examples, set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and now, seeks to adopt the definition of Islamophobia, including its examples, as set out by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims.
The charity Tell Mama reported that in the week after 50 innocent, Muslim worshippers were massacred in the Christchurch New Zealand terror attack, Islamophobic incidents increased by almost 600 per cent back in Britain.
This Council believes:
That words have consequences within political discourse.
We unequivocally condemn all forms of pernicious racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, pregnancy and maternity discrimination, ableism and sexism and reaffirm our commitment to fighting against them.
This Council resolves:
To adopt the APPG on British Muslims – Working Definition of Islamophobia as follows:
“Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.”
Contemporary examples of Islamophobia in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in encounters between religions and non-religions in the public sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:
· Calling for, aiding, instigating or justifying the killing or harming of Muslims in the name of a racist/ fascist ideology, or an extremist view of religion.
· Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Muslims as such, or of Muslims as a collective group, such as, especially but not exclusively, conspiracies about Muslim entryism in politics, government or other societal institutions; the myth of Muslim identity having a unique propensity for terrorism, and claims of a demographic ‘threat’ posed by Muslims or of a ‘Muslim takeover’.
· Accusing Muslims as a group of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Muslim person or group of Muslim individuals, or even for acts committed by non- Muslims.
· Accusing Muslims as a group, or Muslim majority states, of inventing or exaggerating Islamophobia, ethnic cleansing or genocide perpetrated against Muslims.
· Accusing Muslim citizens of being more loyal to the ‘Ummah’ (transnational Muslim community) or to their countries of origin, or to the alleged priorities of Muslims worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
· Applying double standards by requiring of Muslims behaviours that are not expected or demanded of any other groups in society, e.g. loyalty tests.
· Using the symbols and images associated with classic Islamophobia (e.g. the Prophet Muhammed being a paedophile, claims of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule) to characterize Muslims as being ‘sex groomers’, inherently violent or incapable of living harmoniously in plural societies.
· Holding Muslims collectively responsible for the actions of any Muslim majority state, whether secular or constitutionally Islamic.