FOR all the achievements of race equality laws and the Equality Act of 2010 highlighted protected characteristics relevant to all people in our society, we are living in a time that seems to see us regress in our understanding of equality, tolerance and respect. The renewal of hatred and intolerance towards LGBTQ+ communities and the negative and alienating rhetoric towards refugee communities, are deeply disturbing.
These words are 100% accurate when witnessing the political rhetoric today too. Both the largest mainstream UK parties have all engaged in developing this same sense of fear and horror through their language and harmful policies. Both antisemitism and Islamophobia have seen huge increases in the last eight months. The organisation Tell Mama reported anti-Muslim hate cases trebled from 600 to more than 2000 cases between October 2023 and February 2024, compared to the same period in the last year. These attacks were mostly on social media but also reported as physical assaults, abuse and vandalism with Muslim women often being the most targeted.
This current General Election campaign, for me has been very much about the mainstream media actively promoting far-right voices and opinions, in particular towards Muslim communities, completely unchallenged. Watching Nigel Farage on Sky News on May 27 openly saying that Muslims – especially the youth – are against British values and are a problem for our societies was tough to say the least.