British Muslims subject to hate speech at divisive public march

UK authorities let far right voices publicly incite anti-Muslim hatred in London at the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally, once again highlighting their extreme double standards on different forms of prejudice.

The British state has already waged an intense campaign to censor and crack down on activists opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Such activism hurts the feelings of people who support the Israeli apartheid state or defend its crimes.

And people are rightly asking why the authorities don’t seem to care about the incitement of hate against Muslims.

Muslim Council of Britain: ‘Apply the law equally’

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) responded to the “openly Islamophobic rhetoric“:

Statements such as Tommy Robinson’s calls that “it’s time for many Muslims to leave this country,” that he “would stop Islam,” are not political speech – they are incitement. History teaches us, painfully and repeatedly, that language demanding the removal of an entire group from its home is the language that precedes ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Considering this, it wasn’t surprising that the rally proudly displayed the flag of Israel — a country currently committing genocide against a largely Muslim population in Gaza — alongside the Union Jack, English, and other flags.

Addressing UK “authorities, political leaders, and broadcasters”, the MCB asked:

…why is this rhetoric tolerated and even defended when it comes to Muslims when the equivalent, directed at any other group, would rightly be met with prosecution, condemnation, and unequivocal political consequence?

Just imagine, for example, if someone publicly said “It’s time for many Jews to leave this country” or “It’s absolutely vital to remove Judaism from every single place of authority”. As the MCB stressed, such discriminatory rhetoric would rightly attract tough consequences.

The MCB then said:

We call on the Government, the Home Secretary and the Metropolitan Police to apply the law equally, to investigate these statements as clear speeches inciting hatred, and to make clear that the dehumanisation of British Muslims has no place in our country.

How fascists benefit from scapegoating

As the MCB highlighted:

British Muslims have helped build this country, served it, taught in its schools, healed in its hospitals, and protected it in uniform.

Indeed, British Muslims — like people from other religions and cultures — play a big role in the UK today.

Some Muslims settled in port towns about 300 years ago, having worked for the massive British colonial force of the East India Company. But after the devastation of the Second World War, in which hundreds of thousands of Muslims had served, many people from former colonies came to help rebuild the UK.

British Muslims have made a big economic contribution to the UK, consistently donate much more than average to charities, and offer £622 million worth of volunteer time every year. They have also, along with all other religious groups, enriched British culture.

However, the far right has increasingly weaponised the crimes of a tiny number of Muslims to paint the entire religious community as the cause of the UK’s ills. The far right has always used the hatred of people who are different as a distraction from the real issues, whether it was Irish people, Jewish people or Black people.

Meanwhile, corporate elites (and their friends in parliament), benefit from ordinary people focusing on religious, cultural or physical differences. Why? This distracts us from focusing on the increasing transfer of wealth and power from us to a handful of obscenely wealthy individuals.

By failing to treat all prejudice as equally destructive and unacceptable, the current government is enabling and empowering fascism.

Featured image via Yahoo! News

By Ed Sykes

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