The experts’ meeting under Religion and Britishness: The Impact of Politics and Policy on Muslims Communities was held in Iran-Eurica (Iranian Institute for European and American Studies) on July 27th, 2021 11:30 – 13:45 Tehran Local Time.
This webinar was joined by experts from European department at Iran-Eurica, where Dr. Chris Allen, Advisor to Boris Johnson and Leicester University Professor, gave his speech about the topic. He is an expert in the field of extremism, counter-terrorism and Islamophobia in the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Mostafa Kamrani, moderator and the UK program expert, opened the session by giving his talk on recent statistics of violence and hate crimes against Muslim communities in Britain. He contradicted this by mentioning the British government advertisement of freedom of religions and hate-free society. He also analyzed how English policymakers, both verbally and actively, influence the increase in terrorist attack and hate crimes on Muslims in Britain.
Then, Dr. Allen, Researcher in Select Committees of the Houses of Lords and Commons and Home department in Islamophobia, lectured on “Reasons and Causes of Hate Crimes against Muslim Communities in the light of British Government and Britishness Policies” from 2001 to 2020. According to his lecture, British politics and policy, the gap between Britishness and Muslim identity and non-Muslim communities are among the most important reasons of these crimes. Leicester university professor added that action groups like Tell MAMA[1], which record and verify crime reports against Muslims, play a crucial role in shifting social approaches toward Muslim communities by depicting hate crimes and terrorist attack against them. Dr. Allen ascertained that the betterment of hate crimes against Muslims in Britain is bound to changes in British government policies. Nevertheless, it is improbable that Britishness and Muslim identity can be integrated, and this has been worsened after Brexit.
At the end of the meeting, attendees inquire about British policy on religious and racial minorities, social tendencies toward immigrants and the UK support of religious governments in western Asia. The inquiries were fully answered by the guest speaker.
Overall, Britishness and Muslim identity cannot be integrated; hence, most of the hate crimes against Muslim communities can be linked to rejection of Muslim identity by the British society. Brexit broke the last chain between Great Britain and others to increase hate crimes against people of color or different race, as well as minorities and immigrants.
[1] Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslims Attacks)
