Afzal Khan, MP Vice Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims

November marked the start of Islamophobia Awareness Month, an opportunity for us all to tackle this insidious hatred, which manifests itself in hate crimes, discrimination, and loss of opportunity.

When I go home and I look at my grandchildren, I see limitless potential that deserves to flourish and thrive. I find it heart-breaking that they have to grow up in a world where racism is still present, and that their grandfather has to stand up and talk about the rampant Islamophobia that it is in our midst.

I am one of the UK’s 2.7 million Muslims, and for us, Islamophobia has distressing real-life implications. A primary example is the far-right peddling of false narratives during this pandemic that British Muslims were ‘spreading corona’.

Like many Muslims in public life, I face Islamophobic and racist abuse online. A video of me repeating my oath of office in Urdu, ironically in honour of my late father’s service in the British Indian Army, resulted in hundreds of abusive tweets.

Social media platforms have a moral responsibility and duty to protect their users defining Islamophobia will help establish a mechanism for accountability and improve regulation.
Azeem Rafiq’s powerful and moving testimony about his experience in cricket shed light on how easily racism and Islamophobia can go unchecked and be simply dismissed as “banter”.

What we desperately need is better leadership from the Government and our elected representatives, whose duty is to safeguard all communities, regardless of their faith or race. It is unacceptable that the PM’s outbursts on Muslim women led to a 375 per cent increase in hate crime. It is high time this Government changed its approach towards Islamophobia and tackled it head-on.

Last year, to mark Islamophobia Awareness Month, I wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to take action to tackle this awful form of racism.It’s been over a year and I haven’t received a response.

I therefore raised a point of order in the Commons after the PM’s failure failed to respond. The Speaker agreed that it is wholly unacceptable for the Prime Minister or any minister to ignore correspondence from members.

Despite promises from the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Michael Gove, as well as the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, I am yet to receive a response from the Prime Minister. I wrote to Boris Johnson again this year, urging him to act and to show leadership on this issue.

In order to challenge the Government on their failure to tackle Islamophobia within their Party and beyond, I secured a Westminster Hall debate on Islamophobia Awareness Month.

I was hugely grateful to hear powerful contributions from colleagues across the political divide in my debate, and was particularly thankful to my fellow Muslim parlimentarians for sharing the harrowing examples of abuse they’ve faced. for being a Muslim.

The Government’s own figures reveal, once again, Muslims have been victim to the highest proportion of all hate crimes committed this year. My colleague, Anneliese Dodds MP, and I have written to the Conservative Party Chair over the surge in hate crimes against Muslims following the Liverpool attack. Time and again we see the conflation of Islam and terrorism, which is wrong and perpetuates a harmful stereotype of Muslims.

I was deeply disappointed by the Government’s response during the Islamophobia debate. The Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, was dismissive and proceeded to conflate Islam and terrorism in her opening remarks. She failed to adopt the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) British Muslims definition on Islamophobia, answer my questions on the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group or address the damning findings of the Singh Review.

I also organised a parliamentary drop-in event for Islamophobia Awareness Month, in collaboration with the Muslim Council of Britain and Amnesty International UK which was a great opportunity for MPs to show their commitment to rooting out Islamophobia and racism.

I was overwhelmed by the cross-party support at the drop-in, which was attended by MPs across the political divide. We were joined by Uyghur activist, Rahima Mahmut, who highlighted the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China, which is Islamophobia at its most abhorrent.

During regional conference, it was wonderful to see the support of many Labour colleagues, including the Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham and the Mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotherham.
I also had an incredible visit to Cambridge Central Mosque with Anneliese Dodds MP to mark Islamophobia Awareness Month. The mosque is a real trailblazer in the community as Europe’s first eco-mosque.

Finally, to round off Islamophobia Awareness Month, I met with the newly appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero, Ed Miliband MP, to talk about the brilliant work British Muslims are doing to tackle the climate crisis. It was great to reaffirm our commitment to standing against hatred and racism.

As Muslims, we are targeted because of our faith, practices, and the way we dress. Our places of worship are threatened, and our young people fear Islamophobic bullying in schools and on the streets. I am determined to build a society free from Islamophobia to allow future generations of British Muslims to thrive.

I firmly believe that representing British Muslims requires more than just lip service. It requires commitment leadership and most importantly, action.
It is time the Government to step up and enact meaningful change to protect our communities online and offline.