Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (Credit: Chabad Lubavitch/WikiCommons)
Nadine Osman
The Mayor of London has voiced his “shock” at the levels of work-based Islamophobia experienced in the capital. Sadiq Khan commented on July 5 after the Islamophobia Response Unit reported that Muslims have had prayer mats stolen and have been harassed at work because of their religion.
Faiza Mukith, CEO of the Islamophobia Response Unit, said cases they have dealt with include one employee having his beard physically pulled and being referred to as Jafar, the villain in the Disney film Aladdin.
Mukith said a woman had bacon placed in her lunchbox by colleagues when she came to break her fast while working during Ramadan.She said another woman had a heart attack due to being badly harassed at work.
“Her medical professionals were able to correlate the experiences she was having at work to impact her health in that way,” Mukith said.
According to data from the Metropolitan Police, there has been a 12 per cent increase in reported hate crime offences towards Muslims in the last year, from 895 in 2020–21 to 1,000 in 2021–22.
Khan pledged to work with the Met Police against Islamophobia and said hate crimes would “not be tolerated” in the capital.
The Mayor of London said in a tweet: “Islamophobia will not be tolerated in our city. I’m shocked to hear the news today about Muslims being bullied and harassed at work because of their faith. I’ll continue working with the Met to ensure a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime and that the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Recently, a survey of 1,503 UK Muslims by Savanta ComRes for the online platform Hyphen found that 69% of UK Muslims currently in employment said they had experienced some form of Islamophobia at work.
Met Police data shows Islamophobia hate crime has been most prevalent in the boroughs of Westminster, Tower Hamlets and Hackney. The force said all reports of hate crimes are taken seriously.
A statement added: “We saw several spikes in the number of reported hate crimes during 2021. These increases were influenced by high-profile events that occurred both here in the US, and across the globe. Nationally, there was a sharp rise following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions across the UK in the spring and summer of 2021.
“Increases in recorded hate crimes over recent years will also be driven by improvements in crime recording and a better understanding of what constitutes a hate crime. We want victims to feel confident reporting any instances of hate crime and discrimination in any form, via a multitude of avenues available, including third-party reporting.”
