Let’s take a stand for religious liberty

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]lthough Nadiya Hussain may have warmed the nation’s hearts when she became the first British Muslim woman to win GBBO, we’re far from fully integrating different cultures into our society.

In fact, official figures on hate crimes showed that religiously motivated ones had increased by 43 percent in the last year. Additionally, the number of anti-Muslim attacks have become so great that police will now be asked to record them as a separate category, which puts them on the same footing as Anti-Semitic crimes. It’s shocking to think that this was revealed in the same week thousands of British people celebrated a Muslim mum with a knack for lemon drizzle cake.

But life is not Bake Off. In the real world, Muslim men and women (but women in particular), are the focus of attacks which aim to mock their religion whilst attempting to reinforce the tenuous links between mainstream Islam and extremist terrorism. Stories range from a midwife who left after being racially abused by patients to a commuter doused in alcohol by racist thugs. What’s most shocking about these stories is that the abusers in these stories never seem to face any sort of recompense.

What’s most shocking about these stories is that the abusers in these stories never seem to face any sort of recompense.

Researchers Imwan Aran and Dr Irene Zempi, who conducted interviews with victims of anti-Muslim hate crimes, found that the perpetrators were often not confronted by bystanders. This is reprehensible. It doesn’t matter that the victim was wearing a hijab. It doesn’t matter that ISIS happens to use Islam to justify the crimes they are committing. Everyone should feel free to speak out when they’re the victim of a crime, no matter how petty it seems.  And the public should be standing behind them, defending everyone’s right to a peaceful life.

Although it’s easy to blame the victims here for not speaking out, that’s not the right course of action. For a minority that’s subjected to a barrage of racist abuse simply for having a specific faith, it can often be traumatic to recount these incidents to a police force that may not even be that sympathetic to them. Some Muslim men and women are even attempting to outwardly disguise their faith. Can you imagine if the same problems were faced by those of other faiths? The uproar would be deafening and immediate.

Some Muslim men and women are even attempting to outwardly disguise their faith.

It might be easy for people to ignore these statistics if they’ve never encountered it, but ignorance is not bliss. What affects Muslims affects us, and it’s important that the rise of Islamophobia was treated as the key social issue that it is. Although I’m not suggesting that we become vigilantes, I think it’s high time to take a stand for religious liberty, and confront racism wherever and whenever we see it.