A thought-provoking article by Khadija Mustafa will make you question the arbitrariness of the UK's policies against its Muslim citizens, as well as offer an insight into the UK's double standards and Islamophobia exposed by the Ukraine war.
As we watch events unfold, it's no wonder that many social media users accuse the media of hypocrisy in their coverage of Russia's war on Ukraine when compared to other conflicts (especially those in Muslim countries). Mustafa's description of the British government's acts against its Muslim citizens, as well as how Britain deals differently with the suffering of Ukrainians and Syrians, is just another example of hypocrisy and double standards on the part of the British government.
In addition to oppressive and dodgy legislation such as "Schedule 7", which - by the way - was declared unjust by the European Court of Human Rights, the British government has truly shown how it treats its Muslim and non-Muslim citizens differently, and how deeply Islamophobia and religious discrimination are rooted in their system.
This becomes evident through the harassment of aid workers, medical workers, and women who travelled to support their husbands, and regular citizens who travelled to help the Syrian people, and by using air strikes against their own people and stripping them of their citizenship and preventing them from their basic human rights. It is clear that all these are acts of racial and religious discrimination as well as a grand manifestation of Islamophobia.
London Metropolitan University gives some examples of Islamophobia, which are (but are not limited to):
– Inferred involvement in terrorism by inferring directly or indirectly the assumption or accusation that a Muslim would support an act of terrorism or extremism.
– Proporting the suggestion that Muslims are a monolithic group with static views, beliefs and practices.
– Unwanted remarks, bullying and microaggressions directed at individuals who pray at work or observe Islamic practices such as abstinence from alcohol or non-halal foods.
– Holding the Islamic faith or Muslims collectively responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Muslim person or group.
– Disproportionate or unequal institutional surveillance of areas congregated by Muslims due to the perceived threat of Muslims to security, for example, installing cameras in Muslim prayer facilities or requiring Islamic societies to supply membership informaton where the same is not requested of equivalent groups.
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