Posted on 10/12/2015 5:30:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A British Muslim woman doused with alcohol on train; another whose hijab was pulled off before she suffered a hail of kicks and punches; yet another dubbed an “ISIS sympathizer” by a racist assailant who wanted to “blow her face off”.
All are shocking examples of rising Islamophobic attacks in parts of the UK. But these cases are also examples of where onlookers or police refused to act in the face of such incidents, a new report says.
Researchers from Birmingham City and Nottingham Trent universities have found that a “public refusal to help” was common in several hate attacks against UK Muslims, in what they said reflects a worrying broader trend.
Victims of Islamophobic attacks “often receive little support from onlookers”, according to the study, which was commissioned by Tell MAMA, which monitors attacks on Muslims in the UK.
“The public should intervene and assist victims of anti-Muslim hate,” the report noted. “A number of participants spoke about the lack of intervention and assistance from bystanders.”
The report is due to be launched today in the UK Parliament, during National Hate Crime Awareness Week, which runs until 17 October.
It comes at a time of rising attacks in parts of the country, with London’s Metropolitan Police Service in September reporting a 71 percent rise in physical, verbal and online attacks on Muslims in the 12 months to July. Tell MAMA says 60 percent of UK street-based Islamophobic attacks are against women.
‘A simple phone call’ The hijab-wearing woman on the train who had alcohol thrown at her did not receive any support from her fellow passengers, said Imran Awan, Deputy Director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University, one of the authors of the report.
“She looked around, and no one was doing anything,” he told Al Arabiya News.
The university researchers also interviewed another Muslim woman who was threatened on public transport in the UK.
“One individual said to us they were on the bus, and a group of people starting saying, ‘look, an ISIS sympathizer, let’s blow her head off’,” said Awan. “She went to the bus driver and he looked the other way, and said, ‘I can’t do anything...’.”
In these two cases, the victims did not necessarily wish for bystanders to intervene physically – but rather wanted them to call the police or provide moral support.
“They didn’t want anyone to intervene and stop what was happening, because it might put them in danger as well. But they just wanted a simple phone call, somebody to say that they’d ring the police or do something,” said Awan.
But a third hate-crime victim interviewed by the researchers found that, when she did report the crime against her, the police did not take it seriously. The woman had her hijab pulled off and was then kicked and punched, according to Awan. “When she went to the police, the officer told her to pull herself together,” he said.
Broader trend? The universities’ report was based on 20 interviews with UK victims of online and offline anti-Muslim hate crime, who had previously reported incidents to Tell MAMA.
Awan acknowledged that was a small sample size, with the study intended to provide a “snapshot” of the impact of anti-Muslim abuse.
There is however wider evidence that suggests that humans are often reluctant to intervene in emergency situations in public, regardless of the race or religion of the victim. The so-called “bystander effect” describes the situation where the presence of other people makes individuals less likely to get involved after witnessing a violent act.
But Awan pointed to another academic study that found a specific problem with bystanders not acting when witnessing hate crimes, something he said was “mirrored” in his own report.
The Leicester Hate Crime project, a study by the University of Leicester, found “many” cases where witnesses could have done more to help victims. The study – which surveyed 1,795 people – included many types of hate crime, including those on religious and race grounds, as well as against disabled people, or according to the clothes someone wears or their sexuality.
“The public should be encouraged to take appropriate action when witnessing hate crimes,” the Leicester report noted.
“Seeing bystanders rushing past, turning a blind eye, or simply observing their victimization without offering to assist directly or indirectly, often contributed to a heightened sense of humiliation and isolation.”
Online abuse The Tell MAMA-commissioned research also details the impact of online abuse against Muslims. One of the interviewees said her picture had been redistributed on Twitter with the caption ‘You Burqa wearing slut’. Another said she had been threatened with violence online, with the perpetrators claiming to have her home address.
Awan said such online abuse was having a negative impact on UK Muslims in the offline world. One women interviewed as part of the study, who had faced abuse online, had started wearing a hat over her hijab because she feared an attack in the ‘real world’, he said.
“People were really worried: If they were sworn at, or called ‘terrorists’ and so forth online, then that would have a real impact offline.”
Fiyaz Mughal, the director of Tell MAMA, called for social media services to do more to crack down on racist abuse online.
“When someone reports in through Twitter, there is no category for reporting racist or prejudiced language,” he wrote in the report.
“[The] structure is set up… only to deal with targeted threats of violence. Yet, we all know that promoting hatred and bigotry does not always involve threats of violence and in these circumstances, companies like Twitter simply shirk their responsibilities by saying that they are meeting legal requirements.”
Twitter representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
How different would the treatment be if you showed up in Jesus garb near Mecca..?
Meh.
The only good muz....
Gutless weasels not deserving of the freedoms others died to defend.. Or just card carrying members of the Left?
People minding their own business and staying out of it. Why get called names when one can just ignore what's going on.
The Muzzies are quick to claim victim status in their quest to conquer the world. Screw them. Send them back to the shit holes they came from.
Lots of blacks folks in America trying to start a war on cops. They never think about what would happen if detectives (cops) decided they were too busy to investigate when a black corpses turn up. Similar things could happen throughout the Western World.
if its just other muslims keeping their women in line, it would be racist to interfere.
The Muzzies get a 1 microsecond sideways glance and then they hang every ornament in the world on it, wah, wah, waaaaaah..!!!
Remember the Dr. Pepper scandal on that US commercial airline 3 months back..? “She wouldn’t give the can to me unopened, saying it could be a WEAPON..!!!”
And then another witness chimed in, and it was all LIES by a professional Muzzie headscarf victim.
They can’t help making sh*t up.
I just don’t believe This Boy Who Cried Wolf.
From Al Alarabiya, eh?
Not interested.
explain what right any peoples who do not desire to assimilate and give up certain things,’which all do in a new county, have to be in a foreign country?
they have no right to be in any country other than their own. there is no right to live in any country you want just because you want to be there, and not put your original culture secondary to the new country’s culture.
Is taqqiya involved?
I’d guess it is.
Mmmmmmmkay.
Is it possible for muslims to commit hate crimes against native Brits? Such as the beheading of Lee Rigby.
Islam is a hate crime.
― Charles James Napier
This is so terrible that I think those muslims ought to go back to where they came from! That’ll show those horrible, prejudiced Brits!!!!
As much as I would like to think Brits are getting wise to the muslim threat in their country, this to me smacks of muslim lies to garner sympathy. Notice that all the victims are women. Western men are generally loathe to see a woman attacked regardless of the circumstances while muslim men see attacking women as a perk of their culture. When people lie, they tend to project.
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