Survey points to rising Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment in Britain

Updated 25 September 2017
Follow

Survey points to rising Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment in Britain

LONDON: Seven in 10 Brits think the rise in Islamophobic comments by politicians and others risks fueling hate crime, yet most also have hostile attitudes toward Muslims settling in the country, an Arab News / YouGov poll has found.
The survey, which was commissioned by this newspaper in conjunction with the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) and polled over 2,000 Brits, brought the country’s conflicted views into sharp focus.
The “UK attitudes toward the Arab world” survey found that while 70 percent of respondents believe “anti-refugee statements by politicians and others” increase the risk of hate crime in the UK, 55 percent also support “racial profiling against Muslims/Arabs for security reasons.”
The survey also revealed that 41 percent of Brits think migrants and refugees coming from the Arab world to Europe are not beneficial to society.
The results found a clear split according to how Brits voted in the referendum to leave the EU. Just 22 percent of “Brexit” voters believe Arabs who have migrated to the UK have “made an effort” to adapt and integrate into Western society, compared to 55 percent who voted for the UK to remain part of the EU.
Scott Lucas, professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, pointed to the disparity in Brits’ views exposed by the poll, with many raising concern over rising Islamophobia, yet simultaneously holding what could be viewed as Islamophobic views.
Lucas told Arab News: “The fact they recognize Islamophobia yet they, themselves, have the same suspicions doesn’t surprise me.
“Our society is not immune to government rhetoric; everyone is being influenced by it, even if they are not aware of it.”
 

London’s Metropolitan Police Service said the volume of hate crime it records as “Islamophobic attacks” has increased sharply over the last four years. The force recorded 343 incidents in the 12 months to March 2013, and 1,260 in the 12 months to March 2017.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), told Arab News: “Islamophobia is now socially acceptable within society. The government needs to take real action.
“Certain sections of the (British) media are some of the biggest drivers of Islamophobia in the UK. The government should provide guidance to newspapers and work with press regulators and send experts to give advice to shake things up. The government has a long list of things it has said it would do and hasn’t.”
Versi offered the example of the aftermath of the terror attack at Finsbury Park Mosque in June this year. He said, “Both the UK Prime Minster (Theresa May) and the UK Foreign Secretary (Boris Johnson) identified the need to quash Islamophobia at the time, however it is still unclear what actions were taken after making this statement.”
Commenting on the Arab News/YouGov survey, Versi said the idea that many Brits are supporters of Arab racial profiling and dismiss the value of refugees is a subject of concern.
“This is a broader issue than just Arabs, it’s a lack of understanding of the value of immigrants in general,” he said.
Versi urged the UK government to create policies that “tackle these discriminatory views.”
He expressed concern that the language used by politicians needs to be “very carefully thought through to understand the ramifications they have on how certain communities are viewed.”
He added: “A direct link between government rhetoric and Islamophobia is difficult to prove but the atmosphere of hostility that has been created by certain politicians is clear and dangerous. The government needs to take these results very seriously and act on it.”
Shaista Aziz, a British journalist and columnist said “divisive rhetoric can only create hate and not solve hate.”
Aziz, who is the founder of the anti-Islamophobia website “Everyday Bigotry Project,” said when politicians describe immigrants in hateful terms, “it legitimizes and normalizes the demonization of groups of people who are ‘other’.”
She continued: “While many people say they reject racism, they actually believe in things that could be construed as racism.
“For example, refugees don’t have ‘contribute’ anything to society – they don’t have to be scientists and doctors – they should just be respected as human beings.”
She added: “That fact that people say they agree with Arab profiling says it all, doesn’t it? With the current government narrative around Muslims, this doesn’t surprise me.
“Just look at the dominant media headlines and nature of the stories day in, day out. ‘Muslim,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘refugees’ are not interchangeable terms,” Aziz said.
On the matter of screening Arabs for security reasons, she said: “Obviously everyone needs to be kept safe and people need to be screened for security reasons but if it’s just one group being screened, that’s problematic. Everyone should be subject to checks, not just Muslims.”
Lucas said that racism in the UK is often cloaked in “rational terms, such as those who say ‘the UK can’t take the strain of more immigrants’.”
He said that problems can arise in UK communities where there is limited contact with multicultural groups.
“If the communities don’t have day-to-day contact, they are only subject to images that come from the media, news or shows,” he said. “Yet most of the images shown in the press or media of Muslims are unnatural and they are not depicted doing day-to-day things.”
Aziz urged the British government to take a reality check of the level of bigotry that has been mainstreamed into our politics because “it’s alienating large numbers of British people and causing long-term problems.”
“If Muslims are continually seen as a problem, it’s difficult for some Muslims to feel like they belong – it creates separated groups and foments an ‘us and them’ narrative. This can never be a good thing for society,” she said.

• For full report and related articles please visit: How Brits view Arab world


Israel army sets limits on nighttime movement in south Lebanon

Updated 3 sec ago
Follow

Israel army sets limits on nighttime movement in south Lebanon

Residents will be barred from traveling south of the Litani River

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army announced restrictions Wednesday on people’s movements in south Lebanon after dark, hours after a ceasefire with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah took effect.
Residents will be barred from traveling south of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, between 1500 GMT and 0500 GMT Thursday, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X. They will also be barred from returning to villages the army has ordered evacuated, he added.

Lebanon’s Berri reprises key mediator role in ceasefire deal

Updated 6 min 55 sec ago
Follow

Lebanon’s Berri reprises key mediator role in ceasefire deal

  • Berri said Lebanon was closing “a historical moment that was the most dangerous that Lebanon has ever experienced”
  • He appealed to Lebanese to show unity for the sake of Lebanon

BEIRUT: Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reprised his role as a key interlocutor between Hezbollah and the United States as Washington sought to mediate an end to the war with Israel, drawing on decades of experience to help clinch the deal.
It has underlined the sway the 86-year-old still holds over Lebanon, particularly the Shiite Muslim community in which he has loomed large for decades, and has been seen as a steadying influence since Israel killed Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, in September.
Addressing Lebanese in a televised speech on Wednesday, Berri said Lebanon was closing “a historical moment that was the most dangerous that Lebanon has ever experienced,” and appealed to Lebanese to show unity for the sake of Lebanon.
Berri rose to prominence as head of the Shiite Amal Movement during Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. He has served as parliament speaker — the highest role for a Shiite in Lebanon’s sectarian order — since 1992.
Hezbollah’s new leader Sheikh Naim Qassem endorsed Berri as a negotiator, calling him the group’s “big brother.” US envoy Amos Hochstein met Berri repeatedly during numerous visits to Beirut aiming to broker an end to the hostilities which were fought in parallel with the Gaza war and escalated dramatically in September.
It echoed the role Berri played in helping to bring an end to the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
Diplomats say his role has been all the more important because Lebanon is without a president, its cabinet has only partial authority, and there are few ways to access Hezbollah, which is branded a terrorist group by the United States.
“When you come to Lebanon now, he is really the only person worth meeting. He is the state,” a Beirut-based diplomat said.
He rose to global prominence in 1985 by helping negotiate the release of 39 Americans held hostage in Beirut by Shiite militants who hijacked a US airliner during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war.
His election as speaker after the civil war coincided with Nasrallah’s rise to leadership of Hezbollah. Together, they led the “Shiite duo,” a reference to the two parties that dominated Shiite political representation and much of the state.
A diplomat who frequently visits Berri said: “He’s the trusted partner of Hezbollah, which makes him very important, but there is also a clear limit to what he can do, be it due to Hezbollah or Iranian stances.”
Israeli fire has hit areas where Berri’s Amal Movement holds sway, including the city of Tyre.

IMPROVING SHI’ITES’ STANDING
Born in 1938 in Sierra Leone to an emigrant merchant family from Tibnine, Berri was raised in Lebanon and was active in politics by the time he was at university.
Many in the once downtrodden Shiite community applaud Berri for helping improve their standing in a sectarian system where privileges were skewed toward Christians and Sunni Muslims.
A trained lawyer, Berri took the helm of Amal after its founder, Imam Musa Sadr, disappeared during a visit to Libya.
Berri was behind the military rise of Amal, which fought against nearly all the main parties to the civil war including Hezbollah, which later became an ally.
After the civil war, Berri’s Shiite followers joined the state apparatus and security agencies en masse, and he appeared to move in political lockstep with Hezbollah.
When a 2006 US embassy cable raised questions over his true feelings toward Hezbollah on its publication in 2010, he dismissed it, declaring that Nasrallah “is like myself.”
In 2023, Berri’s Amal fighters joined Hezbollah in firing rockets against Israel in solidarity with Gaza when Israel began its offensive after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
Foreign envoys began visiting Beirut and meeting Berri to try to halt exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border, and sought to convince Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River running some 30 km (20 miles) north of the frontier.
Berri told one foreign official “it would be easier to move the Litani River south to the border than to push Hezbollah north of the Litani,” a source close to Berri told Reuters.
But Berri’s opponents have also criticized him as part of the sectarian elite that steered Lebanon into economic ruin in 2019, when the financial system collapsed after decades of state corruption.
Others blame him for refusing to call a parliamentary session for lawmakers to elect a president, leaving the top Christian post in government empty for more than two years.
Berri’s role as a diplomatic conduit has irked Hezbollah’s political rivals, such as the Christian Lebanese Forces, who say any negotiations must be carried out by Lebanon’s president.


Iran reserves right to react to Israeli airstrikes, welcomes Lebanon ceasefire

Updated 40 min 26 sec ago
Follow

Iran reserves right to react to Israeli airstrikes, welcomes Lebanon ceasefire

  • Asked whether the ceasefire could lead to an easing of tensions between Israel and Iran, Araghchi said: “It depends on the behavior of Israel“
  • “Of course, we reserve the right to react to the recent Israeli aggression, but we do consider all developments in the region“

LISBON: Tehran reserves the right to react to Israeli airstrikes last month on Iran but also bears in mind other developments in the region, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday.
Araghchi told reporters during a trip to Lisbon that Iran welcomed Tuesday’s ceasefire agreement in Lebanon and hoped it could lead to a permanent ceasefire. The ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah came into effect on Wednesday under an agreement brokered by the United States and France.
Asked whether the ceasefire could lead to an easing of tensions between Israel and Iran, he said: “It depends on the behavior of Israel.”
“Of course, we reserve the right to react to the recent Israeli aggression, but we do consider all developments in the region,” he said.
Israel struck targets in Iran on Oct. 26 in retaliation for an Iranian missile barrage against Israel on Oct. 1.
Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said in an interview published by Iran’s Tasnim news agency on Sunday that his country was preparing to “respond” to Israel.
Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Hezbollah had been “set back decades,” Araghchi said the armed group had not been weakened by Israel’s killing of many of its leaders since January and by its ground offensive against the group since early October.
Hezbollah has been able to reorganize itself and fight back effectively, Araghchi said.
“This is the main reason why Israel accepted the ceasefire...every time they (Hezbollah) lose their leaders or their commanders, they become bigger in both numbers and their strength,” he said.
His remarks echoed comments by a senior Hezbollah official, Hassan Fadlallah, who said the group would emerge from the war stronger and more numerous.


Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire holds in first hours, Lebanese civilians start to return home

A driver waves the flag of Hezbollah while passing a building destroyed in recent Israeli strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Updated 4 min 3 sec ago
Follow

Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire holds in first hours, Lebanese civilians start to return home

  • Families return to their homes in the most heavily bombed ares of Lebanon
  • Lebanon’s army says it was preparing to deploy to the south of the country as part of ceasefire agreement

BEIRUT: A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held on Wednesday after the two sides struck a deal brokered by the US and France, a rare feat of diplomacy in the Middle East wracked by two wars and several proxy conflicts for over a year.
The agreement ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years but Israel is still fighting its other arch foe the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Lebanon’s army, tasked with ensuring the ceasefire lasts, said it was preparing to deploy to the south of the country, a region Israel heavily bombarded in its battle against Hezbollah, along with eastern cities and towns and the armed group’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases and even furniture streamed through the heavily-bombed southern port city of Tyre, heading south. Fighting had escalated drastically over the past two months, forcing hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday its forces were still on Lebanese territory and urged residents of southern Lebanese villages who had been ordered to evacuate in recent months to delay returning home until further notice from the Israeli military. Israeli troops have pushed around 6 km (4 miles) into Lebanon in a series of ground incursions launched in September.
Israel said it identified Hezbollah operatives returning to areas near the border and had opened fire to prevent them from coming closer. There were no immediate signs that the incident would undermine the ceasefire.
The agreement, which promises to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, is a major achievement for the US in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Diplomatic efforts will now turn to shattered Gaza, where Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli communities.
Israel has said its military aim in Lebanon had been to ensure the safe return of about 60,000 Israelis who fled from their communities along the northern border when Hezbollah started firing rockets at them in support of Hamas in Gaza.
In Lebanon, some cars flew national flags, others honked, and one woman could be seen flashing the victory sign with her fingers as people started to return to homes they had fled.
Many of the villages the people were likely returning to have been destroyed.
Hussam Arrout, a father of four said he was itching to return to his home.
“The Israelis haven’t withdrawn in full, they’re still on the edge. So we decided to wait until the army announces that we can go in. Then we’ll turn the cars on immediately and go to the village,” he said.
Announcing the ceasefire, Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after Israel’s security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote.
“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden said. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again.”
Israel will gradually withdraw its forces over 60 days as Lebanon’s army takes control of territory near its border with Israel to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there after a costly war, Biden said.
He said his administration was also pushing for an elusive ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the group “appreciates” Lebanon’s right to reach an agreement which protects its people, and hopes for a deal to end the Gaza war.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US would start its renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire on Wednesday.
But without a similar agreement yet in Gaza, many residents said they felt abandoned.
“We hope that all Arab and Western countries, and all people with merciful hearts and consciences...implement a truce here because we are tired,” said displaced Gazan Malak Abu Laila.
Egypt and Qatar, which along with the United States have tried unsuccessfully to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza, welcomed the Lebanon truce. Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it hoped it would lead to a similar agreement to end the Gaza war.
Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas as well as the Houthis that have attacked Israel from Yemen, said it also welcomed the ceasefire.
Israel has dealt a series of blows to Hezbollah, notably the assassination of its veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday Israeli forces fired at several vehicles with suspects to prevent them from reaching a no-go zone in Lebanese territory and the suspects moved away.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the military to “act firmly and without compromise” should it happen again.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said that the militant Lebanese group would retain the right to defend itself if Israel attacked.
The ceasefire would give the Israeli army an opportunity to rest and replenish supplies, and isolate Hamas, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We have pushed them (Hezbollah) decades back. We eliminated Nasrallah, the axis of the axis. We have taken out the organization’s top leadership, we have destroyed most of their rockets and missiles,” he said.


‘Shaking with cold’: tourists from Egypt boat sinking brought ashore

Updated 27 November 2024
Follow

‘Shaking with cold’: tourists from Egypt boat sinking brought ashore

  • Egypt released video footage Wednesday of the latest tourists rescued from a boat that capsized off the country’s Red Sea coast, where at least four people lost their lives

CAIRO: Egypt released video footage Wednesday of the latest tourists rescued from a boat that capsized off the country’s Red Sea coast, where at least four people lost their lives.
Seven people remain missing more than two days after the “Sea Story” was struck by a wave and overturned in the middle of the night.
The vessel had set off Sunday from Port Ghalib, near Marsa Alam in the southeast, on a multi-day diving trip with 31 tourists — mostly Europeans, along with Chinese and US nationals — and a 13-member crew.
Thirty-three were rescued, including tourists seen in the video stepping off a speedboat, draped in blankets, at a marina near Marsa Alam.
“We were shaking with cold,” one unidentified man said in the footage.
The tourists who appeared in the video had spent at least 24 hours inside a cabin of the overturned vessel before rescuers found them Tuesday morning, according to a government source close to the rescue operations.

A military-led team on Tuesday rescued two Belgians, one Swiss national, one Finnish tourist and one Egyptian, authorities said.
Two survivors — one identified by authorities on camera as an Egyptian — were rolled out on stretchers, one of them conscious and speaking.
A Belgian tourist sobbed when she was greeted by an Egyptian general.
Red Sea governor Amr Hanafi said the boat capsized “suddenly and quickly within five-seven minutes” after being struck by a strong wave in the middle of the night, leaving some passengers unable to escape their cabins.
The Sea Story had been due to dock on Friday at the tourist resort of Hurghada, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Marsa Alam.
Authorities in Egypt have said the vessel was fully licensed and had passed all inspection checks. A preliminary investigation showed no technical fault.
There were at least two similar boat accidents in the Marsa Alam area earlier this year. There were no fatalities.
The Red Sea coast is a major tourist destination in Egypt.
Dozens of dive boats crisscross between Red Sea coral reefs and islands off Egypt’s eastern coast every day, where safety regulations are robust but unevenly enforced.