Muslim healthcare staff in UK suffer increase in racism after far-right riots

Muslim healthcare staff in UK have experienced a ‘troubling increase in fear of racist abuse and discrimination’ in the past week. Above, ambulances outside the Royal London hospital in east London on Jan. 29, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 09 August 2024
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Muslim healthcare staff in UK suffer increase in racism after far-right riots

  • British Islamic Medical Association: Members living in fear, with some questioning their futures in country
  • British Egyptian Medical Association: ‘The environment has become increasingly hostile’

LONDON: Muslim healthcare professionals in the UK have experienced a rise in racism in the past week, according to the president of the British Islamic Medical Association.

Dr. Salman Waqar said the increase in incidents comes amid a week of riots driven by far-right mobs across the UK, leaving medical staff living in fear.

The riots began after misinformation was spread online in the aftermath of a knife attack in Southport that left three young girls dead.

Social media posts alleged that the attacker was a Muslim asylum-seeker. The individual arrested and charged with the offenses was later identified as a Cardiff-born Christian, but rioters subsequently targeted mosques, Muslim neighborhoods and businesses, and facilities housing asylum-seekers across the country.

“I’ve seen some really terrible messages … of people having to close up their GP surgery early, of people being trapped in their practices, of people having to take taxis back and forth from work, people not going on home visits, people working remotely from home, there’s too many to mention and to count,” Waqar told The Guardian.

“From our perspective, in terms of our members reporting how fearful they are, reporting how they’re having to think twice about what they do, international colleagues questioning whether or not they have a future in the UK.

“That is unprecedented, I’ve never seen anything like this before. In terms of the volume, in terms of the strength of feeling, there is no comparison to it.”

He added: “The amount of chatter on social media, on WhatsApp groups, the amount of messages that people are sending to each other to be safe, to look out for one another, that is not normal. And that is absolutely alarming, it’s unprecedented.”

The British Egyptian Medical Association, meanwhile, said in a statement that its members had experienced a “troubling increase in fear of racist abuse and discrimination” in the past week.

“Our members, especially those working in frontline healthcare roles, have expressed heightened concerns about their safety and wellbeing in light of these incidents. The environment has become increasingly hostile, contributing to significant stress and anxiety among medical professionals,” said BEMA, which represents more than 11,000 medical staff in the UK.

“The atmosphere of intimidation has led to increased absenteeism, reduced morale and a general sense of insecurity among healthcare workers.

“This situation is detrimental to the overall healthcare delivery system, as it affects the wellbeing of those who are critical to its operation.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said earlier this week that anyone racially abusing medical staff “can and should” be turned away from National Health Service hospitals and doctors’ surgeries. 

Amanda Pritchard, CEO of NHS England, said on Monday: “We shouldn’t let dedication to duty disguise the fact that for many NHS workers, seeing this flare-up of racism, will leave them feeling afraid and unwelcome.”

BIMA and the NHS Muslim Women’s Network have called for specific acknowledgement by authorities of an increase in Islamophobia, saying failure to do so had “allowed it to become one of the most tolerated forms of racism” in the UK.

Waqar told The Guardian: “What we don’t see is the assurances that we need to see … whether it’s from the regulator, whether it’s from the government, that recognises that this is targeted to us in our community and who we are, and to people who look like us.

“And when you don’t see that, I think you feel very vulnerable, very exposed and it becomes a lot more difficult for you to deal with it.”


Protesters on International Women’s Day demand equal rights, end to discrimination, sexual violence

Updated 56 min 16 sec ago
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Protesters on International Women’s Day demand equal rights, end to discrimination, sexual violence

  • On the Asian side of Turkiye’s biggest city Istanbul, a rally in Kadikoy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing
  • In many other European countries, women also protested against violence, for better access to gender-specific health care, equal pay and other issues

ISTANBUL: Women took to the streets of cities across Europe, Africa and elsewhere to mark International Women’s Day with demands for ending inequality and gender-based violence.
On the Asian side of Turkiye’s biggest city Istanbul, a rally in Kadikoy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing in the spring sunshine.
The colorful protest was overseen by a large police presence, including officers in riot gear and a water cannon truck.
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared 2025 the Year of the Family. Protesters pushed back against the idea of women’s role being confined to marriage and motherhood, carrying banners reading “Family will not bind us to life” and “We will not be sacrificed to the family.”
Critics have accused the government of overseeing restrictions on women’s rights and not doing enough to tackle violence against women.
Erdogan in 2021 withdrew Turkiye from a European treaty, dubbed the Istanbul Convention, that protects women from domestic violence. Turkiye’s We Will Stop Femicides Platform says 394 women were killed by men in 2024.
“There is bullying at work, pressure from husbands and fathers at home and pressure from patriarchal society. We demand that this pressure be reduced even further,” Yaz Gulgun, 52, said.
Women across Europe and Africa march against discrimination
In many other European countries, women also protested against violence, for better access to gender-specific health care, equal pay and other issues in which they don’t get the same treatment as men.
In Poland, activists opened a center across from the parliament building in Warsaw where women can go to have abortions with pills, either alone or with other women.
Opening the center on International Women’s Day across from the legislature was a symbolic challenge to authorities in the traditionally Roman Catholic nation, which has one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws.
From Athens to Madrid, Paris, Munich, Zurich and Belgrade and in many more cities across the continent, women marched to demand an end to treatment as second-class citizens in society, politics, family and at work.
In Madrid, protesters held up big hand-drawn pictures depicting Gisele Pélicot, the woman who was drugged by her now ex-husband in France over the course of a decade so that she could be raped by dozens of men while unconscious.
Pélicot has become a symbol for women all over Europe in the fight against sexual violence.
In the Nigerian capital of Lagos, thousands of women gathered at the Mobolaji Johnson Stadium, dancing and signing and celebrating their womanhood.
Many were dressed in purple — the traditional color of the women’s liberation movement.
In Russia, the women’s day celebrations had a more official tone, with honor guard soldiers presenting yellow tulips to girls and women during a celebration in St. Petersburg.
Germany’s president warns of backlash against progress already made
In Berlin, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for stronger efforts to achieve equality and warned against tendencies to roll back progress already made.
“Globally, we are seeing populist parties trying to create the impression that equality is something like a fixed idea of progressive forces,” he said. He gave an example of ” large tech companies that have long prided themselves on their modernity and are now, at the behest of a new American administration, setting up diversity programs and raving about a new ‘masculine energy’ in companies and society.”


UK govt cuts funding for Islamophobia reporting service 

Updated 08 March 2025
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UK govt cuts funding for Islamophobia reporting service 

  • Tell Mama, founded in 2012, provides ‘invaluable’ data, police sources tell The Guardian
  • The organization, which received 10,700 reports of Islamophobia last year, faces closure

LONDON: The UK government is ending funding for Islamophobia reporting service Tell Mama, The Guardian reported on Saturday.

The project, founded in 2012, is now facing closure weeks after it reported a record number of anti-Muslim hate incidents across the country.

Since its launch, Tell Mama has been wholly funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The ministry told Tell Mama that no grant would be provided by the end of March, without providing alternative arrangements.

Data provided by the service to police under a 2015 sharing agreement has been “invaluable” for monitoring community cohesion and responding to threats, police sources told The Guardian.

Tell Mama received 10,700 reports of Islamophobia last year, with 9,600 being verified. Muslims were the most targeted group in hate attacks in the year ending March 2024, according to police figures. They made up 38 percent of victims nationwide.

Tell Mama’s founder Fiyaz Mughal said its resources were being cut while “the far right and ­populists across Europe are growing significantly. There are going to be more individuals targeted, we know that in the current environment, and where are they going to go?

“This is an injustice at a time where I have never seen anti-Muslim rhetoric become so mainstream.”

Tell Mama provides a crucial point of contact for vulnerable people who often feel unable to contact the police, Mughal said.

“I’m not aware of any other organisation that can do this work and even if a new agency tried, it would take them 10 to 15 years to reach where Tell Mama is,” he added.

On Feb. 28, the government announced a new working group on anti-Muslim hatred that will create a new definition of Islamophobia and “support a wider stream of work to tackle the unacceptable incidents of anti-Muslim hatred.”

But Mughal accused the government of “saying one thing and doing another,” adding: “Labour talks a lot about countering Islamophobia but they are cutting the only project doing anything on a national scale — supporting victims, working with numerous police forces and supporting prosecutions.”

The National Police Chiefs’ Council said Tell Mama’s contributions “have allowed for the effective analysis of community tensions and informed actions to reduce such tensions.”

A spokesperson for the ministry responsible for the cut said: “Religious and racial hatred has absolutely no place in our society, and we will not tolerate Islamophobia in any form.

“This year we have made up to £1 million ($1.29 million) of funding available to Tell Mama to provide support for victims of Islamophobia, and we will set out our approach to future funding in due course.”


Polish PM says appeasement led to ‘more bombs’ from Russia in Ukraine

Updated 08 March 2025
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Polish PM says appeasement led to ‘more bombs’ from Russia in Ukraine

  • “More bombs, more aggression, more victims,” Tusk wrote on X

WARSAW: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Saturday slammed deadly Russian overnight strikes on Ukraine as the result of “what happens when someone appeases barbarians.”


“More bombs, more aggression, more victims. Another tragic night in Ukraine,” Tusk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, following Russian attacks that killed at least 14 people in Ukraine’s east and northeast.


UK says Australia ‘considering’ joining group to protect Ukraine peace

Updated 08 March 2025
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UK says Australia ‘considering’ joining group to protect Ukraine peace

  • European countries have been rushing to boost support for Ukraine
  • Several European states have said they would be willing to deploy troops to Ukraine as a “security guarantee“

LONDON: The UK on Saturday said that Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was considering joining a group of countries prepared to protect an eventual ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Britain and France have been leading efforts to form the so-called “coalition of the willing,” with the United States’ long-term commitment to Europe’s security now in doubt under President Donald Trump.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “spoke to the Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese this morning,” the UK leader’s office said on Saturday.
“He welcomed Prime Minister Albanese’s commitment to consider contributing to a Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine and looked forward to the Chiefs of Defense meeting in Paris on Tuesday.”
European countries have been rushing to boost support for Ukraine as Trump pursues direct talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end Moscow’s three-year-long invasion of Ukraine.
Several European states have said they would be willing to deploy troops to Ukraine as a “security guarantee.”
Key details about the “coalition of the willing” have not been specified, but the grouping was mentioned by Starmer during a summit of European leaders in London last Sunday aimed at guaranteeing “lasting peace” in Ukraine.
British officials have held talks with around 20 countries interested in being part of the group, a UK official said on Thursday.
The official refused to name the nations but said they were “largely European and Commonwealth partners.”
Earlier this week, Albanese told journalists that Australia was “ready to assist” Ukraine.
“There’s discussion at the moment about potential peacekeeping,” he said. “From my government’s perspective, we’re open to consideration of any proposals going forward.”


Trump’s Scottish golf resort vandalized with pro-Palestine graffiti

Updated 08 March 2025
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Trump’s Scottish golf resort vandalized with pro-Palestine graffiti

  • Local media on Saturday showed images of red paint scrawled across walls at the course with the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine“
  • “Gaza is not for sale” was also painted on one of the greens and holes dug up on the course

LONDON: US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland has been daubed with pro-Palestinian graffiti, with a protest group claiming responsibility.
Local media on Saturday showed images of red paint scrawled across walls at the course with the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” as well as insults against Trump.
“Gaza is not for sale” was also painted on one of the greens and holes dug up on the course.
Palestine Action said it caused the damage, posting on social media platform X: “Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his property, he should know his own property is within reach.”
Last month, Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Police Scotland said it was investigating.
“Around 4.40am on Saturday, 8 March, 2025, we received a report of damage to the golf course and a premises on Maidens Road, Turnberry,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said, adding that enquiries were ongoing.
Separately on Saturday, a man waving a Palestinian flag climbed the Big Ben tower at London’s Palace of Westminster.