‘I will Blow your face off’—Virtual and Physical World Anti-Muslim Hate Crime

Anti-Muslim hate crime is usually viewed in the prism of physical attacks; however, it also occurs in a cyber context, and this reality has considerable consequences for victims. In seeking to help improve our understanding of anti-Muslim hate crime, this article draws on the findings from a project that involved qualitative interviews with Muslim men and women who experienced both virtual and physical world anti-Muslim hate, and reported their experiences to the British government-funded service Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks). In doing so, this article sets out the first ever study to examine the nature, determinants and impacts of both virtual and physical world anti-Muslim hate crime upon Muslim men and Muslim women in the United Kingdom (UK). Correspondingly, we found that victims of both virtual and physical world anti-Muslim hate crime are likely to suffer from emotional stress, anxiety and fear of cyber threats materialising in the ‘real world’

‘It's a part of me, I feel naked without it': choice, agency and identity for Muslim women who wear the niqab

In the context of heightened suspicion and anti-Muslim stereotypes in a post-9/11 and 7/7 era, Muslim women who wear the niqab (face veil) are stigmatised, criminalised and marked as ‘dangerous’ to British/Western values. Several countries have imposed bans on the wearing of face veils in public places based on the premise that the niqab is a ‘threat’ to notions of gender equality, integration and national security. While the wearing of the niqab has elicited a good deal of media, political and public debates, little attention has been paid to the opinions of Muslim women who wear it. Drawing on individual and focus group interviews with Muslim women who wear the niqab in the United Kingdom (UK), this article places at the centre of the debate the voices of those women who do wear it, and explores their reasons for adopting it. The findings show that the wearing of the niqab emerges as a personal choice, an expression of religious piety, public modesty and belonging to the ‘ummah’. It is also perceived as a form of agency, resistance and non-conformity to Western consumerist culture and lifestyle. It will be concluded that wearing the niqab empowers women in their public presence and offers them a sense of ‘liberation’, which is associated with the notion of anonymity that it provides them

The affinity between online and offline anti-Muslim hate crime: Dynamics and impacts

Following the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Tunisia in 2015, and in Woolwich, south-east London where British Army soldier Drummer Lee Rigby was murdered in 2013, there has seen a significant increase in anti-Muslim attacks. These incidents have occurred offline where mosques have been vandalized, Muslim women have had their hijab (headscarf) or niqab (face veil) pulled off, Muslim men have been attacked, and racist graffiti has been scrawled against Muslim properties. Concurrently, there has been a spike in anti-Muslim hostility online, where Muslims have been targeted by campaigns of cyber bullying, cyber harassment, cyber incitement and threats of offline violence. Against this background, we examine the nature and impacts of online and offline anti-Muslim hate crime. We draw on our different experiences of conducting research on anti-Muslim hate crime, using two independent research projects in order to consider the affinity between online and offline anti-Muslim hate crime. We argue that, in reality, online/offline boundaries may be more blurred than the terms imply. For victims, it is often difficult to isolate the online threats from the intimidation, violence and abuse that they suffer offline. Moreover, victims often live in fear because of the possibility of online threats materialising in the ‘real world’. We conclude that there is a continuity of anti-Muslim hostility in both the virtual and the physical world, especially in the globalized world

Veiled Muslim women's views on law banning the wearing of the niqab (face veil) in public

In August 2018, Denmark became the latest European country to ban the wearing of the niqab (face veil) in public. Indeed, several European countries such as France, Belgium and Austria have already imposed a national ban on the wearing of the niqab in public on the grounds that it is a 'threat' to gender equality, integration and national security. While the wearing of the niqab has elicited a good deal of media, political and public debates, little attention has been paid to the opinions of Muslim women who wear it. Drawing on individual and focus group interviews with Muslim women who wear the niqab in the United Kingdom (UK), this article places at the centre of the debate the voices of those women who do wear it and, under the lens of Critical Race Feminism, explores their views on legislation banning the wearing of the niqab in public

Doing ‘dangerous’ autoethnography on Islamophobic victimization

This article draws on our different experiences of employing autoethnography when researching Islamophobia, using two independent research projects. In particular, we reflect upon our experiences of Islamophobic victimization as a result of being ‘visibly’ Muslim in public spaces in the UK. We discuss our motivation for employing autoethnography and the role of our insider/outsider status in adopting the role of the Muslim ‘other’ in public spaces. Additionally, we consider the nature, extent and impact of Islamophobic victimization upon ourselves, and the coping mechanisms we employed to deal with it. The article concludes by reflecting upon the advantages, ethical challenges and limitations of using autoethnography when researching Islamophobic victimization

Misogyny, racism, and Islamophobia: street harassment at the intersections

Veiled Muslim women are at an increased risk of street harassment in the current political and economic climate. Their visibility, combined with their popular portrayal as culturally dangerous or threatening means that they are vulnerable to receiving verbal and physical threats, which can be misogynistic and Islamophobic in nature. Drawing on 60 individual and 20 focus group interviews with Muslim women in the United Kingdom who wear the niqab (face veil) and had experienced harassment in public, this qualitative study details their lived experiences. It argues that an intersectional analysis is crucial to understanding the nuances of their lived experiences and the impact street harassment has on their lives. The findings demonstrate that street harassment can produce a hostile environment for veiled Muslim women, which can have a terrorizing effect, limiting their full participation in the public sphere

How the ‘Beautiful Game’ Turned to Hate: Why Islamophobia has creeped into Grassroots Football

The aim of this report is to examine the nature, scope and impacts of Islamophobia in football at a grassroots level. Drawing on 40 individual interviews with Muslim men and women who play football, we outline their experiences of Islamophobia, both offline and online. The report concludes with a list of key recommendations based on participants’ suggestions, which we are calling upon the Football Association (FA) to act upon at grassroots level in order to help counter hate targeted at Muslim football players

The role of self and emotion within qualitative data analysis

This session draws on two different qualitative research projects- 1) experiences of imprisonment 2) victims of hate crime. Within the framework of intersectionality of identities, we demonstrate how our insider/outsider status influenced the research process, and consider the important role that our emotions and subjective experiences occupied within the analytic stage

"YOU ALL LOOK THE SAME": Non-Muslim Men who Suffer Islamophobic Hate Crime in the post-Brexit era

Existing research on Islamophobic hate crime has examined in detail the verbal, physical and emotional attacks against Muslims. However, the experiences of non-Muslim men who suffer Islamophobic hate crime because they look Muslim remain ‘invisible’ in both official statistics and empirical research. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with 20 non-Muslim men based in the United Kingdom, we examined their lived experiences of Islamophobic hate crime. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. A deductive approach to thematic analysis was adopted to analyse participants’ narratives, and six overarching themes were developed: (1) Nature of Islamophobic hate crime; (2) Triggers of Islamophobic hate crime; (3) Impact of Islamophobic hate crime; (4) Reporting incidents, responses and barriers to Islamophobic hate; (5) Victims’ coping strategies and (6) Recommendations on tackling the problem. Our findings show that participants experienced Islamophobic hate crime because of ‘trigger’ events namely the Brexit vote, Donald Trump’s presidency as well as ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in European countries such as France, Germany, Sweden and UK. Participants described being verbally and physically attacked, threatened and harassed as well as their property being damaged. The impacts upon victims included physical, emotional, psychological, and economic damage. These experiences were also damaging to community cohesion and led to polarisation between different communities in the UK