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 \u201cISIS sympathizer\u201d by a racist assailant who wanted to \u201cblow her face off\u201d.
\nAll 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.
\nResearchers from Birmingham City and Nottingham Trent universities have found that a \u201cpublic refusal to help\u201d was common in several hate attacks against UK Muslims, in what they said reflects a worrying broader trend.
\nVictims of Islamophobic attacks \u201coften receive little support from onlookers\u201d, according to the study, which was commissioned by Tell MAMA, which monitors attacks on Muslims in the UK.
\n\u201cThe public should intervene and assist victims of anti-Muslim hate,\u201d the report noted. \u201cA number of participants spoke about the lack of intervention and assistance from bystanders.\u201d
\nThe report is due to be launched today in the UK Parliament, during National Hate Crime Awareness Week, which runs until 17 October.
\nIt comes at a time of rising attacks in parts of the country, with London\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u2018A simple phone call\u2019<\/strong> Broader trend?<\/strong> Online abuse<\/strong> Source: Alarabiya<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 \u201cISIS sympathizer\u201d by a racist assailant who wanted to \u201cblow her face off\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThe 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.
\n\u201cShe looked around, and no one was doing anything,\u201d he told Al Arabiya News.
\nThe university researchers also interviewed another Muslim woman who was threatened on public transport in the UK.
\n\u201cOne individual said to us they were on the bus, and a group of people starting saying, \u2018look, an ISIS sympathizer, let\u2019s blow her head off\u2019,\u201d said Awan. \u201cShe went to the bus driver and he looked the other way, and said, \u2018I can\u2019t do anything…\u2019.\u201d
\nIn these two cases, the victims did not necessarily wish for bystanders to intervene physically \u2013 but rather wanted them to call the police or provide moral support.
\n\u201cThey didn\u2019t 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\u2019d ring the police or do something,\u201d said Awan.
\nBut 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. \u201cWhen she went to the police, the officer told her to pull herself together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\nThe universities\u2019 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.
\nAwan acknowledged that was a small sample size, with the study intended to provide a \u201csnapshot\u201d of the impact of anti-Muslim abuse.
\nThere 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 \u201cbystander effect\u201d describes the situation where the presence of other people makes individuals less likely to get involved after witnessing a violent act.
\nBut Awan pointed to another academic study that found a specific problem with bystanders not acting when witnessing hate crimes, something he said was \u201cmirrored\u201d in his own report.
\nThe Leicester Hate Crime project, a study by the University of Leicester, found \u201cmany\u201d cases where witnesses could have done more to help victims. The study \u2013 which surveyed 1,795 people \u2013 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.
\n\u201cThe public should be encouraged to take appropriate action when witnessing hate crimes,\u201d the Leicester report noted.
\n\u201cSeeing 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe 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 \u2018You Burqa wearing slut\u2019. Another said she had been threatened with violence online, with the perpetrators claiming to have her home address.
\nAwan 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 \u2018real world\u2019, he said.
\n\u201cPeople were really worried: If they were sworn at, or called \u2018terrorists\u2019 and so forth online, then that would have a real impact offline.\u201d
\nFiyaz Mughal, the director of Tell MAMA, called for social media services to do more to crack down on racist abuse online.
\n\u201cWhen someone reports in through Twitter, there is no category for reporting racist or prejudiced language,\u201d he wrote in the report.
\n\u201c[The] structure is set up\u2026 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.\u201d
\nTwitter representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n