Brexit: Now…

This state­ment is being issued on the 29th of June 2016 and super­sedes all pre­vi­ous state­ments on the subject.

Let us begin by stat­ing that the major­i­ty of British cit­i­zens exer­cised their right to express their wish­es, that the UK should no longer be part of the EU. The wish­es of the major­i­ty should be respect­ed. We firm­ly believe that a major­i­ty of those vot­ing for Brex­it are nei­ther racist nor xeno­pho­bic or Islam­o­phobes but are decent, proud law abid­ing cit­i­zens of Britain who stand with us in con­demn­ing what is hap­pen­ing to our country.

A recent report into Islam­o­pho­bia in the UK has found that Mus­lim hate crime is most like­ly to be car­ried out by teenagers and that women are more like­ly to be attacked than men. This report was com­mis­sioned by Tell­Ma­ma and worked on by the late MP Jo Cox.

It is against the back­drop of ris­ing racism, xeno­pho­bia and Islam­o­pho­bia we had one of the most vile polit­i­cal cam­paigns in this coun­try large­ly focus­ing on immi­gra­tion. The after­math of a cam­paign scarred by big­otry seems to have sent a mes­sage that it’s OK to be racist in Britain.

Wifaqul Ula­ma had spec­u­lat­ed that it wasn’t just the choice on offer in the Ref­er­en­dum but those back­ing those choic­es should also need to be con­sid­ered.  Brex­it in addi­tion to hav­ing the eco­nom­ic con­se­quences and reper­cus­sions has brought back the ugly days of racism, xeno­pho­bia and Islam­o­pho­bia which we thought were behind us. We have been try­ing to cat­a­logue these attacks and raise aware­ness on the Social Media. Yes­ter­day in Wal­sall, ‘flam­ing liq­uid’ was thrown at an employ­ee of a Halal Butch­ers. While the coun­try is in finan­cial tur­moil, the Prime Min­is­ter has resigned Jere­my Cor­byn is fight­ing to sur­vive and a 57% rise in racist attacks by a minor­i­ty of cit­i­zens of this coun­try is unac­cept­able. We wel­come the move to place Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police on height­ened alert. How­ev­er, more needs to be done by those in the cor­ri­dors of pow­er to reverse the ris­ing tide of these attacks post Brex­it. Britain has worked hard to put the days of 1960s and 1970s behind us, we don’t wish to return to those ugly days. UN High Com­mis­sion­er for Human Rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hus­sein has also urged British author­i­ties to act to stop ris­ing “xeno­pho­bic attacks” fol­low­ing the Brex­it referendum.

Wifaqul Ula­ma is alarmed because this racist rhetoric is spread­ing to our Schools. Our chil­dren need to be pro­tect­ed from hatred spread­ing across their play­grounds. We urge all to write to their MP and ask them to take deci­sive action in com­bat­ing racism, xeno­pho­bia and Islam­o­pho­bia, post Brex­it.

1. Write a letter.
2. Read it and get it proofread.
3. Read this arti­cle and watch the video
4. Copy your let­ter (or copy it from Sam­ple Text to MP: Urgent Action on Racism).
5. Click on this link, enter your post­code and click “Go”
6. Paste your let­ter into the text, com­plete the rest with your name and con­tact details.
7. Click “Pre­view and Send”
8. Check that every­thing is correct.
9. Click on “I am hap­py, send it”.

Sample Text to MP: Urgent Action on Racism

I am writ­ing to you because I am deeply con­cerned by the racist attacks on cit­i­zens of our coun­try. Let me begin by stat­ing that the major­i­ty of the British cit­i­zens exer­cised their right to express their wish­es that Unit­ed King­dom should no longer be part of EU. The wish­es of the major­i­ty should be respect­ed. I firm­ly believe that a major­i­ty of those vot­ing for Brex­it are nei­ther racist nor xeno­pho­bic or Islam­o­phobes but are decent, proud law abid­ing cit­i­zens of Britain who stand with me in con­demn­ing what is hap­pen­ing in our country.

I am alarmed because racist rhetoric is spread­ing to our Schools. Our chil­dren need to be pro­tect­ed from hatred spread­ing across their playgrounds.

I sub­scribe to the demo­c­ra­t­ic right of my fel­low cit­i­zens in deter­min­ing the future of our coun­try. I myself exer­cised my right in the EU ref­er­en­dum. How­ev­er, I was dis­mayed by the tox­ic cam­paign run before the ref­er­en­dum. Pre­dictably, it has fuelled a rise in vile rhetoric and phys­i­cal attacks on the cit­i­zens of this country.

I, along with major­i­ty of decent cit­i­zens of this coun­try am appalled by the cir­cum­stances. I urge you to do every­thing in your pow­er to ensure that the poi­so­nous rhetoric fuelling these attacks and the attacks them­selves are stopped, immediately.

We are a decent coun­try and we have made a lot of progress over the years. Britain should remain a shin­ing exam­ple and a bea­con of hope in race rela­tions for the rest of the world.

When this issue is raised in the Par­lia­ment, I express my wish for you to con­vey my posi­tion to the mem­bers of Par­lia­ment. I also wish for you to con­vey my posi­tion to the Home sec­re­tary, The Right Hon­ourable There­sa May.

Thank You