Until Eid Starts
(subject to change)
26 July 2016
The Muslim Council of Britain today welcomes Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s announcement of the Hate Crime Action Plan, launched today, which will assess the police response to hate crime, including work with schools to equip teachers and parents to challenge hatred and know how to report it.
The Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, Harun Khan, said, “This is a welcome initiative that will hopefully help tackle hate crime wherever it occurs, and assist in identifying the level of hate incidences that take place on communities across the UK. It is excellent that a key concern raised by Dame Louise Casey, after her extensive meetings with communities, is being followed up”.
He echoed Amber Rudd’s call on urging victims of hate crime to come forward so that the full scale of the challenge facing communities can be understood and tackled, and said, “It is important that victims of hate report their incident so this foul prejudice can be documented and the scale of the problem dealt with”.
In June, the MCB had called upon political and civic leaders to urgently come together and deal with the division that had ensued following the result of the European Referendum, and had compiled over 100 reported incidents of hate crimes that occurred immediately after the referendum results.
The Hate Crime Action Plan will incorporate a new assessment of the level of anti-Muslim, anti-semitic, homophobic, racist and other bullying in schools to inform further action to reduce levels of such bullying. Recent statistics from the National Police Chiefs Council have shown that young people were the victims of 10% of faith hate crime and 8% of race hate crime for the three week period between 16 June and 7 July 2016.
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Notes to Editors:
1. The Muslim Council of Britain is the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella body with over
500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques,
charities and schools.
2. Today places of worship can apply for funding to improve their security – Find out more: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/places-of-worship-security-funding-scheme
3. For further information please contact:
The Muslim Council of Britain
PO Box 57330
London
E1 2WJ
Tel: 0845 26 26 786
Fax: 0207 247 7079
[email protected]
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