As white supremacist riots and fascist attacks continue to take place across the UK in 2024, Another Europe Is Possible stands in solidarity with Muslims, migrants and people of colour on the frontlines of these attacks. This appalling wave of criminal violence was prompted by fascist networks circulating false information about the murder of three children in Stockport. In one example a Muslim migrant to the UK was falsely named as the perpetrator of these attacks.
While there have been many victims of this fascist wave of violence, including people of colour and migrants from all communities, they have a particularly strong Islamophobic impetus and agenda that must be recognised and called out. Another Europe has been monitoring Islamophobia and coordinating civil society groups engaged in anti-racism efforts across Europe in an on-going project that we launched in 2022. This work provides an evidence base that highlights how this wave of violence has not occurred in a vacuum.
Islamophobia exists across the political spectrum. It has been normalised in many societies, in Europe and beyond. Our research on Islamophobia in France, the UK, and Germany highlights how the rise of the far right is a transnational phenomenon and its roots are deeply embedded within ongoing structures and ideologies of European colonisation. This wave of Islamophobia has had particular implications for Muslim women. Our friends the Three Hijabis have in the last days launched a new campaign for the protection of Muslim women and the recognition of gendered Islamophobia.
It is vitally important that as we mobilise to isolate and turn back the fascist threat to our communities through unity, we recognise the context in which this violence has emerged.
This includes decades of racism and migrant bashing in our media. Progressive spaces have been far from immune to this mainstreaming of racism. In 2020, the Labour Muslim Network produced a hugely important report on Islamophobia in the party. Successive governments have undermined human rights and the rule of law. The last government’s Rwanda plan was the most comprehensive and sustained attack on the right to asylum in the UK ever seen.
There is also the specific role that social media barons such as Elon Musk have played in reopening these platforms to the far right, facilitating and even acting as apologists for the current wave of violence. None of this is unrelated to the terrible economic state of the UK. Years of privatisation and austerity have undermined public services and neglected the basic needs of the multiracial working class.
Above all, Another Europe Is Possible was founded to fight the politics of Nigel Farage and Brexit. Farage played a key role in igniting the conspiracy theories driving this violent wave of attacks. The toxic mix of racism, Islamophobia and austerity that drove the Leave campaign have created the environment for this emergence of fascist street violence.
As history shows, fascism especially targets minoritised communities, but it is dangerous and deadly for all of us. It must be swiftly defeated. It is now an urgent priority to organise and mobilise in defence of our communities. Here are some of the things that you can do to play your part in defending our democracy and communities from the fascist threat:
- Defend our communities. Support national days of mobilisation e.g. by Stand Up to Racism and Black Lives Matter to protect mosques, immigration support centres, and asylum seeker accommodation.
- Campaign for political change. Pressure your MP to speak out and take action against Islamophobia. In opposition the Labour Party criticised the Conservative government for not adopting the APPG definition of Islamophobia. Now that it is in power Labour has to deliver on an action plan to address Islamophobia in all its forms including the mainstream. It is crucial that progressives in all parties and none unite in their rejection of the ‘legitimate concerns’ narrative: these riots are driven by racism, pure and simple.
- Push for media and digital reform. The government should tackle the media barons by committing now to Leveson 2 combined with new legislation to tackle the social media platforms enabling the spread of false information by fascist networks.
7th August 2024