IHRC and SACC held the third annual Islamophobia Conference entitled The Environment of Hate and the Police State on Saturday 3 December in Edinburgh with a parallel conference held in London at the P21 Gallery on Saturday 10 December.  Find links to the videos, reports and other material for both conferences here. 

Both conferences refocused the energies of activists and academics on the workings of anti-Muslim racism at societal and institutional levels that have resulted in the UK becoming a police state. The panels explored how education, the legal system and the PREVENT / Counter-terrorism regime create an environment of hate that facilitates the operation of a de facto Police State. In this state, citizens are either living in fear and self-censorship, or full and knowing complicity, or exceptionalist complacency or a combination of some or all of the aforesaid. Whilst the primary targets and victims of hateful discourse, discrimination and state and street violence are Muslims, everyone lives in this Environment and this State, and many minoritised communities now feel a resurgence of hatred and everyone is impacted negatively.

London speakers included: Gus John, Nisha Kapoor, David Miller, Arzu Merali, Rob Ferguson, Ramon Grosfoguel, Houria Bouteldja, Les Levidow

London Supporting organisations included: Lewisham Islamic Centre, Intifada Street, CAMPACC, SACC, Bandung2 Movement, Malcolm X Movement, NUS Black Students, Islamic Centre of England, Cambridge Stop the War.

Edinburgh Speakers included: Yvonne Ridley (journalist), Arzu Merali (IHRC), Mohammad N Asif (Afghan Human Rights Foundation), Tasneem Ali (Muslim Women’s Association of Edinburgh), Richard Haley (SACC), Faizah Shaheen (questioned by police after being reported reading a book about Syria on a plane), Pinar Aksu (campaigner for refugees), Ibrahim Mohamoud (Cage spokesperson), Kamran Siknder (teacher and representative of the EIS, Scotland’s biggest teaching union).

Edinburgh supporting organisations: MWAE (Muslim Women’s Association of Edinburgh), Edinburgh Stop the War Coalition, UAF Edinburgh and the Afghan Human Rights Foundation.