WHEN it became clear Donald Trump would not be serving another term as President of the United States, there were many Muslims who breathed a collective sigh of relief.
They are relieved the architect of the travel ban that targeted mainly Muslim countries in 2017, and someone accused of openly stoking racial tensions throughout his tenure has seen his position of power stripped away.
One person glad to see the end of the Trump era is Mancyia Uddin, a Muslim Labour councillor who represents Windle on St Helens Borough Council.
READ > Auditor warns St Helens Council not to use reserves to plug £20m funding gap
“I think that I speak for many when I say that I feel relieved that he’s gone now,” Cllr Uddin said.
“If I lived in America and he was my President, I would be very worried about the consequences and very worried about the actions that he has legitimised.
“If I did wear a hijab and I went out I would be very fearful. Even just going out without a hijab, the way he has dehumanised and demonised Muslims, it’s just absolutely absurd.
“But it’s nothing new, which is the sad thing, he’s just done it from such a position of power.
“So I’m relieved that he’s gone.”
Today (Sunday) marks the last day of Islamophobia Awareness Month.
The annual campaign was co-founded by MEND (Muslim Engagement and Development) in 2012 to deconstruct and challenge the stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.
Islamophobia is defined as: a prejudice, aversion, hostility, or hatred towards Muslims and encompasses any distinction, exclusion, restriction, discrimination, or preference against Muslims that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
If that sounds like it’s not exactly straightforward, that’s because it isn’t.
Cllr Uddin explains: “The thing with Islamophobia is, it’s so subtle and is usually intertwined with race, making it difficult to comprehend.
“I don’t know if people are doing this because I’m brown, because I’m Muslim, or because I’m a woman. You don’t know which aspect their picking up on.
“There are debates, especially in academia, of whether Islamophobia is racism or prejudice.
“For me, Islamophobia is racism as it’s always intertwined with race.”
A daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, Cllr Uddin, 25, has been in St Helens her entire life, along with her two sisters, and attended Cowley school.
Growing up she encountered racial slurs, although she said that the treatment was often far worse for friends with darker skin tones.
Cllr Uddin has a first-class degree in international politics from Manchester Metropolitan University, and was elected on to the council in 2018.
In 2019 she awarded a distinction in masters in human rights law and political science from the University of Manchester.
For her dissertation, Cllr Uddin wrote about gendered aspects of Islamophobia, exploring how Muslim women are often disproportionately affected by discrimination.
Often, this is experienced by Muslim women who have chosen to wear a headscarf to cover their head and hair, or a burka or niqab, which also covers up their face.
Cllr Uddin does not wear usually wear a headscarf in public, except for when she visits the Mosque, but says she has witnessed first-hand the way Muslim women who choose to wear a hijab are treated by others.
“Some of my family do wear a hijab and when they come here, I do notice the difference in the treatment I get when I’m with them,” Cllr Uddin said.
“It’s not overtly racist, people are just more rude.
“I’m like, have I just come out on a rude day, or is it because I’m with my Auntie who’s wearing a headscarf?”
Cllr Uddin believes the rhetoric of people in positions of power has played a role in legitimising this kind of discriminatory behaviour.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused of stoking Islamophobia in 2018 when he compared Muslim women wearing burkas to “letter boxes”, in a now infamous column in the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Johnson, who was a back-bench MP at the time, said he did not support a ban on headscarves, but said it was "absolutely ridiculous” people choose to wear them.
Mohammed Amin, the Conservative Muslim Forum, said the article would “whip up hatred of women who wear the niqab and burka”.
In the week following former Foreign Secretary’s comments, reports of Islamophobic incidents rose by 375 per cent.
“If Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister, is making those comments, that legitimises harassment,” Cllr Uddin said.
“Rhetoric is so powerful. For so many years we’ve been told that Muslims are the other.
“We’re incompatible with Western values, and if you keep doing that it will result in physical hate crime, which it does.
“It doesn’t become Islamophobic overnight, it’s a very, very long process.”
Locally, reports of hate crime incidents have been rising for a number of years.
In the first half of the year, 177 hate crime incidents have been reported to agencies in St Helens, an increase of 21 on the same period in 2019-20.
The majority of reported hate crime incidents were racial in nature.
Racism is not just seen on our streets, but there are also claims it exists within our political institutions.
Earlier this month, a report commissioned and conducted by the Labour Muslim Network (LMN) uncovered some worrying findings within the party.
It surveyed Labour’s Muslim members and supporters and found that 37 per cent had witnessed Islamophobia within the party, while 44 per cent said they did not believe it takes the issue seriously.
The report also found that more than 55 per cent of Labour’s Muslim members do not believe the leadership of the party is able to deal with Islamophobia.
Cllr Uddin said it was “disheartening” to read the findings.
“I think it would be silly to think that any political party is completely free of racism,” she said.
“Of course it isn’t, and the Labour Party does have to work, as it has on other forms of discrimination in the party, to continue to tackle Islamophobia and make Muslim members feel safe, heard and valued.
“It’s disheartening to read, and we know what people go through. It’s sad to hear that they feel like that their complaints aren’t getting taken seriously.
“We saw it with the anti-Semitism stuff as well.
“We are not free of racism and I don’t think any political party is free of racism.”
Within the Muslim community itself, there is also much work to do in educating people on this issue.
This is why Cllr Uddin believes Islamophobia Awareness Month is so vital.
Cllr Uddin said: “Some would argue that it’s just a made-up term so Muslims can just moan about things, but it’s very real. It has very real consequences.
READ > St Helens Tory leader would have preferred to stay in Tier 3
“It has extremely real consequences for women who get harassed on the street. It’s really dehumanising to have a hijab taken off you.
“It is one of the highest reported hate crimes, and we need to spend time unpacking, understanding and highlighting the very significant impacts it can have on Muslims.
“It does have very real consequences. If we don’t spend some time to raise awareness about this, then what are we doing?”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article