CHANGING THE CULTURE | Page 87

The Tell MAMA Annual Report 2015, The Geography of anti-Muslim hatred, sets out that for 2015 1,128 reports of anti-Muslim incidents were received from victims, witnesses and third-party organisations.115 437 of these incidents or crimes were classified as ‘offline’, referring to where they took place in person between victim (or property) and perpetrator, and this represents a 200% increase over the previous reporting period.116 364 incidents or crimes were classified as ‘online’, meaning they occurred on social media or other internetbased platforms. 61% of victims for whom details of gender have been recorded were female. 55% of all victims were visibly Muslim, but 75% of all female victims were visibly Muslim. Further to this, in a survey conducted in February 2015, almost one in five British Muslim women agreed that they ‘do not feel safe in Britain’ and 40% felt that most Britons do not trust Muslims.117 There is also evidence to suggest that anti-Muslim attacks against women are often misogynistic.118 Tell MAMA therefore found that anti-Muslim hate is gendered, with Muslim women more likely to be attacked than men in most settings. The data also suggests that white males represent the largest proportion of perpetrators. When looking at offline incidents reported to Tell MAMA each week during 2015, there are clear spikes immediately following significant international Islamic extremist events. This displays increased anti-Muslim feeling and emphasises the need for universities to remain aware of the impact such events may have on both their students and staff.119 The recorded data does not reveal how many incidents involved Muslim university students or how many took place on university campuses. It is therefore difficult to assess the scale of the problem in the UK higher education sector. However, the findings are still relevant to the higher education sector and provide useful insights for universities when considering both prevention and response. An awareness of this data may help to understand what the potential impact may be on the more localised university community. This in turn can enable institutions to take the appropriate steps to prevent incidents where possible and to ensure processes are in place to respond effectively should an anti-Muslim incident occur. For example, the Tell MAMA data suggests that within London, incidents frequently occur in areas with high access to public transport and close to major roads. Awareness of this is important for understanding how and when students may be affected. Wider stakeholder evidence UUK received input from UJS as part of the wider stakeholder engagement, in addition to the antisemitism roundtable. The types of incidents reported to UJS and Jewish societies range from comments and graffiti on campus, to lecturers making inappropriate comments, to acts amounting to the glorification of violence. UJS reports that in general, where ‘blatant antisemitism’ is involved, such as graffiti, posters or threats to individuals, both university leadership and campus security are supportive and Available at http://tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/tell_mama_2015_annual_report.pdf Previous reporting period was 12 months to March 2015. 117 p.17, Tell MAMA Annual Report 2015. 118 Ibid. p.18, 119 Ibid. p. 22 115 116 86