Nearly half of Muslims living in Europe face racism and discrimination in their daily lives, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has said in a report.

The report Being Muslim in the EU, based on 2022 data, highlighted a sharp increase in anti-Muslim sentiment, with 47 percent of Muslim respondents reporting racial discrimination, up from 39 percent in 2016.

The survey shed light on the increasing challenges faced by Muslims across the EU, particularly in employment and housing.

“Muslims most often face discrimination when looking for work (39 percent) or in the workplace (35 percent),” it said.

It underscored that these issues have ripple effects in other areas, such as housing, education, and health care.

The report added that women who wear religious attire experience higher levels of racial discrimination than those who do not, particularly when looking for employment, and the rate has risen to 45 percent in 2022 from 31 percent in 2016, with young women aged 16-24 experiencing the highest incidence at 58 percent.

‘A worrying surge in racism’

Discrimination in the housing market has also surged, with 35 percent of respondents saying they were unable to rent or buy a house due to discrimination, a significant increase from 22 percent in 2016.

The report also highlights issues with law enforcement, with nearly half (49 percent) of those stopped by police believing they were subjected to racial profiling.

FRA Director Sirpa Rautio called the situation alarming, saying, “We are witnessing a worrying surge in racism and discrimination against Muslims in Europe.”

She attributed this to conflicts in the Middle East and “dehumanizing anti-Muslim rhetoric across the continent.”

“We need to ensure that everyone in the EU feels safe, included, and respected, regardless of their skin color, background, or religion,” Rautio added.

Source: TRT World

Souad is preparing to move to Algiers in a few months. The 45-year-old French-Algerian woman, a legal assistant living in Lyon, has chosen her parents’ country to start a new life with her 12-year-old son.

“The bad atmosphere in France is pushing me towards the exit a little,” she told Middle East Eye.

“Like all children of immigrants, I have always experienced racism and discrimination, but it was not on the same scale as today. It’s becoming relentless,” she added.

Souad said she no longer wanted to live “in a society that rejects” her.

“I’ve reached a point where I don’t find it normal anymore. I’m fed up.”

On social media, other Algerians born or raised in France, mostly young but sometimes elderly, both women and men, married or single, with children or not, are showing the same desire to cross the Mediterranean for a one-way trip.

They exchange ideas in Facebook groups such as “Make a successful hijra [migration, exile] to Algeria” or “Return to live in Algeria”, where, like Souad, they criticize the rise in racism and Islamophobia in France.

In February, the Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin indicated that anti-Muslim acts had increased by 30 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Out of the 242 acts recorded, more than half were committed in the last three months of 2023, the minister specified, seeing a link with the start of the Israeli war on Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October.

“When we were little and my father took us to Algeria for the holidays in El Kseur, near Bejaia [in Kabilya, 220 km east of Algiers], he never stopped praising the beauty of the country,” Bachir, a 33-year-old French-Algerian truck driver from the northern city of Roubaix, told MEE.

His father secretly nurtured the dream of acquiring a pied-a-terre where the family could all live forever, Bachir said. But his project never became reality. As a warehouse worker, he barely earned enough to meet their needs.

Today, Bachir has decided to take the plunge himself with his own family.

“I am taking exactly the same path as my father 40 years ago, but in the opposite direction,” he said jokingly, before pointing to a climate of hatred against foreigners and Muslims that makes France “unlivable”.

“I want my two daughters to grow up in a society that does not push them to the margins because of their name, their skin color and their religion,” he said.

“My wish is that we can, as a family, practice our faith freely, without being accused of being separatists and Salafists,” he added, in reference to a 2021 law pushed forward by President Emmanuel Macron to fight “Islamist separatism” and accused of being discriminatory against Muslims.

Boussad, a mathematics teacher in a Paris high school says: “I no longer feel at home in France. Despite my studies and my long career in teaching, I am constantly brought back to my origins… Racism has become uninhibited. It is unleashed all day long on television screens.”

Officially, there are no statistics about the number of French-Algerians who have chosen Algeria as their country of residence.

These “returns” can also seem marginal compared to the scale of the phenomenon of Algerian migration towards Europe.

Source: The Middle East Eye

This wasn’t a protest. This was supposed to be a standard general election declaration – where the most eye-catching thing you can usually hope to see is a glimpse of a candidate dressed as a bin or wearing a baked bean balaclava.

But it was the rise of a different kind of alternative candidate which caught the eye in Birmingham.

On a night Labour was cruising to victory nationally, huge Labour majorities in the second city were being slashed, and even overcome, by independents.

The scenes at the ICC were the culmination of six weeks of campaigning described as “gruesome” by Labour’s Yardley MP Jess Phillips.

There have been complaints to the police and claims of intimidation.

So what happened in Birmingham? Why did Labour struggle here while independent candidates thrived, and why is there so much anger?

In the run up to the election, political commentators – and I include myself – have probably been guilty of oversimplifying the issues in Birmingham, describing independents and Workers Party candidates in the city as campaigning on a “Gaza platform”.

That is true, but there are other, important reasons for the strong performance of those candidates.

Ayoub Khan was the big independent winner of the night, overturning a 22,000 Labour majority to become the independent MP for Perry Barr.

Speaking outside the House of Commons this week, he acknowledged that Gaza was the “prime factor” in his election.

But he also hit out at what he believes is the neglect of areas like Perry Barr.

He said: “There’s many issues in the Perry Barr constituency, stemming from homelessness to fly tipping, anti-social behavior.

“We have some of the highest levels of deprivation, cost of living. So I think all of those factors combined created a tsunami that resulted in my victory.”

And this is a message repeated by those living in ethnically diverse areas with large Muslim populations, overseen by Labour MPs and a Labour council. They feel taken for granted, ignored.

People here have lived under a Conservative government for 14 years, but some have had Labour MPs for decades – and a Labour-led council for 12 years. A council which recently hiked council tax by 10% and cut services.

In Perry Barr there’s a visual reminder of the council’s under-performance.

Land around the railway station remains undeveloped and flashy apartments, heralded as a legacy of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, remain empty.

While visiting the area I spoke with Roshan Dass, postmaster of Perry Barr post office.

He complains about the anti-social behavior in the area, his shop regularly visited by shoplifters. What appears to be drug dealing in the area comes to a halt as we turn on the camera for an interview.

Asked why people turned against the main parties at this election, he said: “They are frustrated – no jobs, benefits cut.”

He added: “Nothing has been done here, I’ve been here 43 years and I’ve never seen this area as bad as what it is now.”

And that feeling of under-representation is what appears to be at the heart of this election story: the rise of the alternative candidates, and the anger surrounding it.

Jody McIntyre narrowly lost to Jess Phillips in Birmingham Yardley but plans to carry on being a voice for communities he says are not represented by the mainstream parties.

He described the Conservatives and Labour as “two sides of the same coin” and added: “There’s something really particular to Birmingham that on a local level, as well as a parliamentary level, Labour are really failing communities here.”

Speaking after holding onto her seat, Jess Phillips defended Labour.

She said: “The fact of the matter is my constituents will be way better off under a Labour government… but we have to prove that.”

She also hit out at the nature of the campaign: “It’s been one of the worst election campaigns I’ve ever stood in.”

Both Jess Phillips and the outgoing Labour MP for Perry Barr, Khalid Mahmood, made complaints to West Midlands Police during the campaign.

A campaigner’s tires being slashed and intimidation at polling stations are among the claims, although no arrests or charges have been made.

A statement from the force said: “Our officers are aware of a number of incidents leading up to the election where people have reported criminal damage and harassment, and we are carrying out enquiries to identify those responsible.”

Both Ayoub Khan and Jody McIntyre have denied their campaigners have overstepped the line and both condemned any criminal conduct.

Mr McIntyre has also claimed he was the victim of online abuse which mocked his disability during the campaign.

Asked if the legacy of this election was division, Jody McIntyre said: “I believe that we had a unifying campaign that engaged all sections of the community and will continue to engage even more people.

“Political issues will cause division. Because people have different opinions. There’s nothing wrong with division so long as it doesn’t lead to abuse or personal mudslinging.”

It’s a little under two years until the next local council elections in Birmingham. But, based on the general election, it looks as if the alternative candidates will have a significant influence on Birmingham’s politics for some time to come.

Source: BBC

The inaugural edition of the Muslim International Film Festival (MIFF) was held from May 30th to June 2nd in London’s Leicester Square with the gala screening of Naqqash Khalid’s directorial debut ‘In Camera‘ on the closing night.

During the event, winners were announced for Best Film and Best Short. Ten feature films were up for consideration and were judged by a festival jury.

The jury was made up of Claudia Yusef (Head of Development at BBC Films), Leon Oteng (Production Inclusion Manager at BFI Filmmaking Fund), Neila Butt (Creative Diversity Lead, Nations and Regions at Channel 4), Tas Brooker (filmmaker, When We Speak), Youssef Kerkour (BAFTA nominated actor for Channel 4’s Home).

In the competition were Khalid’s sharp showbiz satire, Kamal Lazraq’s ‘Hounds’, Selman Nacar’s ‘Hesitation Wound’, Moin Hussain’s ‘Sky Peals’, Mohamed Kordofani’s ‘Goodbye Julia’, Behrooz Karamizade’s ‘Empty Nets’, Mohamed Ben Attia’s ‘Behind the Mountain‘, and Amjad Al Rasheed’s ‘Inshallah A Boy‘.

‘Inshallah A Boy’ takes Best Film at MIFF

In the end, ‘Inshallah A Boy’ was awarded Best Film. The Jordanian drama about a newly widowed woman and her daughter facing eviction from their home because of patriarchal inheritance laws is a worthy winner.

It has earned similar acclaim at film festivals including Red Sea International, Bengaluru, Thessaloniki, and Cannes – the first Jordanian film ever to be invited to premiere on the Croisette – as well as the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Al Rasheed said he was honored to collect the award at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on Sunday night and is one of the X feature directorial debuts screened during the festival.

This above-average number highlights MIFF’s commitment to showcasing the filmmaking prowess of emerging talent from the Muslim world and/or filmmakers writing about it.

Yet, the absence of female directors in this curated selection seems a rather glaring oversight, especially considering the inclusion of a few standout features centered on female perspectives.

Women’s journeys in Muslim cinema

As well as ‘Inshallah A Boy’, Kordofani’s ‘Goodbye Julia’ is a powerfully intimate portrait of two Sudanese women and the racism, ethnocentrism and religious differences that compounded the political, social and economic tensions leading to the secession of Southern Sudan in 2011.

Given current events, ‘Goodbye Julia’ is a sensitive and nuanced entry point into the Sudanese conflict that has claimed far too many lives and displaced far too many people.

By centering women (played evocatively by Eiman Yousif and Siran Riak), as with ‘Inshallah A Boy’, these films also expose how often patriarchal structures are weaponized to suppress, subordinate and oppress the female populace.

The winner of Best Short similarly highlights this struggle. ‘Yellow‘, written, directed by, and starring Elham Elhas, tells the story of a young Afghan woman, played by Afsaneh Dehrouyeh, as she buys her first chadari (full-body veil) in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

While the film maintains a light, playful touch, the oppressive nature of the militant regime is always looming beneath the surface.

Elsewhere, Asena Nour’s ‘See You in the Dark‘ – one of the few shorts written and directed by a woman – grapples with the ominous threat of an Internet troll as a London-based artist seeks to confront the man who sexually assaulted her on the opening night of her exhibition.

Steeped in rage and pain, the semi-autobiographical film is a potent and personal examination of the casual infliction of misogyny and rape culture on women.

It’s a strong example of how the festival is willing to challenge and expand our understanding of stories from the Muslim world.

Empowering diverse voices through cinema

The program is not simply seeking to pedestal Muslims and put them in an uncritical spotlight; rather it wants to showcase the diversity of human experiences that exist within the Muslim faith and champion those who come from it to tell big-screen stories.

“I have been lucky to travel, collaborate with the most extraordinary people, create work which I hope will stand the test of time, films which have moved and engaged with people around the world,” said British filmmaker Asif Kapadia as he collected the Trailblazer award.

Outsiders have been a recurring theme in the award-winning writer-director’s work, which includes ‘The Warrior’, ‘Senna‘, ‘Amy’, and ‘Maradona’.

“Those who may not conform or fit into the power systems around them,” he added.

“Becoming a film director, a writer, producer or indeed working on the crew in the film industry, isn’t an obvious or simple choice for someone born in Hackney to working-class British Indian Muslim parents during the 70s. But I feel lucky that I found filmmaking – it changed my life.”

Cinema certainly has the power to change lives and perspectives and MIFF has been a golden opportunity to recalibrate the celluloid image of Muslims after decades of Western marginalization.

With submissions already open for the second instalment of the festival next year, here’s hoping it makes more space for female filmmakers to showcase their feature-length efforts to reflect the vastness of Muslim communities and cultures – and give London audiences an even better chance to empathize with them.

Source: The New Arab