Muslims and Discrimination: Muslim-Consciousness in Re-Action?

Abstract

Before the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) was amalgamated into a larger body in 2007, its former chair Julie Mellor once insisted that ‘Britain’s equality laws are a mess. Inconsistent and incomplete, they offer different levels of protection for different groups and none at all for others’ (The Guardian, 16 May 2002). In coming to this view she was not alone. A decade has passed and numerous more legislation has been introduced since Hepple, Coussey and Choudhury (2000) calculated that a comprehensive picture of Britain’s anti-discrimination architecture would need to consult at least thirty Acts, thirty-eight Statutory Instruments, eleven Codes of Practice and twelve European Commission (EC) Directives and Recommendations. It is unsurprising then to learn that a variety of commentators and public policy analysts long concerned with the welfare of Britain’s ethnic, racial and religious minorities have each argued that the broad development of anti-discrimination legislation in the United Kingdom has been inconsistent (Parekh, 1990; Modood, 1992, 1994; CBMI, 1997, 2004; CMEB, 2000). That this is acutely and disproportionately felt by British Muslims in the levels of protection they are afforded, is a complaint frequently made by an increasing number of Muslim organisations (UKACIA, 1993; MCB, 1997; FAIR, 2002; IHRC, 2004a).

It’s difficult to say that there was a point that it was ok; the last fifteen years have been quite turbulent with the development of Islamophobia being quite distinct in that period. Not that it hasn’t existed before but it has been recognised at a time of a general crisis of confidence in the current legislation

Arzu Merali, Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), (Interviewed by Meer, 12 June 2006)