Dear Members of Parliament – Here’s what we need from you this Eid ul Adha

Dear Members of Parliament,

Eid ul Adha is coming up. It is a major festival for Muslims and we know you’ll be preparing your Happy Eid social media messages as you and your communications teams do for every major festival. You’ll say you recognise the “valuable contributions made by Muslim communities” or that “we all benefit from a strong, diverse and modern society, where people of every race and faith are valued”. We appreciate the effort and the recognition of Muslims as a valued part of the electorate but your efforts to meet the needs of your Muslim constituents needs to go beyond platitudes and acknowledgment of our festivals. 

So, after the Eid Mubarak messages are out, here’s what we really need from you:

• Block, in whatever way you can, the passing of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill. We require all MPs to provide robust opposition to a draconian bill that will deepen and further normalise discrimination against marginalised communities in the UK criminal justice system and in wider society. The PCSC bill threatens all of our civil liberties and will criminalise the right to protest. It will increase stop and search powers that already discriminate heavily against Black people and other racialised groups including Muslims. The bill directly attacks Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and will enforce homelessness through a crackdown on trespassing. We expect you to work collaboratively with those who want to see our civil liberties protected, including human rights experts, campaigners, and anti-racist activists. 
  
  

• End Prevent now. We need you to challenge the normalisation of state surveillance in the education, healthcare, immigration sectors especially. All these sectors should provide holistic services for people seeking support. Instead, the Prevent duty cultivates an atmosphere of distrust and actively harms our communities. It casts suspicion on young Muslims especially, and it curbs our civil liberties. It is a fundamentally flawed strategy that damages all marginalised communities and public-facing professions.
  
  
• Prioritise disabled people in all matters related to Coronavirus and the UK’s economic recovery. We need you to address the harmful culture and processes at the Department of Work and Pensions which has caused immeasurable stress, anxiety and worsened the health of people seeking support before and during the Coronavirus pandemic. The DWP will continue to directly harm disabled people including disabled Muslims unless you challenge it. We need you to prioritise disabled people’s safety and quality of life as the pandemic restrictions are lifted. We demand that lifts on restrictions prioritise the needs of people who are at increased risk of illness and death from Coronavirus. We need you to ensure a culture in this country that values disabled people, that values human life over profit.

The PCSC bill, The Prevent Duty and the response to the Coronavirus all impact the Muslim communities you address in your Eid messages. They impact the communities that are part of us and those we stand in solidarity with. They impact Black and brown people, disabled people, LGBT+ communities, communities of faith, sex workers, people with greater mental health needs, migrants, refugees and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. We urge you to back up your well wishes with immediate action. 

Inclusive Mosque Initiative

Resources

Disability, Coronavirus and the Department for Work and Pensions

• ‘Degrading’ disability benefits assessments leave people ‘in physical pain’
• DWP policy of cold-calling disabled people over benefit claims to end
• Pandemic failings left disabled women feeling ‘abandoned, unworthy and disposable’

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

• The impact of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill on Muslims
• Kill The Bill Coalition Statement
• What is in the bill that’s sparked all these protests?
• How to campaign against the new Policing Bill

The Prevent Duty

• End Prevent – creative campaign by Maslaha and Lung Theatre
• Inclusive Mosque Condemns William Shawcross Appointment to Prevent Strategy Review
• How I tried to resist the harmful Prevent policy
• Standing Together Against Prevent
• False Positives: the Prevent counter-extremism policy in healthcare

• Activism
• Raise Your Gaze