University News Last updated 27 September 2013
The expertise of a Birmingham City University criminologist has been called upon by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, to help tackle issues relating to anti-Muslim prejudice.
Imran Awan attended the House of Commons earlier this month, to speak on key issues at the 'Victims of Anti-Muslim Hate' hearing.
Incidences like the Woolwich attack in May 2013 and the recent al-Qaeda linked terror siege in Kenya, have led to a heightened atmosphere for British Muslims who are fearful of reprisal attacks against them – according to terrorism and policing expert Imran Awan.
Imran highlighted that although 'street level Islamophobia' remains an important area of investigation, more needs to be done to give the same level of attention and resources towards the worrying rise in online anti-Muslim abuse.
Imran Awan, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Birmingham City University said: "This report aims to shed light on the often ignored but equally important subject of online Islamophobia. As a society we must look at long-term engagement regarding the issue of cyber-hate, otherwise we risk seeing online anti-Muslim hate continuing to spread."
The regulation of the online world recently came under fire following the death of school girl, Hannah Smith, who committed suicide after being a victim of cyberbullying on the chat forum Ask.fm.
The report explained that although the victims of online anti-Muslim abuse often remain less visible, with them believing reporting incidences will not have much effect, the impact of the abuse remains real – both emotionally and psychologically.
Imran believes that it's important that the government examines and looks deeper into the causes of cyber hate, in order to help find solutions to this problem. The academic argues that if the government, and society as whole, do not begin to challenge this type of online behaviour, we are at risk of damaging the UK Government's social cohesion strategy.
This report has been acknowledged and shared by government-backed group Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks (MAMA). Imran has also agreed to provide ongoing support to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia and will be attending future meetings looking at the online aspect of Islamophobia.
Imran Awan is an expert in the areas of policing Muslim communities, the impact of counter-terrorism policies and the emergence of online anti-Muslim hate. His work has made a significant contribution towards criminological, social policy and socio-legal discourse; with regards to Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate. Imran's latest co-edited book 'Extremism, Counter-Terrorism and Policing' was published by Ashgate in August 2013.