9|P age
3. EVIDENCING ISLAMOPHOBIA
Critics routinely argue that there is little evidence to substantiate the claims about the existence of Islamophobia and its prevalence. Such criticisms should not be rejected out of hand. There is – and indeed remains – a lack of quantitative data to substantiate the prevalence and voracity of Islamophobia. This needs to be addressed and it is something that the APPG should prioritise in terms of its future remit. This is not to state that Islamophobia does not exist: quite the contrary. It is merely to acknowledge that significantly more needs to be done to ensure that a more complete picture in terms of ‘numbers’ can be established.
Nonetheless, a significant body of qualitative evidence is available that for the past decade or so has shown that Islamophobia remains something very real in the lives of ordinary Muslims and seems to be increasing. Whilst it is not within the remit of this report to set out this evidence, incorporating a brief timeline – drawing primarily upon Governmental and policy-focused evidence – does provide a useful contextual framework within which the formation of the APPG in late 2010 can be better understood.
One of the reasons for the creation of the CBMI and the publication of its 1997 report, Islamophobia: a challenge for us all, was that in the preceding 20 years, commentators felt that anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic expression and attitudes had become “more explicit, more extreme and more dangerous…prevalent in all sections of society”5. It referred to this ‘more
5
Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, Islamophobia: a challenge for us all: report of the Runnymede Trust Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia (London: Runnymede Trust, 1997), 1.