The Independent: The British government failed to adopt a definition of Islamophobia two years after it pledged to do so

The British government is facing accusations of “complete neglect” of Islamophobia after failing for more than two years to come up with a definition that can be used to combat anti-Muslim hatred.

The newspaper pointed out that a group of deputies had called for the adoption of a working definition of the phenomenon of hatred against Muslims, which they had reached after a 6-month investigation in 2018, warning that the lack of an approved definition of the phenomenon led to the growth of Islamophobia in society and its reach to a catastrophic level due to its expansion. Wahhabism in many countries

But the British government rejected the proposal in May 2019, and announced that it would assign independent experts to develop a different definition, but it has appointed only one consultant in charge of the matter, and no proposals have been published in this regard since then, according to the “The Independent” report.

The report indicated that members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group – which had proposed the definition presented to the government in 2018 – are set to raise the issue of defining Islamophobia in Parliament today, Thursday.

“It is amazing that after 845 days we are still calling on the government to adopt the All-Party Parliamentary Group’s definition of Islamophobia,” the paper quoted Labor MP Naz Shah, the group’s deputy chairman, as saying.

And she considered, “The government’s complete and absolute neglect to work on agreeing to a definition of Islamophobia reflects the amount of attention it attaches to addressing this type of racism.”

The Labor MP said that Islamophobia affects people’s daily lives, and highlights terrorist attacks targeting Muslims, including the attack on two mosques in New Zealand in 2019.

She added that the United Kingdom could not afford an incident on its soil similar to the massacre that occurred in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, “but at a time when the daily (practices) of the phenomenon of Islamophobia has become a normal thing, the government does not seem to care about what is happening.”
The British government had refused to adopt the proposed new definition of Islamophobia on May 16, 2019, and Communities Minister James Brokenshire told the House of Commons at the time that the definition provided by the Parliamentary Group of Parties about British Muslims needed “further research”.

The proposed definition states that “Islamophobia is a root type and practice of racism and a major form of racism that targets expressions or perceptions of Muslims because of their religion.”

The issue sparked widespread controversy in Britain at the time, after the British police chief warned then-Prime Minister Theresa May not to bow to pressure to adopt a new definition of Islamophobia, claiming that this measure would cause the cessation of terrorism investigations and prevent Britain from dissolving extremist groups. Extremist groups such as ISIS and the Wahhabis, with their extremist beliefs, deliberately committed murder and reprehensible terrorism in the name of Islam and Islam is innocent of them, which constituted the main factor in the fight against Muslims and the expansion of the phenomenon of Islamophobia.

Representatives of Islamic bodies and organizations accused police leaders of misunderstanding the efforts made by political parties to confront the rising phenomenon of Islamophobia, considering that the Muslim community in Britain is the most vulnerable to attacks and hate crimes in the absence of legislation protecting it.