According to a leaked draft copy of the Government’s new social cohesion strategy titled “Protecting What Matters”, the UK is to have a new “special representative” on matters of “anti-Muslim hostility” – essentially, an Islamophobia tsar. But will it ultimately do more harm than good?

The document states that the new anti-Muslim hate tsar will have the central responsibility of “tackling hostility and hatred directed at Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim”. The so-called special representative in this area will be expected to “engage with communities and stakeholders”, supporting cross-sector action to “strengthen understanding, reporting and response”.

The leaked document does make some encouraging, albeit well-known observations. It identifies Islamist extremism — which remains the principal terror threat in modern Britain — as the most serious threat to social cohesion. This is certainly the case when one considers the ideological composition of the intelligence community’s terror-related watchlist, prisoners with terror-related histories, and motivations behind terrorism-connected killings over the 21st century. As highlighted by Policy Exchange, there are some commendable proposals, such as the potential introduction of the ability to shut down extremist charities and suspend trustees, to “strengthen monitoring” of non-violent extremism in universities and to exclude hate preachers from the UK.

Perhaps to pre-empt accusations of anti-Muslim bias while spotlighting the threat of Islamism and its institutional reach, Labour has appointed an anti-Muslim hostility tsar. But there may be another motivation behind this appointment: Labour’s embarrassing defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election. British Muslim voters deserted Labour en masse, turning to the Green Party to punish their traditional party and block Reform UK. Labour now risks further backlash in the upcoming English local elections in Birmingham, Newham, Blackburn, and beyond.

However, the creation of a new anti-Muslim hostility tsar risks derailing the social cohesion strategy if the office-holder bends to pressure from tribal activists and identitarian groups — that would be a problem the proposed Social Cohesion Taskforce could face too. How will such a figure respond if asked about the disproportionately high levels of antisemitism within segregated Muslim communities? Or the over-representation of men of Pakistani Muslim heritage among prosecutions for group-localized child sexual exploitation (GLCSE)? In fact, if the person appointed features regularly in the media and is only too ready to categorize various phenomena and events as examples of “anti-Muslim hostility”, it may even be counterproductive in terms of achieving the other objectives included in the new cohesion strategy.

Considering that the new cohesion strategy is clear on Islamism being the UK’s most serious extremist threat, the overall strategy may have benefited from a new anti-Islamist tsar. This could be someone who has a proven track record of challenging unquestionable forms of anti-Muslim hatred and tackling extremism in British Muslim communities. Instead, by specifically creating an anti-Muslim hostility tsar at a time where Islamist extremism represents the most significant domestic and global terror threat, Labour — quite ironically — risks reinforcing public perceptions that Muslims are the beneficiaries of preferential treatment.

---

Dr Rakib Ehsan is a researcher specialising in British ethnic minority socio-political attitudes, with a particular focus on the effects of social integration and intergroup relations.

 

rakibehsan

---