Thread by @miqdaad

On @BBCr4today at 8:30am, I discussed Trevor Phillips' ongoing unfounded claims about Muslims that not only align with far-right Islamophobes but are used by far-right Islamophobes to justify their divisive hatefulness and targeting of Muslims.

Trevor Phillips publicly states that the placing of a Christian girl into Muslim foster care is "akin to child abuse".

He has not apologised for this article.

thesun.co.uk/news/4357747/t…

I wrote an article about his divisiveness after he fronted a documentary entitled: "What British Muslims *really* think" (because what we say, is not believable(?))

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Let's look at one of his false claims - that Muslims do not report terrorism. But the very poll he cited, showed Muslims report terrorism *more* than the rest of the public.

*Why* is this important? Because it reinforces the far-right idea of Muslims as a threat

He claims that Muslims have sympathy with terrorists.

But that's just not true. It's worse (using the misleading language in the poll) amongst the general populace.

ipsos.com/sites/default/…

In particular, note how Phillips' claim of an estimated 100,000 British Muslims admit having sympathy with suicide bombers fighting injustice, is just flawed.

Using that methodology, would mean, 600,000 non-Muslim Brits would have the same sympathy

blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/ethnicity/2016…

That Phillips treated Muslims differently from others (the very basis of claims of discrimination), is highlighted by Conservative commentator Peter Oborne

middleeasteye.net/opinion/double…

It is this very divisive notion that he propagates that "Muslims are not like us" which is hugely problematic.

See Kenan Malik's response here:
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Phillips told a meeting at the Policy Exchange think tank in Westminster that Muslims "see the world differently from the rest of us"

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3…

What Phillips consistently does is create a special category for Muslims - that we are uniquely bad (as set out above), but also as shown in this report below.

e.g. we are "resistant to the traditional process of integration"

civitas.org.uk/content/files/…

When railing against Muslim communities, he talks about "ghettoes" and how Muslims don't integrate.

The facts suggest:
(A) Muslims aren't unique in integration challenges
(B) Muslims are becoming less concentrated in certain areas
telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/1…

hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/cod…

When Muslims appear to consider media misrepresentation about Muslims as a key concern in the rise of Islamophobia, merely non-binding guidance by the press regulator Ipso, is considered outrageous and an attempt at stifling debate.

spectator.co.uk/article/the-no…

Phillips' attack on any concerns of Islamophobia, isn't limited to simple guidance on reporting.

For eg. he told the EHRC not to investigate Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, despite the huge scale of the problem already well catalogued.

https://twitter.com/miqdaad/status/1150130236354379776

Despite the huge scale of Islamophobia, he is one of the group who think that we hear about Islamophobia often enough....

We should not forget his desire to echo Enoch Powell when discussing immigration as he claimed Muslim groups in particular are actively “resistant to the traditional process of integration” threatening to shake the foundations of “liberal democracy” itself
telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/1…

His core message echoes that of far-right Islamophobes (e.g. Tommy Robinson) on Muslims being:
1. Apart from rest of society
2. Dangerous e.g. can't foster Christian girl
3. Uniquely unwilling to integrate
4. Unwilling to report terrorism / sympathy with terrorists
It's dangerous

I am not going to comment on the timing of the suspension, nor on the priority given to him over others.

But those who try and make out Trevor Phillips has *nothing* to answer for, are being either disingenuous, or don't care about what he says concerning Muslims.

Interesting to see the big proponents of Trevor Phillips.

And some more