Inside Out West: secret filming exposes apparent prejudice against Muslims in major UK city Monday, 28 October 2013 14:32 E-mail Print PDF BBC Employers and landlords are seemingly discriminating against people because they are Muslim, a BBC undercover investigation has revealed. Two reporters posed both as potential employees and letting tenants in Bristol for the investigation for BBC Ones Inside Out West on Monday 28 October at 7.30pm. With young Muslim men twice* as likely to be unemployed than their non-Muslim counterparts they wanted to find out if there is an anti-Muslim bias in our midst. What the two-week investigation reveals is a stark difference in how they are treated. The secret filming shows the Muslim reporter being told jobs had already been taken and denied flats he had been promised first in favour of his non-Muslim counterpart. The Inside Out West team scoured all corners of Bristol for job vacancies advertised in shop windows as apply within. Both undercover reporters were of similar age, background, of white ethnicity and presented equivalent CVs – the only difference being that one is a Muslim. To make his faith clear the Muslim reporter, Zoltan, uses the name Mohammad and wears Islamic dress. At a fast food outlet Zoltan is told to leave his CV. Five minutes later his fellow reporter Ian is given an application form and told to fill it in straight away. Something similar appears to happen at one of the Citys cafés. Zoltan is told they are only collecting CVs at the moment while Ian is immediately offered a trial shift. When the café manager spots Zoltan through the cafés window he says to Ian: See that guy in the hat. Do not tell him Ive given you a trial shift on Saturday. If you bump into him in the street and he wants to talk to you do not tell him because hes just given me his CV and I told him that I wont be making a decision until next week. So dont tell him. The programme contacted the manager of the café who says he was not discriminating against Zoltan but that he had more in common with Ian than Zoltan and struck up a better rapport. At a branch of a well-known supermarket chain, both men are told to apply for jobs online. But it is a different story at another one of its stores. The secret filming shows what appears to be discrimination by staff. The undercover reporters both speak to the same member of staff who consults the manager at the store about jobs advertised. Ian, the non-Muslim reporter, walks away with an application form for a team leader role while Zoltan is told only five minutes earlier that there is nothing available until Christmas. Zoltan and Ian debate whether what they have just witnessed is down to individual behaviour rather than it being representative of the company. Inside Out has since contacted the supermarket. It has thanked the programme and is investigating the findings. In total the pair applied for 40 jobs across the city ranging from delivering newspapers to managing shops. Zoltan was successful in getting three interviews while Ian secured 13 interviews and was offered one job - over four times more. Its a similar story when they apply to rent flats in the city. In total they view 10 flats. Neither was successful for three of them but Ian was offered five flats despite Zoltan being promised them first. Zoltan only managed to secure two and, on one occasion, is called strange by a prospective landlord and lied to by another. One landlady, however, does stay true to her word and lets the flat to the Muslim reporter because she had promised it to him first. Zoltan reflects on his experience. He says: I feel its an important discussion thats not really been had yet. Racism exists, its there, its a problem but its spoken about. This is not racism but its important and we need to start talking about this. Because of the way Muslims are portrayed in the media, unfortunately this has led to this undercurrent of discrimination and it needs to be opened up. We need to start speaking about it because if we keep quite its just going to embed further and become worse. The programme speaks to Professor Tariq Modood, a social scientist at Bristol University. He believes anti-Muslim prejudice is becoming acceptable in mainstream society and is concerned about it. He says: If they cant get work they are more likely to be involved in drug dealing, gang behaviour and, of course, theyd be more likely to be recruited into nasty political causes. If you treat other people differently to how you expect to be treated yourself they will end up different. How can you ask people to integrate and then treat them negatively and exclude them from job opportunities or other opportunities? Youre really just sewing a division into the next generation and into the future. Inside Out West also shows its footage to the Muslim community in Bristol to gauge their reaction and speaks to Baroness Warsi, Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Minister for Faith and Communities, who says she is concerned that opportunities for some are being curbed because of the religion they appear to follow. The full report can be seen on Inside Out West on BBC One, Monday 28 October at 7.30pm. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer. Note to Editors Information contained in this press release, including quotes, which you use in your publication, online or for broadcast, require a credit for Inside Out (West), BBC One, Monday 28 October at 7.30pm. *Statistics obtained from the Office For National Statistics (ONS)
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 11:53:24 +0000
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