Leicester has around 61,440 Muslims making it the 11th largest Muslim hub in the UK. On Friday 24 & Saturday 25th October a small group from iERA headed by Leicester resident Yusuf Chambers took to streets to try and understand peoples perception of Racism and Islamophobia. Starting from Welford Road Mosque, the first step was to inspire and motive the local Muslim community to engage more openly with other Leicester residents. A rousing friday sermon and series of reminders after the evening prayers set the tone for the weekend to come. The following day, a number of worshippers attended a dawah training course delivered by Sultan Abdul-Malik including some racism survey training. The first stop was to practically share the message of Islam with the neighbours of the Masjid. Over 100 houses in the vicinity of the Masjid were visited and educational materials about Islam were dropped off to invite them to find out more about a way of life practiced by over 1.6 billion people. After that, the group of locals and team from iERA went to Leicester City Centre to survey the people on their views on racism and Islamophobia. One of the main findings was that Muslims are very insular according to the respondents and that they don’t engage enough with the wider community. The final question of the survey asked if they wanted to find out more about Islam’s view on racism which nearly all respondents said yes to leading to positive dialogue about Islam, its beliefs and practices. Following on from this outreach activity, the results of the survey will be used to both help foster better community relations in Leicester and also as part of iERA’s nationwide ‘Against Racism – Against Hatred’ campaign to better understand the British public’s perception of racism and Islamophobia. To find out more about this campaign and how to bring it to your city, email [email protected].
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 11:18:59 +0000