‘You all look the same’: Non-Muslim men who suffer Islamophobic hate crime in the post-Brexit era
| Author | Irene Zempi,Imran Awan |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370818812735 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
research-article2018
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2020, Vol. 17(5) 585 –602
‘You all look the same’:
© The Author(s) 2018
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Non-Muslim men who suffer
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370818812735
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Islamophobic hate crime in
the post-Brexit era
Imran Awan
Birmingham City University, UK
Irene Zempi
Nottingham Trent University, UK
Abstract
Existing research on Islamophobic hate crime has examined in detail the verbal, physical and
emotional attacks against Muslims. However, the experiences of non-Muslim men who suffer
Islamophobic hate crime because they look Muslim remain ‘invisible’ in both official statistics and
empirical research. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with 20 non-Muslim men based in
the United Kingdom, we examined their lived experiences of Islamophobic hate crime. Interviews
were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. A deductive approach to thematic analysis
was adopted to analyse participants’ narratives, and six overarching themes were developed:
(1) nature of Islamophobic hate crime; (2) triggers of Islamophobic hate crime; (3) impact of
Islamophobic hate crime; (4) reporting incidents, responses and barriers to Islamophobic hate;
(5) victims’ coping strategies; and (6) recommendations on tackling the problem. Our findings
show that participants experienced Islamophobic hate crime because of ‘trigger’ events, namely
the Brexit vote, Donald Trump’s presidency and ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in European
countries such as France, Germany, Sweden and the UK. Participants described being verbally
and physically attacked, threatened and harassed as well as their property being damaged. The
impacts upon victims included physical, emotional, psychological and economic damage. These
experiences were also damaging to community cohesion and led to polarization between different
communities in the UK.
Keywords
Brexit, Europe, hate crimes, Islamophobia, Trump
Corresponding author:
Imran Awan, School of Social Sciences, Birmingham City University, 4 Cardigan Street, Birmingham, B4
7BD, UK.
Email: imran.awan@bcu.ac.uk
586
European Journal of Criminology 17(5)
Introduction
Islamophobic hate crimes towards ‘visible’ Muslims have increased dramatically in Europe
following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the USA in 2001 (OSCE, 2016). In a post-9/11
climate, a particular anxiety towards Muslim ‘others’ has led to suspicion and outright
hostility towards Muslims in the West. Following the terrorist attacks on 7/7 in London in
2005, and, more recently, the Manchester and London terrorist attacks in May and June
2017, these anxieties have intensified. Muslims in the UK face significantly heightened
levels of religious and racial hatred, manifested as hate crimes and incidents. In this con-
text, the rhetoric surrounding Donald Trump’s presidency, Brexit and the rise of far-right
groups throughout Europe have promoted white supremacist ideologies, identities and
movements, which reflect Huntington’s (1997) ‘Clash of Civilizations’ thesis. This theory
posits that Islam and the West are two monoliths that are ‘at war’ with each other. The West
offers equality, rights, liberties and tolerance while ‘Islam’ offers gender oppression, sub-
ordination and violence. To this end, Islamophobic hate crimes have increased to a level
not seen since 9/11’s aftermath. For example, in Germany attacks against recently arrived
migrants, many of them refugees coming from predominantly Muslim countries (namely
Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq), have increased significantly: more than 3500 such attacks
occurred in 2016, compared with 1031 in 2015 (OSCE, 2016).
It is important to point out that, through forms of racialization, Islamophobia has led
to ‘Muslim-looking’ individuals also being the victims of this type of hate crime (Ahmad,
2004). Therefore, someone who may have a similar disposition to a Muslim (for exam-
ple, through appearance, ethnicity or race) is more likely to be seen as an ‘ideal’ target
for Islamophobic hate crimes because of their perceived Muslim identity. Importantly, as
our study shows, this can also include people who come from an Atheist, Christian,
Hindu or Sikh background. Parvaresh (2014: 1313) observes that ‘not only have Middle
Eastern Muslims been targeted, but so also have been non-Arabs, non-South Asian
Muslims, and non-Muslim Arabs and South Asians, leading all three groups to be racial-
ized into one’.’ In the USA, the effects of racialization and people being targeted for their
‘Muslim-looking’ appearance are not new. Although reported incidents of Hindus, Arab
Christians and Latinos being targeted are well documented, Islamophobic hate crimes
amongst American Sikh men who have continued to be victimized because of the simi-
larity between the Sikh turban and the Muslim cap are growing.
In the UK, although attacks against non-Muslim men may not have been well docu-
mented, this does not mean they do not occur. Through the lens of a political and cultural
threat, those communities who are mistaken for Muslims face a spike in hate crimes in
the UK, particularly in the wake of ‘trigger’ events such as ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks.
For example, in 2015 Zack Davies was sentenced to life imprisonment for attacking Dr
Sarandev Singh Bhambra with a claw hammer and a 30 cm-long machete. According to
Davies, the attack was for ‘Lee Rigby’ – the British soldier who was murdered by Islamist
extremists in May 2013. The fact that Bhambra was not Muslim is significant; he was
simply targeted because of his perceived identity of being Muslim. Bhambra’s brother
stated: ‘Sarandev was singled out because of the colour of his skin’ (Morris, 2015).
The body of Islamophobic hate crime scholarship has grown significantly over the
past decade (see, for example, Abbas, 2011; Allen, 2010; Zempi and Awan, 2016).
Awan and Zempi
587
However, what is missing from this literature is a focus on the experiences of non-Mus-
lim individuals who suffer Islamophobic hate crime because they look Muslim. In con-
trast to a growing scholarship on the nature of Islamophobic hate crime victimization,
there is surprisingly little research that considers the experiences of (non-Muslim) men
who suffer Islamophobic hate crime because they are perceived to be Muslim. Drawing
from qualitative data elicited through a UK-based study, this article aims to address this
gap in the literature. Specifically, we conducted 20 individual, semi-structured inter-
views with a diverse sample of non-Muslim men who have experienced Islamophobic
hate crime. Our study therefore advances the hate crime scholarship by examining the
experiences of ‘invisible’ victims of Islamophobic hate crime, that is, men who suffer
Islamophobic hate crime on the basis that they look Muslim.
Hate crime post Brexit
Hate crime is a social construct, which is culturally and historically situated. This is evi-
dent from the fact that there are different legal definitions across countries and jurisdic-
tions (Wickes et al., 2015). As Jacobs and Potter (1998: 27) point out, understanding the
prevalence of hate crime (and the development of appropriate responses to its occur-
rence) depends on ‘how hate crime is conceptualized and defined’. By and large, the
consensus view tends to be that hate crimes are criminal acts that are motivated by the
offender’s bias, prejudice and/or ‘hate’ towards the victim’s identity. In the British con-
text, legislation is centred around the five monitored strands of identity, namely: disabil-
ity, race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender status (College of Policing, 2014).
That said, it is important to note that the social construction of crime has multiple
variations, in contrast to a statutory perspective of crime, which is often seen through the
lens of the mens rea, that is, ‘the criminal intention and responsibility’ to the actus reus,
‘the wrongdoing and actual physical aspects of a crime’. Although the legal aspect looks
at crime in a linear process, the social construction of crime uses the notion of deviance
and cultural perspectives. The problem with both these competing areas is that crime
cannot ever be socially constructed without an application of the legal interpretation of
crime. Crime therefore should be viewed in the paradigm of power and society (Foucault,
1977). Within the statutory construct of crime, crime is therefore viewed on the basis of
evidential proofs and the interpretation of legal decision-making (Walklate, 2002).
In the UK, hate crime legislation combines a range of penalty-enhancement provi-
sions and offences. For example, the Public Order Act 1986 and the Crime and Disorder
Act 1998 create offences especially relating to stirring up racial hatred and racially
aggravated offences that relate to assault and harassment. Moreover, the combined nature
of offences relates back to the five monitored strands of hate crime, that is, race, religion,
gender identity, sexual and disability hate. The UK also adopts the use of victimization
surveys in order to measure hate crimes that go unreported. Harassment can include
verbal abuse, threats, stalking, online abuse and bullying. It is a criminal offence under
the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and a person can take civil action in the civil
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