November marks Islamophobia Awareness month (IAM) for 2024, a month to recognise and celebrate the positive contributions of Muslims and raise awareness of how prevalent Islamophobia has become in our society. The month-long campaign, founded in 2012 by a group of Muslim organisations aims to see the IAM Campaign widely recognised and supported every year. They want to see a society that is understanding, inclusive, and free from Islamophobia in all its forms.

The goal of this year's campaign, #SeedsOfChange is to emphasise the importance of how small actions contribute to big change.

What is Islamophobia?

Islamophobia is more than just verbal and physical attacks; it is rooted in racism and has become a normalised part of everyday life for Muslims all over the world. Islamophobia can take form in discrimination, stereotyping, exclusion and marginalisation.

Islamophobia in Higher Education

In the 2019/20 academic year, there were over 200,000 Muslim students at UK universities – making up 8.7% of the student population. Muslim students have many positive, enjoyable experiences of higher education. However, research indicates that Islamophobia is present at UK universities, and affects large numbers of Muslim students .

• In higher education, young Muslims are more likely to drop out early or to gain fewer ‘good degrees’ (1st or 2:1s) than their non-Muslim peers.
• For almost a quarter of the Muslim students in a 2023 study, their experience of an Islamophobic hate incident involved verbal abuse, name calling or derogatory slurs. As they explained, expletive-laden variations on ‘terrorist’ or ‘extremist’ were the most common.
• Both male and female students spoke about how they felt the need to change their behaviours when in the learning and teaching spaces, due to lecturers or fellow students making disparaging or stereotypical comments about Muslims or the religion of Islam.
• Across the UK, over 25% of female Muslim student’s have reported having to defend wearing a hijab/headscarf and niqab whilst on campus, making them feel unsafe
• from a NUS Survey of nearly 600 Muslim students at UK universities, 1 in 5 Muslim students reported being the victims of verbal abuse.

As the Students’ Union, we have a duty to safeguard students and create inclusive environments on campus. By participating in IAM, we are sending a clear message that any behaviour to damage these environments will not be tolerated.

By actively supporting the campaign, we can help to break down barriers between Muslim and non-Muslim communities and challenge incorrect stereotypes about Muslims.

IAM wants you to take part in the conversation and be part of the solution. They’re asking people to share and raise awareness of Islamophobia in the UK in any way that they can. There are so many ways everyone can raise awareness such as sharing an Instagram story, starting a conversation, participating in training or making a donation, we can all plant seeds that help tackle Islamophobia.

You can find out more information about the campaign here or on their socia media

Support

UCLan Students' Union Advice Centre runs as a third-party reporting centre for hate crime, our advisors are trained to support you in reporting any hate crimes or incidents that happen to you or that you witness. Should you ever fall victim to a hate crime, hate incident or microaggression, it’s important you know that you can confidentially and anonymously report it to us.

We also work with the University assisting with the Report and Support programme available. As a registered student or staff member, you can access support from a wellbeing advisor should you need to report any harassment.

If you need to speak to someone, please visit our support page or contact the University wellbeing team by emailing wellbeing@uclan.ac.uk or calling 01772 893020

Report and Support Centre 

Hate Crime Support - UCLan SU

Sources

Islamophobia Awareness Month

IAM 2023 Education Pack

Islamophobia in Higher Education Factsheet 2024