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French president Emmanual Macron is targettign France's Muslim's. He wants the children of France’s largest minority to be given ID numbers, and jail parents who want to home school. He has dissolved Muslim civil rights groups and wants loyalty vows from religious figures. Macron has opened the door to fascist leader Marine Le Pen calling for a ban on the Hijab. The attacks are also targetting anti-racists opposed to Islamophobia. Calls are now being circulated in the UK for Boris Johnson to take a leaf out of Macron's book and target Muslims for special treatment. Join us this Thursday to discuss this latest escalation of racism against uslims and how it can be resisted.
Islamophobia Awareness Month
Online public meeting - Unite Against Racism and Islamophobia
Speakers include: Aman Ali, Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), Naima Omar, Stand Up To Racism and Henry Amor, Care4Calais plus local community speakers
Islamophobia and racism are at the heart of attempts by many governments to divide and rule in the face of their huge failings in the Covid-19 crisis.
- Donald Trump has used Islamophobia and anti refugee and migrant racism throughout his presidency.
- In Britain the Tories’ own adviser condemned Boris Johnson’s government for the groundless scapegoating of the Muslim community over social distancing.
- The Prevent agenda has targeted the Muslim community in the same way as Macron’s policies have branded Muslims as an enemy within.
This kind of scapegoating by politicians and the press has led to a spike in Islamophobic hate crime, with Muslim women wearing headscarves the single group most likely to be victims of racist attacks on our streets. We need a mass anti-racist movement to stop the rise in Islamophobia and all other forms of racism.
Stand Up To Racism/Care4Calais Winter Appeal
This winter, hundreds of refugees remain trapped at the border in Calais, Dunkirk and Belgium. There have been police raids on their settlements all year, with harsh evictions taking place almost every day in the autumn. Their tents have been taken or destroyed and places where they slept have been fenced off. A cruel food ban also came into force in Calais which stopped volunteers from giving out meals in key streets.
Refugees have been forced to use dangerous routes at the hands of ruthless smugglers to get to the UK and make the asylum claims to which they are legally entitled. The death of a family (including two children) as they tried to cross the channel in October shows the consequences of our government brutal policies.
Those who arrive here are treated no better. At least 16 people seeking asylum in the UK died in the six months preceding lockdown. And the government has started using military barracks to house refugees, with reports describing the Napier Barracks in Kent as cramped and unsanitary.
The Home Office has tried deporting as many vulnerable refugees as it can in charter flights to other countries. There, many people are left homeless with no access to help. Lawyers have been doing good work to stop many of these deportations, but they face repeated public attacks from the government.Winter has come and refugees once again face months in cold, rain and snow with no permanent shelter. This is the reality of the government’s ‘hostile environment’
Can you help with a collection?
Stand Up To Racism is working closely with Care4Calais. Your donations help them supply tents, tarpaulins, sleeping bags and blankets, as well as boots and warm clothing. They also pay for hot drinks and the daily services refugees need to survive, as well as support once they get to the UK. Financial donations are most useful. These mean that Care4Calais can buy the supplies they need, when they need them. They also keep the vehicles on the road for distributions and keep the warehouse running. If you would ike to organise cash domations collection sheets can be downloaded here. Alternatively you can donate direct to Care4Calais https://care4calais.org/
Oxford Stand Up To Racism is also organising aid in a shoe box collection.
Suggested items that can fit in a shoe box:
- Blankets
- Warm men’s clothing (jackets/jumpers etc)
- Unlocked mobile phones, capable of connecting to the internet
- Men’s jogging bottoms/jeans (size 26-34 waist)
- Men’s new boxer shorts (small fit)
- Socks, hats and gloves
- Phone chargers and power banks
- Tarpaulins
- Rain ponchos
Foods:
- Dried fruits and nuts
- Biscuits
- Cakes
- Sugar
- Coffee
- UHT milk
- Tinned foods with pull top
- Cooking oil
- Black and green tea
- Eggs
- Long life fruit juice
- Red lentils
*Underlined foods are priority items*
To help distribution please list contents on the outside of the box.
Can you organise a collection in your workplace or community group?
If you have packed boxes you want to get to Calais drop us an email and we will arrange for it to be shipped.
Donate to build a mass movement against racism