COUNTER•POWER S2 Ep3: Islamophobia and antisemitism in Britain today
Islamophobia and antisemitism are unfortunately no longer fringe. Increasingly open, increasingly violent, they are reshaping what it means to be Muslim or Jewish in Britain today. And yet these hatreds are rarely examined directly. Instead, they are instrumentalised, folded into debates about immigration, national security, public order, and foreign policy, in ways that often do not represent the actual communities.
Host Zoe Williams is joined by Shaista Aziz from the Three Hijabis and Stop Trump Coalition, and Em Hilton, a Jewish organiser and writer based in London, and co-founder of Na’amod: UK Jews against Israeli occupation and apartheid.
In this episode:
- How these prejudices have evolved in their distinctly 21st-century forms
- The essentialisation of identity and denial of plurality
- The experience of being a British Muslim and a British Jew today
- The ramifications of the Balfour declaration
- Who gets to speak for a community, and how these communities are often used as shields for other issues
Featured Organisation: CADFA (Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association)
Facebook: @camdenabudis
Instagram: @c.a.d.f.a
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/camdenabudis
Links to things we discussed
How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women (Shahed Ezaydi)
Islamophobia and Securitization: Religion, Ethnicity and the Female Voice (Tania Saeed)
Huey P. Newton archive
Facing antisemitism: the struggle for safety and solidarity (Runnymede Trust)
Islamophobia: A Challenge For Us All (Runnymede Trust)
The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil (Philip Zimbardo)
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Music(cc): Intro R&B instrumental loop, Mcgrogo (Freesound.org)