Additional reporting by Sabrina Fearon-Melville
A demonstration to mark the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination will be held at Newington Green, an anti-racist pressure group has said.
Islington’s Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) announced the 20 March event at an online event on Tuesday evening.
Hosted by Hillrise councillor Michelline Safi Ngongo across Zoom and Facebook Live, the event was attended by more than 100 people and featured a diverse range of speakers, including Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn.
The organisation, which opposes “racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and says migrants and refugees are welcome her”’, has grown to include over 50 local groups across the UK.
SUTR Convenor Paul Holborow is inviting people to take the knee at Newington Green on 20 March as part of a national demonstration. It will be followed by an international Zoom meeting with speakers from around the world, including from America, South America, Eastern Europe and Australia.
Holborow told Islington Now: “The main intention of [Tuesday’s event] was to build on the experience of Black Lives Matter following the murder of George Floyd, and to insist that Black Lives Matter has to be a movement, and not a moment and to provide a forum whereby younger members [from] black and ethnic minority [backgrounds] can explain their everyday experience of racism.”
Holborow emphasised the importance of hearing people’s personal experiences throughout the event “because the more people hear about those stories, the more they identify with that story. And then, because they associate it with their own experience, then they say ‘look we can do something about this’”.
While there were a number of experienced activists who made speeches, Holborow said that the most important thing about the event was “the very powerful statements from the younger members of the audience”.
Shafie Moalim and Ammar both spoke about experiencing Islamophobia from teachers when they were at school. When the 7/7 terrorist attacks happened, in which 52 people were killed in London after bombings on the Underground and a double-decker bus, Moalim was 10 years old. He said he remembers “being asked by my teacher what the Somali community felt about the attack”.
He said: “I remember this period being very confusing and my idea of Britishness disintegrating. I was struggling to reconcile the fact that Islam – my religion – was now seen as the enemy and I was constantly defending, my religion, my dignity, and my citizenship.”
Ammar said he remembers the feeling of teachers watching him “with such tension” when he would perform prayers or ablution at school.
Outside the school environment, Hisham Bettayeb recounted a story of when he was riding his bike, wearing normal clothes, and was stopped and searched by police: “I asked them why they stopped me, was there a reason? And no one responded.”
A young BLM activist, Elizabeth Adofo, also spoke out about seeing her father being stopped and searched, and her and her brothers being followed in shops.
She attributed this to “[Britain] having a racist past. Think back to the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, where it built its wealth and empire.” Seeing systematic racism play out has meant that she believes that it “is neither simply accidental or the result of just a few bad people” and “this is a fight that we must stick together in order to win”.
Shaima Dallali, the newly elected Vice-President of Community and Wellbeing at City, University of London spoke about how she felt growing up as a visibly Muslim woman. “Whether it’s rooted in religion or gender, Muslim women like myself enter the public sphere knowing full well how we are scrutinised.”
She spoke about the “Islamophobia and harassment” she faced when she campaigned to have the Cass Business School renamed: “I make no apologies for starting that campaign because I believe that racism has absolutely no place within my community.” Sir John Cass, whom the building is named after, was found to have acquired parts of his wealth from the Slave Trade.
As well as the younger generation, more experienced activists made speeches about their experiences and work tackling racism.
The former Opposition leader Corbyn said that there has been a determination to stand up against instances of racism in Islington. When the Finsbury Park Mosque was threatened with a petrol bomb in 2015, “we immediately held a presence… to say this is our community”.
Corbyn also spoke about the rise of Black Lives Matter, which he called “one of the most historic events of the past couple of years”.
Other community leaders attending included Finsbury Park Mosque chairman Mohammed Kozbar, who spoke of Islamophobia and vaccine hesitancy amongst black and minority ethnic groups. He suggested that the negative narratives about minorities were not always true, given that a survey by Muslim Census of more than 1,000 Muslims found 70% would have, or had already received, the Covid-19 vaccine.
“This is why we have to stand all together. Shoulder to shoulder against those who try to divide us, and spread hatred, fear and division,” he said.
Weyman Bennett, joint national convener of SUTR, as well as the joint-secretary for the Unite Against Fascism pressure group, spoke of holding the government to task when it came to the Covid-19 pandemic and understanding the “history of unity” that needed to be upheld to tackle racism.
The national branch of SUTR and the Trades Union Congress will host a national online rally on the anti-racism day on 20 March with speakers representing communities and organisations that make up the anti-racist movement.
Small socially distanced protests are expected to take place across the country, including in Central London to mark the world against racism day of action.
Islington SUTR convenor Holborow said that the event on Newington Green will be held with the “strictest vigilance”, assuring that it will be properly socially distanced and masks will be worn.
Speakers, including people from the local community and hopefully from trade unions and community groups, are currently being organised to perform at the event.
“The event will be part of a national take the knee across the country. It will be part of a national statement”, Holborow said. “It comes back to what I said earlier that BLM is a movement, not a moment.”
