Tell MAMA

Tell MAMA is a project of Faith Matters.

Allies

Policy Exchange

Some establishment Islamophobes plainly consider Tell Mama an ally, and its work profoundly unthreatening.

“Organisations like Tell Mama and activists like Fiyaz Mughal have done sterling work to shine a light on the soft underbelly of [anti-Muslim] bigotry,” argue the authors of a 2019 report for Tory think-tank Policy Exchange.

The same report insists that politicians must “stop pretending that extremism and terrorism have nothing to do with Islam. There is a clear relationship between fundamentalism, terrorism, and the basic assumptions of Islamic orthodoxy … The West must stop ascribing any and all discussion of these issues to ‘Islamophobia’.”

In March 2020, Labour suspended one of the report’s authors, former Commission for Racial Equality Chair Trevor Philips, for Islamophobia.

David Hirsh

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Views and Positions

Muslims and Islamophobia

In July 2017, the group attacked “those who promote a view that Islam or #Muslims are under threat” and tweeted “Enough of the victim narrative”. (Katie Hopkins shared and praised the tweet, saying she was “sick of the Muslim mafia playing victim”.) The group seem to have echoed this sentiment in tweets posted in November 2017, which they deleted and formally apologised for.

“Recent statements and behaviour by Mughal and Tell MAMA suggest that they may become more openly hostile towards the Muslim communities and Muslim organisations they claim to defend,” CAGE concluded in 2019, “in an apparent effort to cosy up to power and establish themselves as the “legitimate authority” on Muslims.”

Labour “anti-Semitism” and the Israel lobby

Tell Mama have endorsed the Israel lobby’s unsubstantiated allegations of Labour anti-Semitism, portrayed its institutions as reliable representatives of British Jews, and taken their claims uncritically. In contrast, they have a record of dismissing Muslim fears about Islamophobia despite much stronger evidence.

In an April 2018 post, they wrote:

“We understand that members of key organisations representing Jewish communities are meeting with the leader of the opposition, the Rt Hon. Jeremy Corbyn MP. We truly hope that the concerns of these organisations that represent the majority of Jewish communities are heard and that a way is found to tackle antisemitism which is infiltrating and sitting in parts of the political left”.

It is “patently obvious to us,” they add, that “anti-racist organisations have dropped any real consideration of antisemitism as racism ... This is how toxic antisemitism has entered parts of the left in our country.”

Members of Tell Mama attended Israel lobby group the Campaign Against Antisemitism’s “Enough Is Enough” rally against Corbyn and Labour in March 2018. They explained their decision:

“The fact is this. Where many members of a community feel the need to rally and demonstrate on an issue of key concern, we should be there. This is particularly the case when it involves something of central concern such as antisemitism. This is why the Tell MAMA staff and team attended the Enough is Enough rally and why we felt the need to stand in solidarity.”

By contrast, they have a record of dismissing Muslim fears as a “victim narrative” that “Islam or #Muslims are under threat”.