8th March 2001
The Muslim Council of Britain welcomes the findings of the Derby Report on Religious Discrimination in England and Wales.
“The Derby Report’s finding that Muslims suffered ‘a consistently higher level of unfair treatment than by most other religious groups’ reflects accurately the feelings and experiences of Muslims in the UK,” said the MCB Secretary-General, Mr Yousuf Bhailok.
The Derby Report highlighted education, employment, the media, immigration, policing and prisons as the areas where religious discrimination was most prevalent.
The MCB is heartened that the Derby Report concludes that ‘discrimination exists on grounds of religion and that it deserves to be taken as seriously as discrimination on other grounds.’
“Now that our longstanding serious concerns have been so clearly upheld, it is only proper, fair and just that the Government introduces urgent legislation to outlaw religious discrimination. This lacuna in law needs to be addressed immediately now that the long outstanding report clearly established the fact that religious discrimination does exist and the Muslim community suffer most,” said Mr Yousuf Bhailok.