11th August 2016
Research for over a decade has highlighted the ‘Muslim penalty’ facing men and women with respect to economic activity and unemployment. This report, based on wide communities’ consultation by the Women and Equalities Committee, pushes this important issue up the political agenda.
The Committee Chair, Ms Maria Miller MP, noted that “the evidence showing that it was seen as acceptable to discriminate against Muslim women and that [people] almost didn’t see it as discrimination.”
In response to the report, Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “It is not surprising that discrimination are felt across the board and that Muslim women in particular, are suffering. We warmly welcome the recommendations of the report and look forward to the government acting quickly. Effective policies to ease the passage of Muslims into the labour market will help tackle poverty and counter the unconscious and conscious bias faced by Muslims. With further research to ensure future work is well targeted, we will be better placed to unlock the full potential of British society.”
The Muslim Council of Britain also supports the government’s initiative to join many top graduate recruiters in introducing name-blind recruitment in parts of the Civil Service. Wider take-up of name-blind recruitment in the private sector has been identified in the report as a key way to deal with discrimination at the initial stage. However, this is only one of a variety of measures and approaches that need to be deployed to deal with the multiple layers of discrimination.
There will also be widespread relief in Muslim civil society that an authoritative voice has spoken up against the misguided attempts to overlap community socio-economic improvement with counter-terrorism work.
[ends]
Notes to Editors:
1.The Muslim Council of Britain is the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella body with over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques, charities and schools.
2. The Muslim Council of Britain provided written (see here) and verbal evidence (see here) to the Committee, both of which were cited in the report, together with the MCB’s report British Muslims in Numbers (see here).
3. MCB Briefing 5: ‘Employment is more Challenging for Muslim Women’– https://mcb.org.uk/muslimstatistics/briefings/briefing5/
4. In January, the Muslim Council of Britain has spoken out previously against the conflation of integration and counter-extremism – https://mcb.org.uk/integration-needs-to-take-place-beyond-the-lens-of-security/
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