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Abstract
Initiatives that seek to build community trust are timely given the increasing focus on terror-related attacks and the rise in associated hate crimes as well as scrutiny of the way Muslim leadership is responding to such incidents. This paper details a novel and proactive model that aims to improve and build trust between Muslims and the wider community. The Trust Building Project was found to accomplish its two objectives. Not only was there an improvement in participant knowledge of Islam scores but there was also evidence suggesting trust had improved through engagement, understanding and through getting to know one another. Listening and learning sought to dispel myths and highlight shared morals and values. We propose that through these interactions the basis to building a more trusting society can be formed. It is unclear to what extent this could reduce incidents of hate crime and discrimination, however social change has been shown to occur where there are grass roots initiatives and suggestions are made to examine how this work can be rolled out nationally in order to address the trust deficit seen within our society today.
Notes
1 Runnymede Trust Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, Islamophobia: A Challenge for us all, London: Runnymede Trust, 1997.
2 Ibid.
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4 A. Zick, B. Kupper, and A. Hovermann, Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination – A European Report, Berlin: Friederich Ebert Stiftung, 2011, p. 61.
5 Erik Bleich, “Where do Muslims Stand on Ethno-Racial Hierarchies in Britain and France: Evidence from Public Opinion Surveys, 1988–2008”, Patterns of Prejudice, Vol. 43, No. 3–4, 2009, pp. 379–400.
6 Goran Larsson, “The Impact of Global Conflicts on Local Contexts: Muslims in Sweden after 9/11 – the Rise of Islamophobia, or New Possibilities?”, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2005, pp. 29–42.
7 Scott Poynting and Victoria Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim Racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001”, Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2007, pp. 61–86.
8 Larsson, “The Impact of Global Conflicts on Local Contexts”, op. cit.
9 The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe, Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, September 2010, pp. 1–63.
10 Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit.
11 Christine Ogan, Lars Willnat, Rosemary Pennington, and Manaf Bashir, “The Rise of Anti-Muslim Prejudice: Media and Islamophobia in Europe and the United States”, International Communication Gazette, Vol. 76, No. 1, 2014, pp. 27–46.
12 The Muslim Council of Britain, British Muslims in Numbers: A Demographic, Socio-economic and Health profile of Muslims in Britain drawing on the 2011 Census, London: MCB, 2015, pp. 1–80.
13 International Business Times, In 2016, UK Muslim Population Is More Than 3M, Expected To Rise With More Asylum-Seekers, Manhatten, NY: IBTimes, February 2016.
14 CIVITAS, Hate Crime: The Facts Behind the Headlines, London: Civitas, October 2016.
15 Jennifer Livengood and Monica Stodolska, “The Effects of Discrimination and Constraints Negotiation on Leisure Behavior of American Muslims in the post-September 11 America”, Journal of Leisure Research, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2004, pp. 183–208.
16 Ibid.
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18 Modood and Werbner, The Politics of Multiculturalism in the New Europe, op. cit.
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21 Benford and Snow, “Framing Processes and Social Movements”, op. cit.
22 Rensis Likert, “A Technique for the Measurement of Attitudes”, Archives of Psychology, Vol. 140, 1932, pp. 1–55.
23 I. Markova, P. Linell, and A. Gillespie, “Trust and Distrust in Society”, Trust and Distrust: Sociocultural Perspectives, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2008, pp. 3–28.
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25 Ibid.
26 Stefan Klusemann, “Massacres as Process: A Micro-Sociological Theory of Internal Patterns of Mass Atrocities”, European Journal of Criminology, Vol. 9, No. 5, 2012, pp. 468–480.
27 G. Morgan and S. Poynting, eds., Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West, Oxford: Routledge, 2012.
28 Geoffrey Beattie and Patrick Johnson, “Possible Unconscious Bias in Recruitment and Promotion and the Need to Promote Equality”, Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2012, pp. 7–13.
29 The Muslim Council of Britain, The Muslim Pound, London: MCB, 2013, pp. 1–35.
30 The Citizens Commission on Islam, Participation and Public Life, The Missing Muslims: Unlocking British Muslim Potential for the Benefit of all, London: Citizens UK, 2017.
31 C. Rochester, A. Ellis Payne, and S. Howlett, Volunteering and Society in the 21st Century, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
32 HM Government, Prevent Strategy, London: Crown, 2011.
33 EU Publication Office, An introduction to EU Cohesion Policy 2014–2020, European Union: European Commission, 2014.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Emily Knox
Emily Knox is a Research Fellow and behavioural scientist at the School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK.
Asam Latif
Asam Latif is a Clinical-Academic Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow, School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK.
Somaiyeh Mohammadian
Somaiyeh Mohammadian has been the Trust Building Project Manager from 2015–2017.
Abida Malik
Abida Malik is a tutor of Sociology in the School of Sociology, University of Nottingham and Director of Research at the Bridge Institute, London.
Musharraf Hussain
Musharraf Hussain is the Chief Executive of Karimia Institute and senior trustee of Muslim Hands, and trustee of National Centre for Citizenship and Law.