BASW Supports Islamophobia Awareness Month

The Campaign & My forward: 

Islamophobia awareness month 2024 has a theme of “Seeds of change”. I am going to talk about how we all play a part and how change should be embraced and seen as an instrumental part in modern day society.

I am Dean Owens-Cooper, Elected Director on Council for BASW & EDI Co-Chair. I am delighted to be asked to put this together for BASW Council. We are a membership organisation and represent 22,000 social workers across the UK. We have an EDI strategy, and this remains a key strategic priority for us. Both my fellow council colleagues and I are driven to ensure Islamophobia has no place in our society.

Context: 

Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness. Communities coming together and playing their part does not mean we all need to think the same or see things such as the Muslim community or Islam in the same way. But what we do need to do is all be coming from a place of respect and dignity for all. We should also all come from a place of wanting to learn. 

As the Co-Chair for EDI Advisory at BASW it’s my responsibility to role model and be a critical friend. To do that I ensure we draw on best practice but also experts by experience such as, in this case, colleagues from the Muslim community. I elevate voices that may not or have not been heard. This is not to advocate it’s to educate and acknowledge the Muslim community have voices and needs and they must be heard, and respected. Importantly, Muslims belong in our society and deserve to live free, happy and healthy and away from Islamophobia.  It gives me immense privilege to be able to align to this campaign and write this blog in recognition of the campaign for 2024.

Playing your part:

If we look at this strategically and nationally, we ask how we can play our part? Well, there are many ways. Having key aims for promoting inclusive Muslim practice is crucial and can be built into any EDI objectives. It’s completely standard to have a focus area and even broken down into doing things by quartile objectives. I get asked a lot how we do all these initiatives at once. My response is we don’t have to do this and breaking it down and having a focus which is articulated in a clear action plan is what is needed.

I believe that calling out Islamophobia is always the best option and to do this you would address it with the person directly, privately if you feel able to. You would also call it in, and this is where you use another service to do so. This can be an HR department in the workplace, if it’s in public then reporting it via your local hate crime reporting policy. 

Conclusion:

I hope this contributes and inspires others to share their thoughts and ideas for Islamophobia Awareness Month 2024. Let’s continue to share seeds for change to ensure society remains a psychologically safe place free from Islamophobia. My role is to remain being an Ally to all areas of diversity, be it an area I have lived experience in, or otherwise.

If you would like to know more about EDI at BASW please email EDI@basw.co.uk and a colleague will ensure you message gets to me. I would also suggest looking at our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion resources. I want to thank you for reading this.