Muslim Engagement and Development

Muslim engagement and development (MEND) (formerly iENGAGE)[1] is a UK NGO. It focuses on media monitoring, advocacy in Westminster and improving the media/political literacy of British Muslims. The aim of the organisation is to tackle Islamophobia and to encourage political, civic and social engagement within British Muslim communities.

Background

MEND was founded by Sufyan Ismail and was set up in 2014, building off of previous work by iENGAGE.

Media Monitoring

MEND monitors daily media coverage pertaining to British Muslims[2] and provides commentary on stories where it believes Islamophobic narratives are present. MEND is a recognised as a 'representative body'[3] for British Muslims with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).

Political advocacy

Over the years, MEND has extensively featured at fringe events in mainstream political party conferences. In 2014, prior to the upcoming general election, MEND’s panel at the Conservative Party Conference featured the party's election strategist Lynton Crosby[4] and Peter Oborne. MEND's panel at the Labour conference the same year featured Owen Jones, and Keith Vaz amongst others.

More recently, at the 2017 party conferences, MEND ran a fringe event at the Labour Party conference focussing on the empowerment of Muslim women with speakers including the politicians Diane Abbott, Kate Green, Rushanara Ali, and Naz Shah. At the 2017 Conservative Party conference, MEND ran a fringe event with speakers Nazir Afzal and Peter Oborne on the topic of the Conservative Party's relationship with Muslim communities.

In November 2017, MEND launched its annual Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM) in Parliament. IAM is an inter-community campaign which runs throughout November each year in partnership with Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC), local councils, journalists and local media, councillors and local MPs, mosques, universities, schools, community organisations and others, in order to highlight the positive contributions of British Muslims and raise awareness of Islamophobia. At the parliamentary launch in 2017, the event was chaired by Stephen Kinnock while speakers included Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, Wes Streeting, Naz Shah, Afzal Khan, Kate Green and the Liberal Democrat Lord Brian Paddick, as well as representatives from the NUS, Byline Media, Spinwatch and Hacked Off. Other speakers included the barrister Hashi Mohammed, as the representative to Max Hill QC, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism, Dr Rimla Akhtar, Chair of the Muslim Women's Sports Foundation and Reverend Steven Saxby.[5]

The organisation has also produced dozens of briefing papers[6] on concerns to British Muslims including hate crime, press regulation, Stop and Search, Schedule 7, police and crime commissioners, halal slaughter, counter terror law and more.

In the approach to both general and local elections, MEND produces manifestos to advise candidates on the issues that are of interest to Muslims within their constituencies.[7] In addition to this, MEND also provides summaries of major party manifestos in order to help British Muslims to understand the main issues that may concern them and opposing parties’ positions on them.

MEND's director of engagement Azad Ali wrote that the jihadist 2017 Westminster attack where Khalid Masood killed five people was "not terrorism".[8]

Advocacy

MEND operates an extensive grassroots community engagement[9] programme whereby is seeks to improve the media and political literacy of British Muslims. Its objective is achieved via national awareness seminars[10] on Islamophobia coupled with masterclasses[11] on media and political engagement. MEND has local working groups nationally in cities and towns across the United Kingdom[12] who work with their local Muslim and non-Muslim communities to tackle Islamophobia.

In 2014, with only the Met Police in London, recording Islamophobic hate crime as a separately category of crime, MEND started working with UK constabularies to encourage them to record Islamophobia as separate category of crime similar to treatment offered to racist and anti-Semitic hate crimes. By 2015, MEND has successfully ensured one-quarter of forces would be recording Islamophobic hate crime as a separate category of crime.[13] In late 2015, the UK Government, building on MEND’s work, announced that all UK forces will be required to record Islamophobic hate crimes in a separate category.[14] The change comes into force on 1 April 2016.

MEND is opposed to governmental anti-extremism programmes, MEND and Shakeel Begg stated opposition to the appointment of British Muslim human rights activist Sara Khan as the anti-extremism coordinator, as she supports the government's Prevent anti-extremism programme.[15] MEND has attacked Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Faith Matters as being islamophobic.[15]

2015 general election

Leading up to the 2015 general election, Andrew Gilligan in The Daily Telegraph claimed that MEND saw itself as kingmaker in the upcoming election.[16]

MEND disputed the allegation and said that Andrew Gilligan had selectively quoted the comments made in reference to the importance of Muslims voting in the general election.[17]

In line with MEND's objective to ensure the political participation of British Muslims, they stated that the argument put forward was that in an election where seats were inevitably won and lost on narrow margins, the power of Muslims voting would be pivotal in deciding the results of the election. This is in line with 2011 Census data demonstrating that the voting potential of ethnic minorities (and British Muslims in particular) can bear significant impact with British Muslims consisting of 20% or more of the population in 26 Parliamentary Seats. In this sense, it was British Muslims as a whole that were referred to as potential kingmakers - not MEND itself as an organisation.

MEND as an organisation is politically neutral and does not endorse any party over another. They state that their objective is to encourage and facilitate the increased voting of Muslims and minority communities, but they do not dictate or even advise which party or candidate to vote for.

Accolades

In 2014, MEND (formerly iENGAGE)'s work was commended as "best practice" in "Human Rights Promotion and Protection" in a World Economic Forum report entitled Why Care about Faith?.[18]

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights rated MEND the “best example for civil society organisations”.

The EU Parliament Magazine stated that “The EU could learn a lot from MEND’s work on counter-radicalisation through engagement”.

Controversy

The group has been accused of spreading conspiracy theories[19] and Islamist views.[20] Muslim lobbying organizations MEND, which dedicate themselves to tackling Islamophobia, have been accused of homophobia, and of a former figure within the organisation of theoretically justifying the killing of British troops in the Middle East in a conceptual discussion surrounding the ethics of just war.[19]

MEND responded to allegations of extremism with a rebuttal stating the are not 'anti-Government' or 'Extremists', they do not support or sympathise with terrorism, and they are not anti-Semitic.[21]

MEND responded to allegations of homophobia by stating that their 2015 and 2017 Manifestos both explicitly called for better legal protections against homophobic hate crime.[22] The organisation stated that they unequivocally attest that hatred on the basis of religious, sexual, ethnic or gendered identity is categorically unacceptable and should be resisted wherever it is found. They also pointed to their work in developing a series of educational resources and training programs to aid in the teaching of Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred.

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gollark: What is "X" here?
gollark: It's *an* average-y thing, but probably not what you mean intuitively.
gollark: It's not really "the average".
gollark: So it looks like the mean for that one would be 0.

See also

References
  1. "MEND | Muslim Engagement and Development". MEND. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
  2. "News - MEND". mend.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  3. "Press releases and statements". www.ipso.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  4. R; Ramesh, eep (2014-10-01). "Tory election guru says Cameron should do more to win minority vote". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  5. "Jeremy Corbyn launches Islamophobia Awareness Month 2017 in Parliament with MEND". Muslim Engagement and Development. November 3, 2017.
  6. "Publications - MEND". mend.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  7. "Election Manifestos". Muslim Engagement and Development.
  8. Gilligan, Iram Ramzan and Andrew (2017-10-29). "MPs ditch meeting with Muslim group Mend over Islamist claims". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  9. "Community - MEND". mend.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  10. "Events Archive - MEND". MEND. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  11. "LEYTON: Stand for Something, Fall for Nothing - MEND". MEND. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  12. "LWG Map - MEND". mend.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  13. Mend Community (2016-02-23), What is MEND doing to Tackle Islamophobia, retrieved 2016-03-13
  14. editor, Patrick Wintour Political (2015-10-12). "Police told to treat anti-Muslim hate crimes in same way as antisemitic attacks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-13.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  15. "UK Muslim group accused of undermining anti-Islamophobia campaigners". The National. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  16. Gilligan, Andrew (4 April 2015). "Muslim group with links to extremists boasts of influencing election". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  17. "MENDs response to Andrew Gilligan" (PDF).
  18. "Why Care about Faith?" (PDF).
  19. Investigations Editor, Dominic Kennedy (October 31, 2017). "Muslim lobby group Muslim Engagement and Development 'promotes extremism'" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  20. Gilligan, Iram Ramzan and Andrew (October 29, 2017). "MPs ditch meeting with Muslim group Mend over Islamist claims" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  21. https://www.mend.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MEND-rebuttals-to-allegations-of-extremism-16.03.18.pdf
  22. https://mend.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MEND-Muslim-Manifesto-2017_FINAL_lowres-1.pdf
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