London, Sept 7, IRNA - Masoud Shadjareh, Head of Islamic Human Right Commission dismissed recent figures published by the British Met Police saying: The reality of Islamophobic attacks in the UK are much more than what is being reported.

Following is the full text of an interview with Masoud Shadjareh delivered by IRNA London:
Q. How accurate is the figure published in the media about Islamophobic attacks?
A. This figure is not even the tip of the iceberg; the reality is that the attacks against Muslims are far more and much more serious.
The figures that are been presented at the moment is the figures that are reported to a particular organization and we know from our own experience that majority of Muslims do not report Islamophobic attack and this is something which is confirmed by the police.
We consider this sort of gather of information not useful for statistical point of view; it is only useful for supporting the victims but that is not an accurate statistic and this is why - for almost 15 years - we have abandoned coming up with statistics on what is actually being reported.
The methodology that we use now, is a methodology of research involving quality and quantity surveys. This kind of surevey comes much closer to the reality and is academically being recognized.
The last time we did such a research for Britain it showed that 15 pc of Muslims are victims of Islamophobia; We know that the number of Muslims are over 3 million Muslims and hence the 15 pc are far more than what is being reported today.
We are currently putting the figures together again for our new research which is the follow up after five years so that we could compare what is taken place now and what was taking place five years ago.
Our report will be available in a month time but I could tell you that the increase is very shocking.
This report which is very comprehensive also covers discrimination of employment at work which shows that Muslims are very much likely to be discriminated than any other community.
I think we need to be very cautious that when this sort of figures comes out it is only a small fraction of the abuses towards Islamophobia that does not reflect the true reality.
Q. British police put the claim on Muslims by saying they do not report abuses, what is your opinion on this?
A. There are obvious reasons why people do not report to police: The police are not taking such matters seriously, they are not following it up, they do not have specialist dealing with this and they have no real victim�s support on areas like this.
This is not only true regarding Islamophobic attack; but also this has been the case for many years on cases of sexual attacks and rapes which people did not report it because police was not sympathetic to the victims or support the victims in a way that they should be done.
In absence of bringing justice individuals feel stupid to go and report to the police. They know that if they report, they are not taken seriously and in many cases these crimes are not going to be part of the statistics because they (police) do not flag it up.
Once you are facing that sort of culture in the police then many people are not willing to report.
Q. Why British media are now focusing on Islamophobic attacks?
A. This is the reality. If you look at local newspapers or listen to Muslim communities, Islamophobia has become a norm; and what has also become a norm is the lack of passion and support for the victims.
We need to look at why there is this culture that legitimise this and give it some sort of prudence when this barbaric attacks are taking place?
Of course one of the reason that this is happening is the role of the media and the politicians: how they are wooing Islamophobia in a way that we see anti terrorism law are linked to anti Islam and anti Muslims.
They are not looking at the criminality of the terrorists but looking at the faith of Islam; which this then legitimise this sort of attack and creates the culture for this sort of thing to take place.

By IRNA