We set out in this submission our concerns on the current exercise of Schedule 7 powers, drawing on official, academic and anecdotal evidence and media reports.

It is our belief that S7 powers are used disproportionately against Muslims, a claim corroborated extensively by qualitative data and the available statistics on Schedule 7 examinations.

The (ab)use of the S7 powers and its disproportionate use against young Muslim males is based on the characterisation of Muslims as a ‘suspect community’ in security and law enforcement discourse.

Our submission sets out a number of recommendations for how the government may move forward to reduce the negative impact on civil liberties without compromising national security.

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Introduction

On Thursday 15th November 2012, the electorate in England and Wales vote for the newly created position of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in 41 constabularies across England and Wales.

Each PCC will effectively take over the role currently performed by local Police Authorities, and will be responsible for ensuring efficient and effective policing as detailed in the policing plan and crime strategy formulated for each police force area. The PCCs will also be responsible for appointing and, if necessary,
dismissing chief constables.

ENGAGE have developed a manifesto which we believe deals with the most urgent priorities in policing affecting British Muslims. We are working with grassroots communities and Muslim organisations to urge all PCC candidates to pledge their support for our key campaign issues:

1. Recording Islamophobia

2. Reforming Stop and Search

3. Tackling far right hate groups

4. Developing partnerships with Muslim communities

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This report contains details of incidents of anti-Muslim hate crimes which have been reported in local and national media in the UK and which form part of our regular monitoring of such incidents, cataloguing them on our website (www.iengage.org.uk). The incidents detailed here are not an exhaustive list of anti-Muslim hate crimes occurring in the UK in 2011 by any means.

They are a compilation of incidents which we have documented from the reports carried in local and national news.

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At ENGAGE, we regularly monitor print, broadcast and social media to record and challengemisrepresentations and inaccurate reporting of Islam and Muslims in the UK.We have in our parliamentary briefing paper on Islamophobia, enclosed herewith, argued for closerscrutiny and better self-regulation of the UK media in order to make it more responsive to badpractices, journalistic bias and the prevalent practice of exaggerating the influence of fringe Muslimgroups to demonise the wider British Muslim population.We have approached the PCC on a number of occasions to lodge complaints on coverage we havedeemed to be inaccurate, unfair or discriminatory. A summary of these complaints is elaborated on insection one below providing details for the complaint (inaccuracy, misrepresentation, discriminatoryreportage) together with the responses from the respective newspaper or the PCC to our complaint.Section two elaborates on cases lodged by third parties which reflect inaccuracy, poor reporting ordiscrimination. Section three concludes with our ongoing concerns on the modus operandi of theEditors’ Code of Practice and its limitations with specific reference to media reporting of Islam andBritish Muslims.

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 Executive summary:

• On 20th September 2011 the Palestinian Authority will unilaterally declare independence at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York and seek recognition as a sovereign state and 194th Member of the international community of states embodied in the United Nations.
• The PA will seek recognition from the Member-States of the UN and the UN Security Council of the state of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
• This move has been a long time coming and has its foundation in a broad body of international law. These include UNSCR 242 and 1397, regarding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Occupied Palestinian Territories; UNGAR 181, 2253 and 2254 and also UNSCR 267, 298, 476 and 478 regarding the status of Jerusalem and its occupation by Israel; UNSCR 446, 452, 465, 471 regarding the illegality of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
• The ongoing, illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the introduction of new obstacles to peace, in the form of the blockade on Gaza, the illegal wall constructed in the occupied West Bank , and the expansion of illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, have all contributed to the loss of Palestinian confidence in the peace process and its oftpromised outcomes.
• The vote in the General Assembly must be backed by a majority in the Security Council for the vote to materially deliver a seat for Palestine in the UN as a sovereign state and international recognition as a member of the community of states. The Palestinian Authority is confident of securing the two-thirds majority it requires in the General Assembly, 129 votes out of the total 193.
• The US Government has threatened to exercise its veto power to obstruct passage through the UN Security Council
• The unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood finds its culmination in the two-year program of the 13th Government of the Palestinian National Authority, ‘Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State,’ adopted in August 2009.
• International bodies such as the IMF, the World Bank and the UN accept that Palestinian institutions are ready to assume the responsibilities of statehood.
• The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has previously spoken of the need for “decisive leadership” in resolving this protracted conflict. To act otherwise, he said, would only foment “decades of potential conflict and even deeper difficulties in the Middle East.”
• The Palestinian Authority has taken the initiative and shown “decisive leadership” in declaring its intent to push a vote for recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN in September 2011. We would urge the British Government to match this with a display of “decisive leadership” of its own and vote in favour of recognition in order to rescue the peace process and to make progress towards a fully negotiated settlement by establishing its long-overdue and principal outcome: a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state.

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Introduction

There have been a number of events in the UK in 2010 that have contributed both context and background to incidents of anti-Muslim hatred, verbal and physical, as well as instances of anti-Muslim hate crimes.

As in previous years, the security agenda and counter-terrorism policies continue to influence and shape public and political discourse on British Muslims with debates on social, economic and political integration of minorities eclipsed by wider debates on countering radicalisation among young British Muslims.

Politics and the electoral cycle has informed events of 2010 with a general election in May of that year and the first ever challenge to the victory of an elected MP on grounds of election materials that breached the Representation of the People Act 1983.

ENGAGE welcomed the party manifestos of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties with their assertion that "security measures must be proportional and consistent with liberal democratic values and the rule of law", and "the best way to combat terrorism is to prosecute terrorists, not give away hard-won British freedoms," respectively.

We welcome this opportunity to contribute to the review of counter-terrorism and security powers and present our responses to the six strands forming the scope of the review.

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