World Religion Day is about celebrating religious diversity and encouraging others to better understand the discrimination and intolerance many people face due to their religion.
Religious discrimination and intolerance is on the rise in the UK…
- Anti-Semitic incidents in the UK are at an all-time high, with over 700 incidents recorded between January-June 2018 alone (over 100 every month).**
- A million people in the UK have experienced faith discrimination at work.*
- Jewish and Muslim students in the UK are more likely to experience religious discrimination than students from other religious groups, with about a fifth saying they have experienced discrimination or harassment because of their religion.*
- Religious hate crime has increased by 40 percent across England and Wales, with more than half of religiously-motivated attacks in 2017-18 directed at Muslims.*
- Muslims are facing the worst job discrimination of any minority group in Britain, according to research which found that they had the lowest chance of being in work or in a managerial role.*
What can you do to help stop religious discrimination and intolerance?
- Listen and learn: Demonstrating tolerance and respects starts with sincerely listening to others’ perspectives and trying to understand why others think and feel the way they do. This begins a constructive discussion and makes both sides more open to listening to each other.
- Campaign: Contact your local MP and ensure they are showing leadership on religious discrimination. Make sure they understand the needs, issues and priorities of their constituents who belong to religious minorities.
- Educate: Turn your school or workplace into an education hub by encouraging people to learn more about religious discrimination in the UK, talk to each other about different religious beliefs, and read up about their legal rights at work. This way, you can encourage others to report incidents of religious abuse and discrimination when they do occur.