Soccer has a blind spot in the case of Islamophobia, says first Muslim FA Council member Yunus Lunat | Soccer Information

The primary Muslim member of the FA Council has informed Sky Sports activities Information that “football has a blind spot when it comes to Islamophobia” amid a four-fold improve within the variety of incidents reported to Kick It Out within the first half of final season.

Yunus Lunat, who’s the previous chair of the FA Race Equality and Advisory Board, pointed to a spate of incidents over the past 18 months – and the way they’ve been handled – which he believes illustrates how Islamophobia is just not being handled as critically as different types of discrimination.

It comes after a Participant Care advisor for Burnley Soccer Membership obtained a warning from the Soccer Affiliation for liking quite a few Islamophobic posts on social media.

Burnley and the Skilled Footballers’ Affiliation (PFA) have been approached by Sky Sports activities Information for remark.

‘A stain on the English recreation’

Lunat, who served on the FA Council in 2013, informed Sky Sports activities Information: “It’s a stain on the English game. I’ve been saying for many years now that, sadly, football has a blind spot when it comes to Islamophobia.

“While it has made enhancements in its processes and coping with complaints of discrimination, that features Islamophobia, there appears to be virtually a double-standard or an absence of seriousness in the case of complaints of Islamophobia.

“Soccer offers fairly properly with racial complaints, complaints of homophobia and round different protected traits, however soccer doesn’t seem to have the flexibility or wherewithal to cope with Islamophobia with the identical seriousness.

“There virtually appears to be a hierarchy of discrimination round what will get acted upon.

“I just do not understand why football continues to have this problem and issue.”

The Soccer Affiliation has been approached by Sky Sports activities Information for remark.

Lunat requires consistency

At first of final yr, a former Aston Villa Equality, Variety and Inclusion (EDI) officer was additionally warned, relatively than charged, for quite a few historic Islamophobic posts made on social media.

However the FA had been profitable in interesting a 17-month suspension handed right down to former Crawley City supervisor John Yems by an Impartial Regulatory Fee for discrimination.

Yems had admitted to 1 cost and was discovered responsible of 11 of an extra 15 costs introduced in opposition to him for breaches of FA Rule E 3.2 over feedback that “included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality and/or religion or belief and/or gender” to Crawley gamers between 2019 and 2022 whereas he was supervisor.

The ban was upgraded to 3 years – the longest ever issued to a participant in English soccer for discrimination – after the attraction board stated the preliminary discovering in opposition to Yems was “untenable”.

However the FA didn’t attraction an eight-week suspension and nice given to Millwall’s head of youth recruitment at the start of 2023/24 season for a breach of their social media exercise guidelines, regarding an anti-Islamic publish.

Lunat, who’s a member of Kick It Out’s newly-formed Islamophobia working group, stated there must be extra consistency in the case of costs for rule breaches to be able to restore belief and win again the belief of various communities throughout the sport.

“There needs to be a consistency of approach,” Lunat added. “It sends out a message to communities that Islamophobia is just not a precedence.

“Communities lose confidence, because it sends out the wrong message and we go backwards.

“Soccer appears to have a blind spot in the case of Islamophobia and these current circumstances sadly spotlight and ensure our fears.”

Football’s Islamophobia problem

There was a four-fold improve in experiences of Islamophobia in soccer within the first half of the 2023/24 marketing campaign in comparison with the identical interval the earlier season. That adopted on from a 300 per cent improve in experiences of Islamphobic abuse obtained by Kick It Out in the course of the 2022/23 season.

Kick It Out’s Islamophobia working group members embrace Aldershot City chair Shahid Azeem, former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq, FA director Yasir Mirza, broadcaster Reshmin Chowdhury and Muslimah Sports activities Affiliation chair Yashmin Harun.

Kick It Out wrote to soccer’s governing our bodies earlier this yr urging them to undertake the working definition of Islamophobia after receiving an increase in reported incidents in the course of the season.

The letter was despatched forward of March 15 – the United Nations’ Worldwide Day to fight Islamophobia – after session with Kick It Out’s Islamophobia Working Group.

The decision got here after Kick It Out efficiently lobbied soccer to undertake the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in 2021.

Anti-Muslim hate throughout the UK rose by 375 per cent within the 4 months between October 2023 and February 2024.

The charity Inform Mama recorded 2,010 Islamophobic incidents – up from 600 throughout the identical interval the earlier yr – which is the most important quantity over a four-month interval for the reason that charity started in 2011.

Kick It Out additionally revealed final yr that they’d obtained a file 496 experiences of discrimination at grassroots degree in the course of the 2022/23 marketing campaign, up 51 per cent from the earlier season.