The past months have seen the coronavirus pandemic wrecking havoc in different countries across the world.

In the UK, the Muslim communities have faced a myriad of problems due to the deadly pandemic and rise of Islamophobia.

A report by Baroness Doreen Lawrence revealed how minority ethnic communities, particularly British Muslims, have been stigmatized during the pandemic, Byline Times reported.

📚 Read Also: UK Islamophobia Awareness Month Launched at Parliament

The report, An Avoidable Crisis: The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, called on the UK Government to take urgent action to protect minorities already disproportionately impacted by Coronavirus. 

“The failure to provide clarity has led people to blame British Muslims for spreading coronavirus, with a spike in online Islamophobic hate crime recorded in the aftermath of the lockdown,” the report said.

Recommendations

The report gave some recommendations to the government including:

• Setting out an urgent plan for tackling the disproportionate impact of Covid on ethnic minorities this winter
• Applying a national strategy to tackle health inequalities
• Ensuring recording Covid-19 cases from the workplace properly

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, US Muslims suffered a 40% rise in online Islamophobia, according to hate crime monitoring charity TellMAMA. 

The report comes as UK marks Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM) in November.  

Co-founded by MEND (Muslim Engagement and Development) with other British organizations in 2012, the annual event aims to deconstruct and challenge the stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.

The campaign, held every November, also aims to work to raise awareness of the threat of Islamophobia and encourage better reporting of incidents to the police.

The theme of this year’s event is “Rooted in Racism.” It recognizes that Islamophobia is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness and perceived Muslimness.