by SOKARI EKINE
On 2 April, a group under the name East End Gay Pride (EEGP) planned to march through the Shoreditch and Whitechapel districts of Tower Hamlets borough in London. The march was promoted as ‘united against homophobia and all prejudice’ and was claimed to be in response to a homophobic sticker campaign in East London – a campaign which has questionable origins and has been condemned by both the East End Mosque and the Association of British Muslims.
The EEGP is part of a growing and mainstreaming of Islamophobia as Muslims are painted as the face of homophobia in Britain and Europe. Left-leaning liberal journalist Johann Hari, who is known for his international reporting on Palestine and Congo, recently published a piece ‘Can we talk about Muslim homophobia now?’, in which he claimed:
‘East London has seen the highest increase in homophobic attacks anywhere in Britain. Everybody knows why, and nobody wants to say it. It is because East London has the highest Muslim population in Britain, and we have allowed a fanatically intolerant attitude towards gay people to incubate there, in the name of “tolerance”.’
Hari’s assertions have been challenged by a number of Queer and non-Queer journalists and bloggers. For example, Patrick Lilly of UK Black Pride wrote an open letter response in which he pointed out that Hari’s figures are not consistent with those of the Metropolitan police:
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