Glasgow Conference to Energise Opposition to Islamophobia in Scotland

Press Release from Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC)
Thursday 11 December 2025
For immediate release

A conference in Glasgow is set to look at the impact of Islamophobia on Scotland's Muslim community, against a background of racist, Islamophobic and violent protests outside hotels housing asylum-seekers, increasingly racist and repressive policies enacted by the UK Government and UK complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

The Conference is being held at the Ark, in Glasgow's Southside, on Sunday 14 December and is organised by SACC and the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC). It is the first such conference to be held in Scotland since 2019. It is organised in association with a conference that was held in London a week earlier. The London conference focussed on the theme "From Freedom to Comfort: How the State Redefined Conscience as Extremism." The Scottish conference will develop ideas from the London event and move on to the theme: "Reclaiming Resistance."

The Glasgow Conference will include an emergency session with lawyer Aamer Anwar to examine the crisis facing the public inquiry into the death of Sheku Bayoh.

Aamer Anwar said:

"When Sheku died in police custody over a decade ago, the crown failed to ensure a robust and impartial investigation- and that is why the Lord Advocate himself asked the Scottish Government for a public inquiry - what unfolded terrified an unholy trinity of Crown Office, Scottish Police Federation and the Police, because it exposed a culture of incompetence, unlawfulness and institutional racism - a total betrayal. Yet although justice is delayed the family will not stop fighting for it. This conference takes place at one of the most dangerous times in modern history, there can be no room for complacency as the far right are on the march and many of our politicians are willing to get in the sewers just to gain popularity- we must unite and fight back."

He added:

"The Bayoh family will always be grateful to SACC for being the first to support their struggle."

Chair of IHRC Massoud Shadjareh said:

"The environment of hate is becoming more dominant in our society, promoted by politicians, media and others. The fact of the matter is that politicians who are bankrupt in addressing our needs and aspirations are using this otherisation to demonise one section of society and mobilise another. We need to challenge this, because this level of vilification leads to genocide, be it in Gaza or what happened earlier in Bosnia."

Richard Haley, spokesperson for SACC, said:

"Our conference comes at a critical moment. Islamophobia and racism is on display in the streets around asylum hotels at an intensity and regularity we have never seen before in Scotland. Far-right organisations and the UK Government are stoking the hate in different ways in pursuit of their own goals. The UK Government has enabled genocide in Gaza and is now trying to airbrush it away. Broad-based civil society organisations like Palestine Action are facing the kind of repression previously more familiar to Muslims. I hope our conference will help to widen and deepen resistance to all this."

[ENDS]

Notes

1. The Glasgow conference will be held on Sunday 14 December from 10.30am to 5.30pm at The Ark, Glasgow. It is open to the public but prior registration is recommended. More information and full programme at https://www.sacc.org.uk/events/2025/islamophobia-2025-scottish-conference. Registration at https://www.sacc.org.uk/islamophobia-scottish-conference-2025-registration
2. Speakers at the conference are: Aamer Anwar (lawyer), Omar Afzal (Scottish Association of Mosques), Linsay Taylor (MEND), Raisah Ahmed (Screenwriter and Director), Professor Saeed Khan (Wayne State University, Detroit, USA), Moazzam Begg (CAGE International, Senior Director), Richard Haley (SACC), Kaneez Hisbani (IHRC), Yvonne Ridley (journalist), Sarah McCaffer (SPSC) and Fahad Ansari (lawyer). 
3. For more information about the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), see https://www.ihrc.org.uk/about/about-us/
4. The last SACC/IHRC Islamophobia Conference to held in Scotland was in December 2019 and focussed on Islamophobia and shrinking civil society space.
5. SACC opposes all forms of racism, with a particular focus on state racism and human rights abuses related to the "war on terror". SACC was a member of the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia, which was established in 2018 and made its final report in June 2021. Jointly with IHRC, SACC has co-organised annual conferences on Islamophobia since 2014. SACC is an affiliate of the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee (GGEC) and Edinburgh Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee. More information at www.sacc.org.uk