Leeds imam appointed as government advisor to tackle Islamophobia
Qari Asim's going to help ministers put together an official definition of it
We're hearing islamophobia's causing a "downward spiral" of abuse - and Leeds communities must come together to oppose it.
That's the message from a leading imam in our city who's been appointed as an advisor to the government to tackle the issue.
Qari Asim's now helping ministers come up with a definition of Islamophobia.
In his first interview since being appointed - he's told us anti-Muslim hatred mostly comes about through ignorance:
"We need to define Islamophobia and at the same time we need to have an educational campaign. Sometimes we think that it's only the religious minorities or people that've come to our neighbourhood that need to integrate. Absolutely - but at the same time I think the host communities need to embrace people.
"Anti-Muslim hatred is at shocking levels and can create a downward spiral of abuse and violence which is not a sign of a healthy society. It is therefore vitally important that an effective definition of Islamophibia is proposed to tackle the shocking rise."
It comes after our special investigation into the problem revealed the number of incidents of Islamophobic hate crime trebled in West Yorkshire over two years.
Qari says education is key:
"Those who commit terror on our streets, those who are taking lives on the premise of using Islam are to be condemned. We need to ensure that we do not conflate Islam with the criminal acts of a few individuals who claim to belong to the Muslim community
"We cannot be complacent - whilst there has been a considerable amount of work done to record anti-Muslim hatred at the same time we've seen an increase level of Islamophobia in our society and we really need to tackle that together."