Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2018
Time: 16:00 – 18:00

Abstract

The Dialogue Society partnered with Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA) as part of Croydon’s Hate Crime Awareness Week 2018 to organise and chaired a panel discussion, addressing issues such as Islamophobia and hate crime towards all faiths religions with representatives from Croydon Metropolitan Police Service, Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA), Victim Support London, Faiths Together in Croydon, the Refugee Council, Lingua House Project, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK, Asian Resource Centre (ARCC) and Tell Mamma.

Some of the Questions to be Discussed

• What is religious hate crime?
• With hate crimes on the rise, what factors do we feel have contributed to this?
• What issues are different religious groups facing in terms of hate crime or hate incidents, prejudice or ways in which everyday life is generally made more difficult?
• Does the wider community need to become more aware of different religious groups and contribute to making public spaces safer, more welcoming and easier to access? If so, what needs to be done?
• What specific spaces in Croydon are welcoming and safe for different religious groups and which aren’t? Why?
• In what ways is the wider community and institutions supportive or non-supportive of different religions?
• What else could be done to support those affected by religious hatred?
• What are bystanders of hate incidents? What can be done about this?
• How likely do people feel to report hate crime against them? Why/Why not?

About Croydon’s Hate Crime Awareness Week

Croydon’s Hate Crime Awareness Week comprised seven thematic discussion panels as well as other activities led by a host of community organisations. Each panel discussed in depth the nature of hate crime and incidents occurring in the borough through shedding light on community experiences and how residents, the voluntary sector and public organisations were both responding to what was happening on the ground and finding ways to prevent the conditions that give rise to hate crime.