A month-long campaign aims to highlight positive contributions of British Muslims to the UK and the true scale of Islamophobia prevalent in our society has been launched.

Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM) was founded in 2012 by leading UK Muslim organisations and aims to deconstruct and challenge the stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.

The campaign, held every November, aims to work with Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC), local councils, journalists, local media outlets, councillors, local MPs, mosques, universities, schools, community organisations and others to raise awareness of the threat of Islamophobia and encourage better reporting of incidents to the police.

The Metropolitan Police helped kick off this year’s campaign launch by stressing the need for communities to report incidences of hate crime and Islamophobia.

Superintendent Waheed Khan, the Met’s lead responsible officer for hate crime said, ‘Hate crime is something that we as a Met are committed and absolutely dedicated to dealing with. It has no place in our society.’ This year IAM will involve webinars with key opinion leaders, social media activity, online exhibitions and more. Over 150 organisations nationally are signed up to take part.

One of the co-ordinators of this year’s campaign, Dr Shazad Amin said: "Covid-19 has changed all our lives but sadly Islamophobia has continued unabated. Far-right conspiracy theories have blamed Muslims for spreading the virus and such fake news has made Muslims more vulnerable.

"Additionally, Black Lives Matter has highlighted racism as a major challenge facing this country and we will promoting Black Muslim voices during IAM to showcase the valuable contribution that have made to this country".