Summary
Islamophobia, in the countryside as in the city, is on the rise. [Mohamed Patel], a gentle, charming man wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Outlaw", is doubtful whether he can stay in Devon long term. "I feel utterly exposed," he says. "I see people looking at me and ticking off their mental boxes: 'Asylum-seeker - maybe; unemployed - probably; sponger - yes; breeds like a rabbit - maybe; Muslim fanatic - probably.
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, argued in 2004 that a form of "passive apartheid" exists in the British countryside, with people from ethnic minorities choosing not to live in rural areas because they perceive them to be racist. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, across the UK, 92.1 per cent of the population is white and 7.9 per cent from smaller ethnic groups, while statistics from the 2001 census indicated that, in the south-west of England, white people accounted for 97.71 per cent of the population and ethnic minorities for 2.3 per cent. The Dorset Race Equality Council reported in 2003 that people from ethnic minorities were ten times more likely to suffer a hate crime in the countryside than in a town.See the full content of this document
Extract
The White Country
A particularly unpleasant woman had moved into the farmhouse along the lane from us in East Devon. I well remember the dinner party - attended by our weekend guest, a gay Labour councillor in Hackney - when she spent the evening trying to get our spaniel to bark to the word "Paki". When she left our house (and subsequently the county, to general relief) a shocked silence descended. Was it a wind-up or was it real?
Racism isn't, to be honest, a subject that comes up a great deal in the countryside where we live - simply because there are very few non-white faces around. Trevor Phillips, chairman of...See the full content of this document
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