Mosque in uber-liberal London enclave bans all females over 12 from charity park run...

[Hadmysay]

What is your opinion about this is it ok or not ok?
Should this be allowed or not?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15183963/Mosque-bans-females-charity-park-run.html#

I agree with you, on googling it looks like Labour are going for a ‘working definition of Islamophobia’. What this means in daily life idk

That is true. Their track record would not surprise me. Starmer gives the impression of finding out which way the wind is blowing, a tad too late.

Labour, and Starmer in particular, have a knack for coming out with statements and getting behind policies they think will be popular—except they’re always two steps behind.

See Starmer’s early vehemence on self-ID and insisting Rosie Duffield was ‘not right’ to say only women have a cervix’ and of course ‘ 99.9% of women don’t have a penis’. And. now his sudden recognition that transgender women are not in fact women and that, per the Supreme Court, ‘a woman is an adult female,’

The problem is when someone is without moral conviction—they fall back on
feedback from others or in Labour’s case, focus groups, which are captured and have their own agendas. Groups that are also completely at odds with the general public, the electorate who they believe owe them their vote.

So it wouldn’t be surprising if the LP tried to fudge it, only to U-turn on it once it dawned on them the extent of the public backlash.

The group has concluded its public consultation and is expected to deliver its recommendations within six months.

And the timing could not be worse: coming after a potentially unpopular budget and with local elections looming, Labour would be courting serious backlash if it were even seen to be considering recommendations. The opposition would have a field day. Expect to see the findings delayed, repeatedly pushed back and pushed back - and quietly and shelved depending on the appetite of public opinion.

Or I could be wrong. as I mentioned above, this is Labour, and they have previous.

I’m still interested in how OP (who I notice has not come back) came to describe Tower Hamlets as an ‘uber-liberal enclave’. I’m fascinated by such a bizarre choice of words. Are they, per chance, not British?

Completely agree. @PharazonI think it’s the DM copywriter you need to aim that one at. It’s their headline.

@EasternStandard ah so it is. Presumably aimed at readers who have no knowledge of London. They appear to be conflating it with Hackney which I suppose might fit the description, or at least some parts of it might. Tower Hamlets under the odious Aspire party and Rahman is anything but.

But it doesn't allow children of both sexes. Teenage girls are excluded.

Good. I hope other religious organisations also raise objections. To put into Law a definition of Islamophobia dictated by the Muslim Council of Britain will be blasphemy by the back door, but only related to criticism of Islam. It doesn't matter if things like fgm and forced marriage are unlawful if, as we see with the grooming gangs people in authority are scared of being called ' Islamophobic' and dont report it. Will health services who advise against cousin marriages be ' islamophobic'? Anything will be against the expression of muslimness including segregation of women, multiple 'marriages', sharia law etc. Funnily enough so many 'expressions of muslimness' involve the curtailing of womens rights and protection. Yet I wonder how many Muslim women they listen to?

Posting an update on here as the original thread is full.

I complained to the London Marathon charity about this and they have replied to me - hopefully will have had some impact.

Thank you for your email regarding the Muslim Charity Run. London Marathon Events (LME) supports events across London and the UK with the objective of providing opportunities and inspiring activity in underserved and under-represented communities. Through our community engagement programme, this year LME provided a small donation to support the costs of the Muslim Charity Run organised by East London Mosque.

We acknowledge that an oversight was made in our decision to donate to the event in its current format. We are committed to working with the Mosque and the wider community to overcome the barriers to accessing sport and activity for women and girls.

wtf decided that Whitechapel consitutes an "uber liberal enclave"?!
i'm forced to assume they've never been there

in the interests of balance, you should read this:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oct/20/muslim-women-do-not-need-saving-says-female-leader-of-mosque-over-charity-run-row

She says the women involved in the mosque didn't want to run. they were fine with it being an event that dads could take part in with their children
(something you'd think that many MNers would welcome)

That is an interesting article. As an Asian non-Muslim woman I find myself very torn.
I don't like white saviours. I equally do not like the segregation and exclusion of women.

The Muslim Women’s Network think they should have been allowed to run.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/steve-reed-muslim-equality-and-human-rights-commission-lutfur-rahman-east-london-mosque-b2845295.html

This mosque leader claims that she speaks for all of the women. I wonder how many would dare go against the community. There were earlier reports that local women did want to run and have previously complained.

If none of the local women had wanted to run, the mosque are unlikely to have felt the need to make an explicit announcement banning them.

In the unlikely sounding event that no local women wanted to run, they should have had the option. This Muslim leader appears to be one of the type of women happy to throw others under the bus. There are a disappointing number of such women around.

If Muslim leaders are so worried about publicity around such events ‘reinforcing negative stereotypes’, all they need to do is to stop doing things that reinforce those sterotypes. 🤷‍♀️

The Daily express is running headlines about Sadiq Khan knowing about grooming gangs in London and denying it. Survivors are quitting the Grooming gang enquiry because they feel it’s going to basically be a whitewash. I really think any move towards restricting speech in a way that would criminalise any discussion of these particular issues will tip the public over the edge. If the Maccabie and Villa game goes ahead I’m pretty sure there will be violence aimed at Israelis at this point.

We live in pretty fragile times atm and I think we need to put our hard hats on and just be very direct about what should and should not be acceptable in the UK. The reality is extremists terrorise their own people first, always hassle women first “no you can’t run in public, it’s indecent” it’s extremism and should be called out, for the sake every single muslim woman who just wants to go for a bloody jog. I feel utterly depressed that this kind of thing happens in the UK.

I’m a non muslim asian woman and in my experience when a community wants to oppress it’s women most of society just turns a blind eye to it because it’s easier than being called a racist. a lot of women may not agree with their community but the pressure to conform is immense. Sometimes you need someone from outside your community to apply pressure and frankly shame. People should be embarrassed of regressive behaviour, I don’t care about the colour of the woman pointing out that other women are being treated badly and that it’s not on. I feel immense disgust and feminists who hide behind anti-racism to ignore the plight of ethnic minority women. I don’t consider that being a white saviour, I consider that to be female solidarity. We are all women.

I agree that there should be complete freedom of speech to criticise any and all religions.

Yup, it’s of course uncomfortable for believers, but we have to put to bed the idea that you can’t discuss ideas and beliefs because offending people has to be avoided at all costs, regardless of what those are. Especially if those beliefs result in real world impacts that curtail the lives and freedoms of half the population or endorse violence and prejudice against others. I think the reality is that people genuinely fear that someone going to get killed for saying stuff. Look at that guy who wasn’t convicted for trying to stab the guy who burned a koran outside the turkish embassy. Even the original cps statement saying he was being charged for “offending islam” was ridiculous, thats not even a crime. He clearly launched a violent attack on someone and nothing happened to him.

We’ve allowed people to behave appallingly as long as we deem them to be offended enough. See this with the TRA’s as well, just ignoring death threats, rape threats, intimidation etc etc.

I fucking despair.

Well said. Every woman here deserves the protection of the law. We shouldn’t be turning a blind eye to bad treatment of any woman.

My now former Muslim friend chose to live with more freedom than allowed by her family and community. Her family now don’t speak to her at all - she is dead to them. It’s so sad.

Absolutely well said. I am a non muslim Asian woman too. All women suffer when society turns a blind eye to intolerant beliefs. Mostly by people who have a poor understanding of religion, culture and race in the Indian subcontinent and ME.

I also think people don’t understand how much shame is weaponised against women. It’s bad enough generally, women of all cultures are shamed to keep them in line. But if you have been brought up to believe your entire families honour rests on womens shoulders and not mens then you will most likely claim to be fine with whatever oppression you are experiencing.

EHRC wades in with criticism of Islamophobia definition. It looks like a high risk strategy to just push ahead.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/c12ed203-45df-4984-a1aa-c9ed54e82875?shareToken=68c0d134383b9455290c6aa14a89899d

It said that it is “unclear what role a new definition would play” in addressing abuse targeted at Muslims, given that legal protections against discrimination and hate crime already exist.

It said that it is “unclear what role a new definition would play” in addressing abuse targeted at Muslims, given that legal protections against discrimination and hate crime already exist.

The equalities watchdog also warned that the government’s approach of considering a government working group’s proposed definition risked being unlawful because it had bypassed the EHRC’s statutory duty to advise on religious discrimination.

The EHRC has urged the government to launch a full consultation on the definition in order to avoid the legal risks posed by adopting an official definition.

Ooh that is promising!! Thanks for the share.

The definition was so broad surely it was unworkable. Plus, it is British culture to take mickey out of everybody isn’t it.