Slain British MP Was to Report on Increased Islamophobia
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Murdered British MP Jo Cox was on the cusp of delivering a report to the UK parliament about Islamophobia, according to media reports.
The Labor politician had worked jointly with an Islamophobia watchdog and was going to warn in parliament against a rise of anti-Muslim attacks in Britain, particularly against Muslim women, the New Arab cited British media as reporting on Monday.
She was shot dead on Thursday while preparing for a local constituency surgery as part of her duties as an MP.
The slain lawmaker was working with watchdog Tell MAMA [Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks] on a report that warned against the increasing rise of anti-Muslim aggression.
"She met us to talk about how people could report attacks, particularly women in her constituency," said Fiyaz Mughal, the founder and director of Tell MAMA.
"We were hoping she would highlight the impact on Muslim women; particularly given the targeting that exists," Mughal added, "The majority [of incidents] at street level were on women and she was going to raise that."
Cox had recorded a video to use during the launch of the report, which she described as "exciting" work that will help tackle Islamophobia in Britain and make women in her constituency feel safer.
The report found that attacks against Muslims in Britain had risen up by 80 percent in 2015.
Many commentators have argued the shooting and stabbing of the law-maker Jo Cox in daylight symbolizes increasingly volatile and violent political discourse, one which her own report was trying to highlight as particularly affecting women in the Muslim community.
