Muslims and the COVID-19 pandemic: myth-busting the demonisation of Muslim communities

This article draws upon research carried out in Muslim communities in the UK throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and the experiences of religious and community leaders in responding to the challenges facing Muslims as a disproportionately impacted group. We apply a Critical Race Theory framework and draw upon Muslim stakeholder voices to provide a counter-narrative which confronts highly racialised narratives around Muslims in the context of Covid-19. The pandemic saw Muslims depicted in online spaces as resistant to public health directives and contributing to the spread of Covid-19. These narratives demonised Muslims through re-appropriating pre-existing tropes around Muslims as a threat, in the process re-affirming these racialised narratives in the context of Covid-19. Identifying the content of these narratives against a CRT theoretical backdrop allows for an understanding of how Muslims’ relationality to whiteness informs their demonisation in online spaces. Having established the claims made around Muslims in online spaces, we draw upon real-world data driven accounts of Muslim community-led interventions in response to the threat of Covid-19.