Nominations open for #No2H8 Crime Awards – honouring those who fight prejudice

A prestigious national award scheme honouring those who stand up to hate has just opened its nominations for the fourth year.

The No2h8crime Awards, which was created by a Muslim anti-hate crime activist with help from a Jewish anti-hate crime activist, allow anyone to nominate people who stand up to prejudice, with ten Upstander Awards available.

Past Jewish winners include the former Labour MP Luciana Berger as well as Senior Masorti Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, who was jointly honoured alongside Imam Mamadou Bocoum for interfaith work.

Earlier this year six-time Olympian Tessa Sanderson signed up as a patron of the Awards, for which Jewish News is media partner, saying she was “proud of anyone who has taken a stance against intolerance and hatred”.

This year’s categories include Upstanders in the media, community, parliament, local authorities, law enforcement, business, social research and sports, with special categories for young Upstanders and lifetime achievement award.

In addition to the ten categories, two special awards will be given, named after murdered Labour MP Jo Cox and the Muslim hate-crime monitoring organisation Tell MAMA, whose founder Fiyaz Mughal also founded No2H8.

• Read more: Meet the Muslim and Jewish hate crime fighting duo 

“Four years have passed since I initially set up the Awards and we have seen the impacts of hate crimes in our newspapers on a regular basis,” said Mughal.

“The world is changing, but we must never allow those who seek to divide and hate, to spread their poison into communities. The Awards celebrates those men, women and children who in their guts and their souls, know that hate is a poison that needs to be challenged, and they do so voluntarily and with a moral desire for good.”

Awards chair Richard Benson, a former chief executive of the Community Security Trust, helped Mughal set up the Awards and said they were going “from strength to strength… This year will again see over 350 people gather together from various communities and from police forces, the Government, as well as those people who are nominated for an award.”

He added: “More than ever, with hate crime rising across the various strands, it is imperative that we energise, honour and place tackling hate at the forefront of our minds.”

Those who want to nominate someone for an award have until 31 August to do so, via the No2h8 website, with winners announced at a plush central London location in November.

Last year there were 174 nominations and this year Mughal said he expects around 250, but warned: “Without people nominating, those local heroes will not be honoured. These are our unsung British heroes and the Awards honour them for their moral courage and positive actions.”

• Nominate on the No2H8 wesbite: https://no2h8crimeawards.org/