Kate Robey:

At Christmas I got stuck at home. I was ill and my car had broken down, so I had to cancel my trip to see my family. Weeks before Christmas I had joined the 'Rage against the machine for No.1' Facebook group. I often went into the group to read what was going on. It seemed like a great community had formed, and it was always an amusing read. Just after Christmas somebody posted a link to  the 'No to the march by Islam4UK through Wootton Bassett'  group. There was a comment on it from someone who had taken a look, saying it seemed to have a lot of racist comments on it. Being a bit nosey, I went to take a look. It didn't take me long to see how much racism there was on the page, and it really did shock me to read some of the views.

 I'll be honest, I've never experienced racism really, only what I've read in the papers, from history classes, and books. I come from the South East originally, and although the area I come from is quite troubled, there was never really a racist element to it. 

Islam4UK was a relatively small group of Muslims (around 40 members), headed up by Anjem Choudry, and to me his views did not represent what I thought the Islamic faith was about. The type of comments I was reading were directed at all Muslims, and seemed to be ripping apart the Islam faith.  So after reading a few, I decided to dive in. I wanted to get the right information out, instead of reading so many misconceptions. I began posting to people that Islam4UK did not represent the Muslim community, and that it was a very small minority who shared their views. It felt like an endless task after a while. The group was being flooded with messages, and the administrators didn't seem to be doing a good enough job at moderating the site. I was commenting for literally hours and hours, and this went on for several days. I debated with many people, trying to put out the right message, instead of the twisted message that was trying to take over the page.

I've never felt so deeply ashamed of my country as I did in those first few days. I was embarrassed by the ignorance of some people, and I felt afraid from reading so much hatred from so many people. I felt so frustrated that there were so many people out there with such awful views towards people of the Islamic faith. After a few days a new group came up called 'Muslims against Islam4UK march through Wootton Bassett'. I went to have a look, and saw a few familiar names that I'd seen on the other march group. I hesitated at first before joining, as the title did say Muslims, but I really wanted to say that not all non-Muslims had this view of Islam, or Muslims. The welcome into the group was lovely, and within a couple of days I had been made an Administrator. In the early days of the group, it was a really good place to go, to talk to people with similar views, and to get away from some of the hate we were all seeing. The other March group had gained a lot of media attention, and had grown to over 700,000 members by that time, and the Admins were still not getting a grip on all the racist and Islamophobic posts. Slowly our group began to grow, and we decided to include 'Non-Muslims' in the title, because we wanted to show that people of all faiths were standing together against Islam4UK. 

More and more people joined our group, saying how good it was to find a group that opposed the march, but wasn't racist and Islamophobic to all Muslims. So many great discussions started to happen, between people from all faiths/backgrounds, each wanting to learn from each other. I found myself learning about the Islamic faith, and I was able to ask lots of questions, without feeling ignorant for asking. After the Islam4UK march had been called off, none of us wanted to disband the group. We had built a great online community, but obviously we needed a new focus. The name was changed to United Shades of Britain (Muslims and Non-Muslims who oppose Extremism), and we began to look at a wider range of topics. Whenever I look through the discussion board, the range of topics we have debated amazes me. 

Over the last three months we have grown an incredible amount.  I've found myself learning about so many different subjects, things that have confused me in the past, but not had the opportunity of asking questions about. What I've also found since joining this group is my voice. I've always kept up with what goes on in the world, I've always been interested in the political side of our country, and I've always wanted to be a part of something where I could say how I felt, and hopefully do some good. I've often felt so frustrated at the injustices there are in society, across the country, and the world. Part of that frustration was the inability to do anything about it. I'm not an expert on anything really, I'm not an academic either, but I do know right from wrong. I'm a bit of an idealist, because I do believe that people can get along with each other if they understand each other, or at least respect a person's view, even if it is not something you agree with.  So that's my reason for being here really. I'd like less hate and ignorance in the world, and more understanding and empathy, and I do believe that communication and education is the way to break down barriers that are put up in society.