Muslim media image ‘must change’

A “rising tide of Islamophobia” in the media must be challenged by Muslim students, the Mayor of London has said.
Some newspapers depicted refugees as bringing crime and disease into the UK, Ken Livingstone told a Federation of Student Islamic Societies conference.

Fosis said about 90% of the 250 UK Muslim students it asked thought the media image of Muslims needs to change. Its survey also found 95% were unhappy with British foreign policy, with Iraq being the main reason mentioned.

Mr Livingstone compared the reporting of Muslims in contemporary Britain to the way the flight of Jews from Russia had been covered 100 years ago. He said both had been attacked, despite coming from “areas of conflict or places of oppression”.

Some newspapers, he said, have decided that in order to sell copies “it doesn’t matter what the origin of your victim is, so long as you can stir up fear in the host country”.

BBC News, 31 August 2005