Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Leveson on media misrepresentation of Muslims and migrants

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Leveson reportThe Leveson report into press standards includes a section on “Ethnic minorities, immigrants and asylum seekers”, which draws on evidence presented by ENGAGE, former Daily Star journalist Richard Peppiatt, Peter Oborne of the Daily Telegraph and others about the atrocious treatment of Muslims by the tabloid press.

Leveson writes that “the identification of Muslims, migrants, asylum seekers and gypsies/travellers as the targets of press hostility and/or xenophobia in the press, was supported by the evidence seen by the Inquiry”.

He concludes that, while much of the press has acted responsibly, “there are enough examples of careless or reckless reporting to conclude that discriminatory, sensational or unbalanced reporting in relation to ethnic minorities, immigrants and/or asylum seekers is a feature of journalistic practice in parts of the press, rather than an aberration”.

The relevant section of the report has been reproduced by the Electronic Immigration Network, or you can read it here.

Mona Eltahawy in court over defacing posters: ‘I’m proud of what I did’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writer and activist Mona Eltahawy appeared in court on Thursday on charges of criminal mischief for spray-painting an anti-Muslim poster in a New York City subway station.

Eltahawy was offered a plea deal but chose to go to trial for charges of criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of an instrument of graffiti.

“I actually look forward to standing trial, because I acted out of principle and I’m proud of what I did and I will spray-paint that ad again in a second,” Eltahawy told the Guardian.

Guardian, 29 November 2012

Feminist scholar’s book on hijab’s rise wins award

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Quiet RevolutionAt first, feminist religion scholar Leila Ahmed was alarmed by the growing visibility of young American Muslim women wearing headscarves. She feared that a politicized, male-dominated fundamentalism had migrated from her native Egypt to her adopted United States.

Instead, Ahmed reached what she admits was an “astonishing” conclusion: “Islamists and the children of Islamists … were now in the vanguard of those who were most fully and rapidly assimilating into the distinctively American tradition of activism in pursuit of justice,” Ahmed wrote in her book, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America.

Many women who wore the hijab, or headscarf, “now essentially made up the vanguard of those who are struggling for women’s rights in Islam,” Ahmed wrote.

For her 2011 book documenting a century of trends in the politically and socially loaded question of the hijab, Ahmed has received the 2013 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Courier-Journal, 30 November 2012

Study shows increase in negative messages about Muslims in the media

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Organizations using fear and anger to spread negative messages about Muslims have moved from the fringes of public discourse into the mainstream media since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to new research by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sociologist.

Titled, “The Fringe Effect: Civil Society Organizations and the Evolution of Media Discourse about Islam since the September 11th Attacks,” the study appears in the December issue of the American Sociological Review.

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Jewish, Hindu and Muslim leaders condemn attack at Queens mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid Al-Saaliheen interfaith eventJewish, Hindu and Muslim leaders from Queens gathered with lawmakers to denounce the possible hate crime committed at a Kew Gardens Hills Mosque earlier this month, and city Comptroller John Liu suggested some of the NYPD’s policies could make bias crimes more common.

“An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” said Imam Shamsi Ali, of the Jamaica Muslim Center, who gathered religious leaders from around Flushing in the wake of the Nov. 18 attack.

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Sinn Féin calls on DUP councillor to apologise for anti-Muslim remarks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Sinn Fein councillor has challenged former Craigavon Mayor Alan Carson to “make a full public apology to Muslims living in Craigavon” after remarks he made during a debate on Monday night. However the DUP man insists that Councillor Johnny McGibbon is “simply scoring political points from a genuine mistake I made and for which I apologised immediately”.

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Islamophobia doesn’t exist, according to AP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Associated Press style guide has prohibited use of the terms Islamophobia and homophobia. Under the heading “phobia” we find the following: “An irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness. Examples: acrophobia, a fear of heights, and claustrophobia, a fear of being in small, enclosed spaces. Do not use in political or social contexts: homophobia, Islamophobia.”

Update:  See Patrick Strudwick, “‘Homophobia’ and ‘Islamophobia’ are the right words for the job”, Comment is Free, 27 November 2012

As he points out: “Phobias are of course a spectrum. Someone who thinks that gay men might be too hedonistic to properly bring up a child is less phobic than someone who refuses to sit next to a Muslim because they are convinced anyone belonging to Islam is harbouring extremist tendencies. But they’re all symptoms of an irrational, disproportionate fear: a phobia.”