Researchers looking at the way British Muslims are represented by the media say they have found that most coverage is negative in tone. A Cardiff University team behind the study looked at nearly 1,000 newspaper articles from the past eight years. Two-thirds focused on terrorism or cultural differences, and much of it used words such as militancy, radicalism and fundamentalist. The research was commissioned by Channel Four’s Dispatches.
Read the report (pdf) here.
The fascist British National Party (BNP) plans to ratchet up its hate campaign against Muslims by calling a “national rally” in Stoke-on-Trent on Saturday 9 August.
Nazi leader Nick Griffin visited the city last Sunday to announce the rally. “We are expecting large numbers of people from around the country to converge on the city,” he said. “We shall be touring the estates and visiting much of Stoke-on-Trent.”
Anti-Nazi campaigners have vowed to confront the BNP’s latest plans to target Muslims. “We’ve been warning that the BNP are planning to make a shift like this towards whipping up race hatred on the ground,” said Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism (UAF).
“This is how the BNP plans to lay the groundwork for next year’s mayoral elections in Stoke. They thrive in an atmosphere of racism and bigotry – and now they plan to create that climate in the city. Everyone opposed to the BNP must stand together against this poison.”
Respect is aiming to send at least 100 activists to join protests against an anti-Islam conference organised by Europe’s fascists. At the recent anti-fascist march in London, it appealed for activists to come to Cologne.
Thanks to George Bush’s war on terror, Islamophobia is the acceptable face of racism. The fascists and far right across Europe have put attacks on Muslims at the centre of their propaganda.
This September the European far right is set to gather in the German city of Cologne for an anti-Muslim hate-fest. Anti-racists, trade unions, survivors of the Holocaust, Muslim groups and others across Germany are calling on people to come to the city in protest. Respect is organising a large delegation to join this major protest, blockade and counter-conference over the weekend of 20 and 21 September.
Nadir Ahmed, one of the organisers of the delegation, says, “The BNP’s Richard Barnbrook is due to be in Cologne alongside veteran fascists like Jean Marie Le Pen.
“Every far right party wants to get a boost from it. A huge counter protest, on the other hand, will lift Muslims and anti-racists across the continent. The fascists appear to have chosen this date because it is right in the middle of Ramadan, when Muslims are fasting, tend not to travel far, and spend a lot of time with friends and family.
“Well, for me and many Muslims going to Cologne to stop this Nuremberg rally for Islamophobia definitely comes under the category of essential travel and an obligation to act justly. I hope many brothers and sisters, Muslim and non-Muslim, join us.”
For details phone Nadir on 07951 058864.
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) in the UK and Eire has welcomed the need for more balanced media coverage in the UK. It followed the Dispatches documentary aired on Channel 4 by the reporter Peter Oborne.
Faisal Hanjra, president of FOSIS, said today, “It has always been clear, and the airing of tonight’s programme further reiterated, the need for sensible reporting on issues related to Islam. We welcome discussion around points in Islam but there is a fundamental need to balance debates and to avoid inflaming tensions particularly in communities where misunderstandings already exist.”
He further added, “Clearly there is a necessity for communities to come together to defeat terror and it is high time that certain media outlets realise their responsibility in acting as catalysts to bring people together and not to tear community groups apart. Such actions do nothing but aid the very people seeking to divide us.”
Sohaib Saeed reflects on the London bombings.
Trevor Kavanagh replies to Peter Oborne’s Dispatches documentary.
For responses to Kavanagh see Obsolete and Lenin’s Tomb.
When a tabloid newspaper reports that a ‘Muslim hate mob’ is daubing abuse, can we believe them?
The Independent publishes another extract from the pamphlet Muslims Under Siege: Alienating Vulnerable Communities, by Peter Oborne and James Jones.
As tonight’s Dispatches shows, the media’s coverage of Islam alienates and demonises a vulnerable British minority.
Mehdi Hasan at Comment is Free, 7 July 2008
Don’t miss tonight’s Dispatches, on Channel 4, 8pm, which is billed as a counterblast to rampant Islamophobia.
It is presented by Peter Oborne, who has also written a pamphlet on the question. Oborne is a conservative commentator, which means that his intervention against what he calls “Britain’s last remaining socially acceptable form or bigotry” is therefore all the more newsworthy.
Salma Yaqoob, Birmingham Respect councillor, said:
“This is a very welcome pamphlet by Peter Oborne and it was pleasing to see his piece in the Daily Mail. While there is a deluge of negative images and reports about Muslim communities – as a study this week by researchers at Cardiff University has again detailed – there are voices speaking out. Tonight’s Dispatches programme on Channel 4 at 8pm looks set to be another powerful intervention.
“We in Respect are especially pleased by these developments as we see building a broad coalition against Islamphobia as critical to pushing it back.”
As the frenzy over Muslims’ stance from a police plan to use sniffing dogs in public places keeps making headlines across the UK, British Muslims affirmed that the fuss is actually about nothing, since their religion does not forbid using dogs for security reasons. “There is no harm in using trained dogs for security purposes,” Mufti Dr Shah Sadruddin, of Jamiatul Ulama UK (the Council of Muslim Scholars), told IslamOnline.net.
The controversy erupted late last month, with the newspapers reporting that some Muslims had raised objections over being searched by the explosive-detecting animals at train stations. The issue turned into a public debate a week later, with reports that Scottish Muslims are protesting an advert publicizing the police’s new non-emergency telephone number for picturing a puppy. Scottish Muslims have rebuffed the report, stressing that a picture a dog is not offensive to their religion.
Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in the UK, believes the issue of sniffer dogs “can be resolved with sensitivity. Some people might have problems praying after being sniffed,” Shadjareh said. “But I understand that trained dogs don’t need to actually make physical contact.”
For many Britons, the uproar over Muslims’ stance from dogs is totally taken out of proportion. “I’ve read some real bile aimed at Muslims over this – the internet is full of it,” Sandy Shaughnessy, 23, told IOL. “Everyone is asking why the rest of the white, civilised, free world has to accommodate these hateful Muslims. The reality is so different.” Shaughnessy says that the media has whipped up hatred against Muslims over the issue, while Muslims did not have the chance to explain their position. “Muslims don’t have the right wing media to magnify and manipulate a situation to such an extent. I don’t think it’s a massive problem, but it has escalated.”
Emdad Rahman reports. Islam Online, 6 July 2008