At Comment is Free Angela Phillips and Laura Smith discuss The Search for Common Ground: Muslims, Non-Muslims and the UK Media, the report published by the Mayor of London this week.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
‘Should I expect a knock on the door?’ More on the conviction of Samina Malik
“What about Malik’s documents, the ‘records’ key to her conviction? Reports mention three – a service manual for a rifle, a jihadist text called ‘Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places’, and the Mujahideen Poisons handbook. It took me five minutes of Googling to get hold of them. The jihadist text turns out to be a fatwa by Osama bin Laden. Verso include it in a published collection of his speeches. Interest in the 7.62mm Dragunov sniper rifle implies, I suppose, that you have one. Or that you think guns are cool. The poisons handbook is a 23-page pamphlet summarising a lot of public-domain information. There’s a certain transgressive glamour to this material, and perhaps it indicates unhealthy interests, but I doubt that, if the possessor weren’t a self-declared jihadi sympathiser with a security pass at Heathrow, anyone would find it significant. Presumably an irreligious thirtysomething author can still read what he wants? Or should I really expect a knock on the door?”
Hari Kunzru in the Guardian, 15 November 2007
Is Islam good for London?
The Evening Standard reports on yesterday evening’s discussion, organised around this question.
Rod Liddle is quoted as saying: “Islam is masochistic, homophobic and a totalitarian regime. It is a fascistic, bigoted and medieval religion.” He and Joan Smith argued the case for the negative. However, when you see that those presenting the case in favour included Ed Husain and Michael Burleigh, it would appear that Inayat Bunglawala was the only voice of reason in this skewed debate.
Video links here.
See also Inayat’s post at Comment is Free.
‘Undesirables’ debate
Pete Tobias takes issue with last night’s Evening Standard debate, “Is Islam good for London?”
“… the issue is not so much the outcome as the title of the event itself. How would any minority group feel if it were to find itself the subject of such a public debate? What might be the response if the Evening Standard invited readers to consider the question ‘Is Hinduism good for London?’ or question the value of the contribution made by any other minority group to the capital’s well-being? The problem lies in the fact that the question is being asked at all, and the improbability of any other religious or ethnic group having the same question asked about it should set a number of alarm bells ringing.
“I suppose we should be grateful that the Evening Standard was at least kind enough to frame its prejudice as a question. Just under 100 years ago, the same newspaper ran a series entitled ‘Problem of the Alien’, assuring its readers that the city was being ‘overrun by undesirables’ who had set up ‘vast foreign areas’ and were ‘a growing menace’. They were referring, of course, to the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, among them my great-grandparents.”
Dispatches ‘Undercover Mosque’ debate
Patricia Holland, Dave Crouch and Tim Gopsill debate the Channel 4 documentary.
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, 12 November 2007
Muslim minister sues over claim of intimidating voters
Britain’s first Muslim Government minister yesterday launched a libel battle in the High Court over claims that he organised “gangs of Asian thugs” to intimidate voters in a local election.
International Development Minister Shahid Malik is said to have “overseen and directed” up to 200 Asian Labour activists to help secure victory for a Muslim councillor. The men are said to have breached electoral rules by escorting voters to the polling station while telling them in Urdu to choose the Muslim Labour candidate. Mr Malik is also accused of encouraging ethnic division in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, by urging Asians to vote for “their Muslim brother” rather than according to their political opinion.
The allegations were first made by former Conservative councillor Jonathan Scott in a letter to the Dewsbury Press newspaper, after he was unseated as a local councillor. It describes how “Malik’s ethnic entourage behaved no better than BNP thugs” on polling day in the Dewsbury South ward of Kirklees Council. The letter – and a follow-up news story on the same topic – went on to claim that “Malik convinced local Asian voters to vote for Labour candidates… on the grounds that those candidates were ‘Muslim brothers'”.
Mr Malik appeared in court in London to give evidence against Mr Scott, the newspaper and the newspaper’s editor. Mr Malik’s lawyer Adam Wolanksi said the allegations were untrue and caused the 39-year-old MP for Dewsbury to be seen as “a racist and dangerous extremist who is unfit to hold public office”.
Media report reveals ‘torrent’ of negative Muslim stories
A “torrent” of negative stories has been revealed by a study of the portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the British media, according to a report today. Research into one week’s news coverage showed that 91% of articles in national newspapers about Muslims were negative.
London mayor Ken Livingstone, who commissioned the study, said the findings were a “damning indictment” on the media and he urged editors and programme makers to review the way they portray Muslims. “The overall picture presented by the media is that Islam is profoundly different from and a threat to the West,” he said. “There is a scale of imbalance which no fair-minded person would think is right.” Only 4% of the 352 articles studied last year were positive, he said.
Mr Livingstone told his weekly news conference that the findings showed a “hostile and scaremongering attitude” among the national media towards Islam and likened the coverage to the way the Left was attacked by national newspapers in the early 1980s. “The charge is that there are virtually no positive or balanced images of Islam being portrayed,” he said. “I think there is a demonisation of Islam going on which damages community relations and creates alarm among Muslims.”
Among the examples highlighted in the study was a report which claimed that Christmas was being banned in one area because it offended Muslims, which researchers said was “inaccurate and alarmist”.
The report said that Muslims in Britain were depicted as a threat to traditional British values. Alternative world views or opinions were not mentioned and facts were frequently distorted, exaggerated or over-simplified, said the report. The researchers said that the coverage weakened government attempts to reduce and prevent extremism.
A separate opinion poll published by Mr Livingstone today showed that Muslims in London were more likely to feel “British” in their attitudes than other members of the community. More Muslims were proud of their local area compared with other members of the public.
Chris Allen, one of the experts involved in the compilation of the report, has recently published an interesting collection, The First Decade of Islamophobia, to mark the tenth anniversary of the publication of the Runnymede Trust/Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia’s report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All.
Muslim attitudes – the real story
A new survey released today by the Greater London Authority confirms that London’s Muslim communities shares common values and concerns with the wider community, repudiating the image of conflicting values portrayed by certain sections of the media.
The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: “There has been much discussion about how to engage politically and socially with the Muslim community, but this survey shows that the vast majority of Muslims hold views in common with the rest of London about respect for the law, the value of democracy, the importance of mutual respect and equal opportunities, and debunking myths that are so readily perpetuated by some commentators and in certain sections of the media. The view that the Muslim community as a whole holds fundamentally different views to the rest of Londoners is shown by these figures to be totally untrue. That is why those who attempt to demonise the Muslim community do great damage. It is, on the contrary, necessary to work with the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community to isolate the small number of dangerous people. Co-operation with the Muslim community is vital for the intelligence the police need to safeguard terrorists who kille Muslims just as much as other Londoners.”
The survey shows that Muslims in London want a society based on mutual respect for different beliefs as much as other Londoners. More than three fifths of Muslims believe it is important to have the freedom to say what they believe is true (84 per cent of Muslims and 88 per cent of Londoners as a whole). Furthermore, 95 per cent of Muslims think everyone should be free to practise their religion openly, compared to 86 per cent of the public.
The Mayor added: “One in twelve Londoners is Muslim and London’s Muslim communities, in all their diversity, play an essential part in the life of our city, contributing to its success as a global city. These findings show that Muslim Londoners whilst valuing their faith, share the same values as other Londoners. I will continue to work to increase understanding combat some of the ignorance, prejudice and Islamaphobia stirred up by some sections of the media which is deeply dangerous to Londoners.”
Our liberty depends on defending Muslims
“Many Irish Catholics across the UK supported, funded, harboured and cheered on the IRA men of violence. Some were passive supporters, thought bedfellows. I do not recall any collective punishment being meted out in the way we see with Muslims today. Nor was anyone tried and convicted for thinking the terrorists were right….
“Using the war on terror, our state is now ready to bend all citizens to its will. But remember unacceptable tactics approved for use on us Muslims today will be used on others tomorrow. And the terrorists will have achieved their biggest ambition – the death of British democracy.”
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in the Independent, 12 November 2007
The strange journey of Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“The former ‘liberal’ who becomes an outspoken right-winger has become an American political archetype. Ronald Reagan and David Horowiz are two prime examples of the breed….
“Recently, a related version of this turncoat persona – former Dutch Member of Parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali – has emerged: a ‘reformed’ Muslim woman who favors crushing Islam under the boot of Western militarism. Once very devout in her Muslim beliefs, Ali has gained a great deal of media attention – including horrific tales of her abuse at the hands of Muslim men – and has transformed into an outspoken critic who bases her calls for the destruction of Islam on feminist and human rights principles….
“She is poised to become the most recognizable face of naked Islamophobia in America. Expect to see her as a ubiquitous guest on cable news channels and frequent contributor of op-eds reinforcing the worst stereotypes about the Muslim world. She’ll validate already disturbingly common narratives about the perfidy of Islam, and she’ll tout the vast superiority of Western thinking in stark terms that would be shocking coming from a more traditional (read: white, Christian) right-wing commentator….
“Hirsi Ali has become a darling of those who believe in the benevolence of Western hegemony; The Economist described her as a ‘cultural ideologue of the new right’…. Her outspoken advocacy on feminist ethical issues – roundly condemning ‘honor killings’ and female circumcision – has also made her a poster-girl for the aggressive brand of atheism typified by figures like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, all three of whom have held her life-story up as an example of the harms caused by religion in general, and Islam in particular. For them, she’s a living testament to the idea that rational liberal interventionists in the post-Enlightenment West have a moral duty to wage a new crusade against the Muslim world.”
Joshua Holland at AlterNet, 12 November 2007