Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Media has anti-Muslim bias, claims report

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The portrayal of Arab and Muslim people in the western media is “typically stereotypical and negative”, according to a new study of perceptions of Islam.

The report, commissioned by the Kuwaiti government and based on a surveys and interviews with media experts, claims that terrorism, anti-Americanism and the Iraq occupation dominate TV news coverage of the Middle East.

“In the past 30 years of thousands of TV show series, there have been less than 10 characters who have been Arab-Americans,” the report claims.

“In print stereotypes are not so obvious, except in cartoon caricatures, but they still occur and anti-Muslim bias is more insidious. The terms Islamic or Muslim are linked to extremism, militant, jihads, as if they belonged together inextricably and naturally (Muslim extremist, Islamic terror, Islamic war, Muslim time bomb).

“In many cases, the press talks and writes about Muslims in ways that would not be acceptable if the reference were to Jewish, black or fundamentalist Christians.”

The report says the portrayal of Islam is improving in “certain prestigious news organisations” but that TV news continues to be dominated by coverage of terrorist attacks and hostage images “to shock and engage jaded viewers”.

“Western media organisations must see normal Muslims in everyday life, as professionals, educators, parents, community leaders and participants,” it adds.

The study claims that TV news and documentaries have the strongest influence on people’s views of Islam, followed by newspaper coverage.

Guardian, 14 November 2005

Is the BBC lost in its own Moral Maze?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“In my article earlier this year (19 July 2005), I questioned the BBC’s persistence in keeping the anti-Muslim Melanie Phillips on the panel of the Radio Four programme, The Moral Maze. Four months on and her poisonous spin continues to fill the airwaves twice a week…. She utilises every opportunity on air to pour scorn on Islam and Muslims. The BBC shoulders the blame for promoting Ms Phillips at a time when the need for community cohesion and sincere dialogue has never been more pronounced….

“In order to understand the absurdity of the BBC’s persistence in this matter, it would be instructive for the producers for one moment to consider what they would do if it became clear that a permanent panellist on one of their high profile programmes was also a hard-line ‘fundamentalist’ who routinely used the opportunity to ridicule Jews and Judaism?”

Shaykh Riyad Nadwi on the OCCRi website, 14 November 2005

French problem affects rest of Europe as well

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Haroon Siddiqui“France is proudly mono-cultural, insisting that its residents shed all their identities and ‘be French’…. Yet, when facing social problems, the French attribute them to their pluralism. To a lesser degree, Germany and others do the same. ‘Multiculturalism has failed, big time’, said Angela Merkel, on her way to becoming chancellor. But Germany never had a policy of recognizing all cultures. What it has is an immigrant population that long ago ceased to be only white and Christian. That’s what she was complaining about. So was former chancellor Helmut Schmidt, 85, saying of the 2.6 million Turkish Germans, that it had been a big mistake to have let them in.

“Immigration was fine until the wretched Muslims came!

“A second theme coursing through public debate concerns the adaptability or otherwise of immigrants/Muslims: ‘They do not integrate.’ ‘They do not fit in; they cannot fit in.’ ‘They live in France but are not of France’ (or Germany, Holland, Belgium, etc.). ‘They don’t consider themselves French’ (or German, Dutch, etc.).  But it is the French, the Germans and others who deny jobs to Arabs/Turks/Muslims because of who they are, while the latter cry out to be treated as the French/German/Dutch citizens and long-time residents that they are.

“This is a neat trick. You won’t let them forget their ethnic/religious identity but blame them for keeping it. You won’t give them jobs but blame them for not having any. You build barriers to integration but blame them for not integrating. You pursue policies of social and economic segregation that produce poor, crime-riddled ghettoes, but you accuse them of domestic Balkanization.”

Haroon Siddiqui in the Toronto Star, 13 November 2005

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France and the Muslim myth

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jason_Burke“Analysts and commentators often seek to find evidence to support their well-established ideas in any given event…. But little compares with the extraordinary way in which the disturbances of the last two weeks have been hijacked by those who appear set on either finding, or creating, a ‘clash of civilisations’ between Islam and the West. Take one particularly egregious example. Melanie Phillips, writing in the Daily Mail, described the riots in France as ‘a French intifada, an uprising by French Muslims against the state’.”

Jason Burke in the Observer, 13 November 2005

Muslim warns of community fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A leading Welsh Muslim has warned that the detention of a Libyan man in Cardiff six weeks ago is damaging race relations in Wales. Mohammed Javed, chair of the Cardiff Police Advisory Committee, said the case had panicked the community.

“People in Islamic communities are asking, ‘Who is next?’,” he said. “If people can come and pick anybody without disclosing why they are doing it, it will affect race relations in Wales. This one arrest has already made quite a bit of difference to race relations here.”

BBC News, 13 November 2005

Who said that multiculturalism has failed?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Who said that multiculturalism has failed?

By Ken Livingstone

Morning Star, 12 November 2005

Against a backdrop of the London bombings, the scenes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the riots in French towns and cities, a furious debate on racial equality and community relations has unfolded in the media over the summer and autumn.

After the terrorist attacks in July, some commentators and newspapers urged London to abandon its policies of respect for different cultures and celebration of diversity – in favour of what some described as the “French model.”

The suggestion was that London, by celebrating the contribution of different cultures to our city, was emphasising differences rather than what people have in common and encouraging “segregation.”

Only this week, writing in Daily Express, Leo McKinstry ranted that “we are living in the shadow of fear because of our rulers’ attachment to the twin dogmas of mass immigration and cultural diversity.”

“Without giving us any say,” he claimed, “they have imported wholesale the problems of the Third World – from corruption to superstition, from tribalism to misogyny – into advanced, democratic, Christian cultures.”

Faced with the events in France, the opponents of multiculturalism have had to perform unedifying contortions.

Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail inverts reality by claiming that France had abandoned the French model, arguing that the banning of the hijab and other religious symbols was “too little, and maybe too late” and that the warning from France was that “we must end the ruinous doctrine of multiculturalism and reassert British identity.”

The truth of course is that the French model is fundamentally different to that of multiculturalism – as the ban on the hijab so clearly underlines.

But the critics of multiculturalism are simply wrong about what is happening in Britain.

In reality the Greater London Authority’s research shows that the real trend is not of “segregation” of ethnic minorities, but of increased dispersal as new communities become established over time.

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Anti-Prophet cartoons deliberate provocation: expert

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Danish caricatures which showed Prophet Muhammad as a stereotypical fundamentalist would fuel the sense of persecution among young Muslims in the country, a Danish expert warned on Thursday, November 10.

“The cartoons seem to have been a deliberate move by the newspaper to provoke Muslim sentiment in a totally legal manner,” Bjorn Moller, a senior research fellow at the Danish Institute of International Studies told The Christian Science Monitor.

Twelve drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in Denmark’s largest circulation daily Jyllands-Posten on September 30. In one of the drawings, he appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.

Moller said the public expressions of racism are increasing, citing one right-wing member of parliament who compared Denmark’s Muslim community to cancer.

“Things which people wouldn’t have been allowed to say a couple of years ago are now being said openly,” Moller added. It’s becoming more socially acceptable to use that kind of language and that’s bound to alienate Muslims and create fanaticism.

“A growing number of people see being a Dane and being a Muslim as incompatible,” Moller added.

Moller said the right-wing Danish People’s Party, the country’s third largest, is behind controversial government attempts to stabilize Denmark’s growing Muslim community at no more than 10 percent of the total 5.5 million population.

“The emphasis is rapidly becoming to keep out as many people as possible, regardless of whether they’ve been tortured or persecuted,” he said.

Islam Online, 10 November 2005

Terror bill chilling for Muslims, Blair warned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The anti-terror bill will create a “significant chill factor” in the Muslim community, censor those who criticise British foreign policy and drive extremists further underground, the government’s advisers warned yesterday.

The fears were voiced by the Muslim community working groups set up by the Home Office to prevent the growth of extremism after the July terror attacks. The warning centres on the remaining provisions in the proposed legislation – such as the ban on the “glorification” of terrorist acts – that are likely to become the next focus of parliamentary dissent after Tony Blair’s defeat on holding terrorist suspects for 90 days without charge.

The Muslim community’s police and security working group report makes clear that many believe the present anti-terror regime is already excessive, and that the measures risk provoking further radicalisation of young British Muslims.

Guardian, 11 November 2005

Race crime prosecutions up by 29%

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Iqbal SacranieRace hate crime cases rose by almost a third in England and Wales in 2004-05, latest figures from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have shown.

The CPS prosecuted 4,660 defendants for racially aggravated offences, up by 29% from 3,616 for the previous year. The CPS said better co-ordination with police and lawyers had increased the confidence of victims to prosecute.

Religiously aggravated cases dropped to 34 from 49 the previous year, with 23 of the victims’ actual or perceived religion being Muslim. It was Jewish in five cases, Christian in four, Hindu in two and Mormon in one. In four cases the religion was unknown.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said the CPS figures were “obviously very troubling”.

“What adds to our concern is that they refer to race hate incidents prior to the July 7 atrocities after which we saw a large number of ‘revenge’ attacks against Muslims. We would urge people from all communities to report these kinds of racist attacks to the police immediately. There must be no toleration at all of race hate or faith hate crimes.”

BBC News, 11 November 2005

Gay people urged to reject racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racism has no place in the Lesbian and Gay Community

We are deeply concerned that the autumn issue of The Gay and Lesbian Humanist magazine includes a number of statements which can be interpreted as racist, including support for the now deceased gay Dutch racist, Pim Fortuyn.

One article demonised immigrants stating: ‘our major towns and cities being for ever changed by huge numbers of foreign settlers’, referred to as: ‘the often poor, ill-educated and culturally estranged Third Worlders’ many of whom ‘are criminals of the worst kind.’ (p.11)

Another article denounces all Muslims, stating: ‘what does a moderate Muslim do, other than excuse the real nutters by adhering to this barmy doctrine?’ (p.6)

The magazine endorses views of the deceased far right Dutch leader Pim Fortuyn, saying: ‘the warning of popular gay politician Pim Fortuyn were tragically snuffed out by a left wing assassin before he could sufficiently alert people to the damage the influx of Muslims is doing to his own native land.’ (p.12)

This attitude to Fortuyn is consistent. As long ago as 2002, the editor wrote of him approvingly: ‘his “crime” in the eyes of many was that he said his country could take no more immigrants.’

We believe that the lesbian and gay community has nothing to gain from racism. On the contrary, we pledge to work with the Black and Asian communities to tackle racism and the far right which threaten all of our human rights and indeed our very lives.

We differ with the leaders of most religions in their all too often bigoted attitudes to lesbian and gay rights but rather than demonise any one religion or race or immigrants, we will work with lesbian and gay Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, people of all religions and none, to promote respect for our human rights.

Denis Fernando, Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism
Ubaid, Secretary, Imaan, The LGBT Muslim support group
Dennis Carney, Chair, Black Gay Mens Advisory Group
Takhsin Begum,  Black representative, NUS LGBT Campaign
Black Lesbians UK
UNISON LGBT Committee
Kirsten Hearn, Chair of the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board of the Metropolitan Police Authority
Peter Herbert, Chair, London Race Hate Crime Forum and Spokesperson, Society of Black Lawyers
Reeva Bell, Chair, National Black Crown Prosecution Association
Simon Wooley, Chair, Operation Black Vote / Director, Black Londoners Forum
Pav Akhtar, NUS Black Students Officer
Brenda Ellis, Regard Executive Committee member
Pam Burrows, Satori Diversity and Training