The BBC's Newsbeat website has just published a piece on a 'damning survey' (as it's usually put) of young people's attitudes to Muslims in the UK. The results were rather negative. (The survey itself was carried out in June, 2013.
Perhaps because of that, the BBC evidently saw it necessary to portray Muslims in a positive light in order to counteract such negativity. One way in which it did so – and it's a way which others have replicated on many occasions – was by using the now obligatory image of a Muslim woman (usually in a hijab, an Islamic garment which covers the hair) flying the Union Flag. (They use the Stars and Stripes in the United States.)
Only this image went one step further. Instead of an image of a Muslim woman with a hijab waving the Union Flag, this image was one of a woman in a niqab, or veil, doing the same thing! Usually these photos are of brown-skinned models, probably not Muslims; this time it looked like the genuine article – but you never know. [LIBERTY GB] Read more
