.... The real-world consequences of the spread of one of the last acceptable forms of bigotry affects the very cohesiveness of our society. According to the largest survey of its kind in the UK, over a quarter of children aged between 10 and 16 believe Islam encourages terrorism, and almost a third believe Muslims are taking over the country. In addition, 37% of British people who were surveyed admitted they would support policies to reduce the number of Muslims in the country. Is it any wonder that more and more Muslims feel alienated?
.... The final piece in the jigsaw is regulation. Clause 12 of the Editors’ Code of Practice says: “Details of an individual’s race, colour, religion … must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story.” The problem is that this protection only extends to individuals and not to groups, which is why Katie Hopkins was able to get away with her infamous comments comparing refugees to “cockroaches”.
The arguments about censorship and free speech are complex – but Jonathan Heawood of the Impress Project, an independent monitor of the press, believes the Editors’ Code should incorporate Lord Leveson’s suggestion that this clause is broadened to include groups. This would allow representative groups to hold the media to account for using “Islam” or “Muslims” where it was not “genuinely relevant” to the story.
We are equal members of society and demand fairness, not favours. Avoiding daily smears, group libel and the violent consequences is not too much to ask of the nation’s editors. [2294 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 426 votes] Maybe a little integration might help the Muslim population, just a thought.
[2ND 420] The day Muslims recognise women as having the same rights as men - equal before the law is the day I will treat them as anything other than very observant participants of mass delusion and fantasy
[3RD 371] The followers of Islam are writing their own headlines! Forty years ago Muslims use to rub along with the people of other faiths. They lived side by side as neighbors, now they cant seem to live in harmony with anyone out of their own tribe or family. Stop blaming the messenger for writing the headlines you created!
[4TH 338] Muslims and Islam do not demand fairness; they insist on submission. The aim of promoters of Islamic values is the subjugation of Christian and other mores. The establishment of a caliphate and of Sharia law here in the UK and in other European countries is a clearly stated long term aim of its activists.
Religiosity has long been looked on with a fishy eye in the West; its track record of causing division and misery based on trivialism is well documented and the democracies have long largely compelled those that would advance the cause of religion to do so on their own time and to their own adherents.
French and US school system secularism are good examples of this. Here in the UK you can have faith schools just so long as they don't exclude or select on the basis of faith and teach the national curriculum.
It is important that the press and other opinion conduits be allowed to "tell it like it is"; Islam represents a clear danger to our Western way of life, to the values that we have fought so very hard to share.
We should not listen to the weasel words of the apologists; there is nothing in Islamic teaching of even the remotest value or relevance to life today in the 21st century and we should oppose its spread with as much energy and determination as we can muster.
We must not permit the promotion of Islam because it is just another set of crackpot beliefs. It isn't. It's an all or nothing social and political system that cannot co-exist with any other.
If we allow our awful politicians to add opposition to Islam to the increasingly long list of thoughts that are "crimes" we will live to regret it.
[5TH 304] According to the largest survey of its kind in the UK, over a quarter of children aged between 10 and 16 believe Islam encourages terrorism,
Which means that about 75% don't believe it.
Which isn't bad considering during a very recent high profile act of terrorism - Charlie Hebdo attack - the attackers/terrorists loudly proclaimed it was because of Islam supposedly being insulted. Plus, many other terrorists attacks like 9/11 and 7/7 are due to terrorists who loudly proclaim themselves to be Muslim.
Perhaps instead of lecturing news editors you should be lecturing terrorists to not assign their acts to Islam?
[6TH 303] It would also help their cause if they came out strongly against the terrorists. With the horror in the Middle east we barely hear a wimper from Australian Muslims.
[7TH 268] 1. Why did The Guardian, the BBC, and other mainstream publications for years fail to report on the amazingly widespread phenomenon of predominantly Asian men grooming white girls? Because of an anti-Muslim bias?
2. When the most horrific regime in modern history-the Islamic State-is not only butchering people with mind-boggling depravity, but has recruited more British Muslims than are enrolled in the British army, how is it possible that even our Islamo-fearing media could fail to use the word 'Islamic' in a negative context.
3. I notice that your study doesn't say anything about whether the stories are true.
4. Why on earth would the media go out of their way to write stories that use 'Islam' in a positive sense? Should they be writing 'Islamic distance runner Mo Farah wins again,' or 'Muslim man rescues cat from a tree.'
I haven't seen many articles that say, comparably, 'Christian men rescue stranger from drowning.' We have already seen this year an amazing rash of BBC stories and programs that beat us about the face with Islamic themes and try to get us excited about Islamic holidays, while doing nothing comparable for, say, Lent or any Hindu holidays.
5. The Guardian's own Steve Bell is on record saying that Islam is about the only subject he doesn't feel comfortable lampooning. That is the exceptional treatment you should be worried about.
6. I don't know anybody who doesn't know that 'jihad' is used to mean 'personal struggle' as well as 'war on the infidel.' Muslims tell us this ad nauseam, while simultaneously trying to eliminate 'crusade' (meaning good cause) from the vocabulary because of its associations.
I could go on..
[8TH 252] ".... the regular association of Islam and Muslims with crime and terror in the media and on the internet is vital to the spread of Islamophobic rhetoric."
Is the association truly without basis?
[9TH 233] I agree with your comment, Islam is not just a religion, its a social, religious political belief that most in do not understand, and the West ignore it at our own peril, because this incompatible faith is hell bent on colonizing Europe!
[10TH 228] This is essentially the same article that has been appearing on this site for years. It pushes the narrative of victimhood. It does not address the suffering caused worldwide by zealots in the name of Islam - including the suffering of their fellow-Muslims.
Some Muslims are wreaking havoc worldwide. Should the press ignore this? Look the other way? [Guardian Cif] Read more
