.... Some of that mocking, misreporting and unhelpful shorthand is starkly evident in our media every day, and confirmed by Professor Tony McEnery and Professor Paul Baker of Lancaster University. They have analysed some 220m words of coverage on Muslim matters published in the British press from 1998. Their latest research, commissioned by Muslim Engagement and Development and due to be published next month, spans the period 2010 to 2014, and while it reports some improvement in press discourse it indicates that many obvious faults remain.
.... “We were a nascent community, only just getting our voice heard,” he said, identifying the burning of the Satanic Verses in the streets of Bradford as a pivotal media moment. “That act alone provided the iconic photograph that would join a gallery of negative imagery of Muslims, providing the optics to demonise the community that carry on until this day.”
[TOP RATED COMMENT] A COMMENT SAID: "Most of the folks who discuss Islam negatively (by most I mean 98%) learn all they know from anti-Islamic web sites."
How do you know this? Anything which says something negative is hate speech? That sounds like sharia's concept of slander.
Besides. Who cares about their theology? I only care how they behave.
[2ND] Is there a similar project on the coverage of Sikhs and Hindus in this country? If not, why not?
The answers are, of course, NO and NOT NECESSARY, as the personal piety and religious life of the many Hindus and Sikhs in this country does cause any alarm or worries to the population as a whole (nor interfere with them being highly effective compatriots).
Is it logically impossible that some things that SOME Muslims do explicitly citing Muslim sacred texts as authority could be a matter of deep concern to fellow citizens?
If you are of the Guardianista persuasion, the answer is YES. It clashes with Guardianista ideology and thus any further discussion of the issue is pathological and those who wish to persist in discussing it vicious bigots.
[3RD] That act alone provided the iconic photograph that would join a gallery of negative imagery of Muslims, providing the optics to demonise the community that carry on until this day.
Yes, it is astonishing that when a community acts in a negative manner factually reporting it casts a negative light on them.
[4TH] Trust me, I would dearly love not to be reading about Muslims every time I open a newspaper. [The Guardian] Read more
