Daily Star - tone down the shrill
Daily Star - tone down the shrill Print
Wednesday, 24 November 2010 13:37
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By Nick Lowles

Last week Det Supt John Larkin, head of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, told the BBC that the activities of the English Defence League were pushing young Muslims towards Islamic extremist groups. His words echoed my recent blog where I said that the EDL and Muslims Against Crusades needed each other to justify their own existence - they were two sides of the same coin. It is a position you agreed with. Over 1,100 of you filled in our survey last week and 96% agreed with my analysis. Only 2% disagreed.

Originally published by Hope not Hate


If extremism breeds extremism it is also important to identify those who are fuelling this hatred in the first place and 73% of you told us it was the media. As a result we are launching a campaign for responsible journalism and have identified the Daily Star as our first target.


I have written a letter to the newspaper's editor Dawn Neesom and I want you to co-sign it with me - http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/responsible-reporting


We have gone through back copies of the Daily Star since Dawn Neesom became editor in 2003 and found hundreds of articles that portray Muslims in a negative way and very few where they have been portrayed positively. Many of these articles over-exaggerate the importance of tiny Muslim extremist groups while ignoring more mainstream Muslim opinion and use the words of these extremists to smear an entire faith. On other occasions they print inaccurate or slanted articles that whip up fear and mistrust.

I conclude my letter by saying: "Freedom of speech is correctly the cornerstone of British society but with freedom comes responsibility and we fear that your reporting is actually encouraging a growth in Muslim extremism in this country".

Will you tell Dawn to tone down the shrill? http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/responsible-reporting

Our message to Dawn is simple: by all means be critical, by all means condemn, but do so with responsibility. At the moment you are overstepping the mark and you are encouraging division and hatred. And, as Det Supt John Larkin points out, this hatred is breeding extremism.

Join us in telling Dawn and the Daily Star to stop being part of the cycle of hate.

Nick Lowles is editor of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight
Last Updated on Wednesday, 24 November 2010 13:54
 
Comments (2)
Hatred againt Muslims European Muslim Research Centre report
2 Sunday, 28 November 2010 15:08
Omar
An alarming picture of the physical violence, intimidation and discrimination faced by many of Britain's two million Muslims on a daily basis, was portrayed yesterday.Authors of the report, Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Robert Lambert,said in their introduction: "Much anti-Muslim violence in the UK is predicated on the rhetoric and practice of the 'war on terror' that George Bush and Tony Blair launched against 'an evil ideology' in the aftermath of 9/11."
Researchers found well-documented acts of violence perpetrated by followers of right-wing groups such as the British National Party and English Defence League, they said that the majority of attacks were carried out by "individuals who have become angry by negative portrayals of Muslims in the media".

Random acts of violence, the report said was a "disturbing" number of incidents involving Muslim women wearing veils - were most likely to occur in poor, urban communities.

In one incident, a woman wearing a burqa was punched and called a "terrorist" by a stranger in front of her petrified daughter. The woman was too scared to inform the police. Other British Muslims reduced such risks by abandoning traditional clothing or becoming isolated within their own communities.


"We have found that in smaller and more isolated mosques in many suburbs and market towns, there is a feeling of being under siege.

"Some local councils who are made aware of the situation say to mosque officials: 'We can see this is bad - why don't you move the mosque?'"

The report said that, especially in smaller Muslim communities where attacks on mosques had "increased dramatically" since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, support from local police was often inadequate.

http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/emrc/
LibertyPhile
1 Wednesday, 24 November 2010 23:40
LibertyPhile
I think you are out of touch with reality in concentrating on the Daily Star. Who reads the Daily Star anyway?

What about the multitude of Muslim stories that are actually correct, or very largely correct from a whole range of sources, including Reuters, AFP, The Guardian, Independent, AP, Islamophobia Watch (yes, really) etc., etc.

See here: http://libertyphilewhy.blogspot.com/2010/11/this-is-why-part-2.html

Over 200 stories in just a few months starting with: Ofsted praises Islamic schools which oppose Western lifestyle

And, what about the Ofcom ruling on the Islam Channel broke the broadcasting code for advocating marital rape, violence against women and describing women who wore perfume outside of the home as "prostitutes". Not quite the Daily Star is it!

Footnote:

Before he vacated the Mayor of London slot Ken Livingstone commissioned a study “The search for common ground: Muslims, non-Muslims and the UK media”.

See: http://libertyphilesurveys.blogspot.com/2010/01/common-ground-or-not.html

He says in the forward:

“…. The rise of Islamophobia in Europe and the negative portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the media harm community relations in London. … One of the most startling findings of this report is that in one typical week over 90 per cent of the media articles that referred to Islam and Muslims were negative. “

What he doesn’t say is that newspapers such as the Guardian (not noted for being anti-Muslim) carried nearly as high of percentage (about 85%) of so-called “negative” stories as the rest of the press (90%+).
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