I am not sure how many of you saw this ridiculous headline in the Sunday Times last week:
“Family of teen Muslim invited men to rape her”
The story concerns a poor 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was forced by her mother-in-law into a life of prostitution. Subjected to an arranged marriage, she came to Britain thinking she would be wed to a healthy and handsome young man. Instead, the family who received here in the UK made her marry an unemployed and seriously retarded 40-year-old man, with an IQ of a 5-year-old. According to the paper, the family then "invited" local men to rape her.
To cut a long story short, a horrible and heinous crime has taken place. Horrible and disgusting things are going on within parts of the immigrant Pakistani community. But, my question is this: what on earth has this got to do with Islam or Muslims? Why refer to “teen Muslim” in the headline? What has the girl’s faith or that family’s faith got to do with anything? Islam neither sanctions forced marriages nor marriages conducted under false pretences, and it forcefully condemns, prohibits and punishes rape – especially child-rape!
So, I ask again – why the ‘Muslim’ headline? It is not a Muslim story. But the Islamophobic propagandists who seem to dominate the print media these days have to turn every Asian story, every Pakistani story, every immigration story, every multiculturalism story and, of course, every terrorism story into a ‘Muslim’ story or an ‘Islam’ story. It is no wonder that a recent study commissioned by London Mayor Ken Livingstone found “that in one typical week in 2006, over 90 per cent of the media articles that referred to Islam and Muslims were negative. The overall picture presented by the media was that Islam is profoundly different from and a threat to the west.”
Interestingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the Sunday Times reporter who wrote the article is a man named Abul Taher. Despite his Muslim-sounding name, he has form in this area (of Islamophobia). In fact, blogger Karima Hamdan has compiled a selection of recent anti-Muslim gems penned by Abul Taher.
In addition, tucked away in the fifth paragraph of the article, we see the real source of this ‘story’:
Ah, the good ol’ Centre for Social Cohesion! I have already blogged here about this notoriously neoconservative, right-wing and anti-Muslim ‘thinktank’ and the obnoxious, imbalanced and Islamophobic views of its spotty young director, Douglas Murray.
It is a tragedy that the once-great Sunday Times newspaper chooses to now inflame community relations and stoke anti-Muslim prejudice by peddling sensationalist stories with ludicrous headlines from Islam-obsessed journos like Abul Taher and Islam-obsessed thinktanks like the Centre for Social Cohesion.
I urge you all to protest to the Sunday Times over this inflammatory, unnecessary and undeniable anti-Muslim and Islamophobic headline and ask them to change it on their website forthwith.
“Family of teen Muslim invited men to rape her”
The story concerns a poor 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was forced by her mother-in-law into a life of prostitution. Subjected to an arranged marriage, she came to Britain thinking she would be wed to a healthy and handsome young man. Instead, the family who received here in the UK made her marry an unemployed and seriously retarded 40-year-old man, with an IQ of a 5-year-old. According to the paper, the family then "invited" local men to rape her.
To cut a long story short, a horrible and heinous crime has taken place. Horrible and disgusting things are going on within parts of the immigrant Pakistani community. But, my question is this: what on earth has this got to do with Islam or Muslims? Why refer to “teen Muslim” in the headline? What has the girl’s faith or that family’s faith got to do with anything? Islam neither sanctions forced marriages nor marriages conducted under false pretences, and it forcefully condemns, prohibits and punishes rape – especially child-rape!
So, I ask again – why the ‘Muslim’ headline? It is not a Muslim story. But the Islamophobic propagandists who seem to dominate the print media these days have to turn every Asian story, every Pakistani story, every immigration story, every multiculturalism story and, of course, every terrorism story into a ‘Muslim’ story or an ‘Islam’ story. It is no wonder that a recent study commissioned by London Mayor Ken Livingstone found “that in one typical week in 2006, over 90 per cent of the media articles that referred to Islam and Muslims were negative. The overall picture presented by the media was that Islam is profoundly different from and a threat to the west.”
Interestingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the Sunday Times reporter who wrote the article is a man named Abul Taher. Despite his Muslim-sounding name, he has form in this area (of Islamophobia). In fact, blogger Karima Hamdan has compiled a selection of recent anti-Muslim gems penned by Abul Taher.
In addition, tucked away in the fifth paragraph of the article, we see the real source of this ‘story’:
“The case is highlighted in a report by the Centre for Social Cohesion, which has found that policemen, councillors and taxi drivers are turning a blind eye or even conniving in enforcing the Asian community's strict "moral code" on young women.”
Ah, the good ol’ Centre for Social Cohesion! I have already blogged here about this notoriously neoconservative, right-wing and anti-Muslim ‘thinktank’ and the obnoxious, imbalanced and Islamophobic views of its spotty young director, Douglas Murray.
It is a tragedy that the once-great Sunday Times newspaper chooses to now inflame community relations and stoke anti-Muslim prejudice by peddling sensationalist stories with ludicrous headlines from Islam-obsessed journos like Abul Taher and Islam-obsessed thinktanks like the Centre for Social Cohesion.
I urge you all to protest to the Sunday Times over this inflammatory, unnecessary and undeniable anti-Muslim and Islamophobic headline and ask them to change it on their website forthwith.
1 comment:
Totally agree!! The media are potraying Islam so horribly and negatively.
It's very unfair! Muslims need to voice their opinions and create a new positive outlook of Islam.
Great blogging.. as per usual! :D
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