a nation's shame

[realthog]

Peter Oborne has a longish article in today's edition of the Independent newspaper that makes bitter reading. Here are extracts:

The shameful Islamophobia at the heart of Britain's press

On the morning of 7 October 2006 The Sun newspaper splashed a dramatic story across its front page. The story – billed as exclusive – concerned a callous and cynical crime committed by Muslims. A team of Sun reporters described in graphic detail how what the paper labelled a "Muslim hate mob" had vandalised a house near Windsor. The Sun revealed that "vile yobs hurled bricks through windows and daubed obscenities. A message on the drive spelled out in 4ft-letters: 'Fuck off '."

One Tory MP, Philip Davies, was quoted venting outrage at this act of vandalism. "If there's anybody who should fuck off," Davies was quoted as saying, "it'sthe Muslims who are doing this kind of thing. Police should pull out the stops to track down these vile thugs".

The Sun left its readers in no doubt as to why the outrage had been committed. Local Muslims were waging a vendetta against four British soldiers who hoped to rent the house on their return from serving their country in Afghanistan. The paper quoted an army source saying that: "these guys have done nothing but bravely serve their country – yet they can't even live where they want in their own".

But there was one very big problem with The Sun story. There was no Muslim involvement of any kind. [. . .]

But Islamophobia [. . .] can be encountered in the best circles: among our most famous novelists, among columnists from the Independent and Guardian newspapers, and in the Church of England. Its appeal is wide-ranging. "I am an Islamophobe, and proud of it," writes Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee, then writing for The Independent. "Islamophobia?" The Sunday Times columnist Rod Liddle rhetorically asks in the title of a speech, "Count me in." Imagine Liddle declaring: "Anti-Semitism? Count me in", or Toynbee announcing that she was "an anti-semite and proud of it". This just wouldn't happen and for very good reasons. Anti-semitism is recognised as an evil, noxious creed and its adherents barred from mainstream society and respectable organs of opinion. Not so Islamophobia. [. . .]

Here are some more false stories concerning Muslims in Britain. Some were pure inventions, others contained a grain of truth but were distorted.

"Muslim Sickos' Maddie Kidnap Shock" – Daily Star, 28 April 2008. The story did not, as readers might have inferred from the front-page headline, reveal that Madeleine McCann had been kidnapped by a Muslim "sicko". In fact, it refers to a website on which claims were made that Madeleine's parents were involved in her disappearance.

"Hogwash: Now the PC brigade bans piggy banks in case they offend Muslims" – Daily Express, 24 October 2005. The story claimed that NatWest and Halifax had removed images of piggy banks from their promotional material in an effort to avoid offending Muslim customers, since pork is forbidden in Islam. The paper quoted observers calling such action "barmy" and "bonkers", thereby stirring up a huge response from the public.

After the story's publication, the Halifax drily noted that it "has not withdrawn any piggy banks from branches" and noted that in fact it had not used piggy banks in its branches for a number of years. The NatWest press statement noted that: "There is absolutely no fact in the story."

"Get off my bus I need to pray" – The Sun, 28 March 2008. This was the story of a Muslim bus driver ordering his passengers off his bus so that he could pray. The Sun story, along with footage of the bus driver praying, was widely circulated around right-wing blogs. Dhimmi Watch, the right-wing blog on the site Jihad Watch that catalogues perceived outrages committed by Muslims, even included The Sun story in their "ever-expanding You Can't Make This Stuff Up file". Well, actually, you can. The bus had been delayed, so in order to maintain frequency the bus company had ordered the driver to stop his bus and allow passengers to board the bus behind. Tickets and CCTV evidence show that all the passengers were on that bus within a minute.

The so-called witness, a 21-year-old plumber, who recorded the bus driver praying, had not been on the bus, and had arrived after the incident to find a small crowd outside a bus.

"The crescent and the canteen" – The Economist, 19 October 2006. There was no truth in the article's suggestion that Leicester University had banned pork on campus. In actual fact, the university Student Union had made just one out of the numerous cafes on campus halal, in a decision which had as much to do with economic factors as cultural sensitivity as Leicester has a large number of Muslim students. The other 26 cafes on the campus, including the main canteen, were still serving pork as usual.

It's a pity that for some reason Oborne felt inhibited, for the most part, from naming the names of the guilty. It would have been useful had we each been able to play our own small individual part in spreading it all over the internet that these hatemongering "journalists" and their "editors" are racists and liars.

 

Comments

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

The worst thing of all about such vile stories? Even if they get corrected, retracted, the lies live on forever, e-mailed around the world by racists to show how evile and vile 'They' are.

Why is it too, it's always papers with 'Sun' in their name are so eager to publish these lies?

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Even if they get corrected, retracted, the lies live on forever

It's exactly as you say. Here's a bit I didn't cite from the article, regarding the story about the totally false "mob of Muslim thugs vandalizing the snooty house" story:

Eventually, even The Sun was forced to admit that there were problems with its story. Some four months after it appeared, under pressure from the Press Complaints Commission, a four-line correction was published. It read: "Following our report "Hounded out" about a soldiers' home in Datchet, Berkshire, being vandalised by Muslims, we have been asked to point out no threatening calls were logged at Combermere Barracks from Muslims and police have been unable to establish if any faith or religious group was responsible for the incident. We are happy to make this clear."

The Sun never retracted the sensational assertion that a "Muslim hate mob" had vandalised the house and, to this day, the original "Hounded Out" story can be found on The Sun website.

Why is it too, it's always papers with 'Sun' in their name are so eager to publish these lies?

Are they all owned by Rupert Murdoch? The UK gutterpress rag that's featuring here most certainly is.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

The NY Sun is owned by Reverend Moon, I believe, who also owns a Washington rag too.

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Moon and Murdoch. Sort of a case of each viler than the other, isn't it?

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

My god, the world is crazier than I fear! Moon and Murdoch and Monsanto and Cheney and . . . . Where's a good cave I can go live in?

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

It's very easy to sensationalise, much harder to point out the truth. Right now Muslims are being demonised in the English-speaking world,for no better reason than to ensure that a few right-wing kooks get elected and that the Dirty Digger sells some papers and gets some advertising revenue. If you look at web sites like Atlas Shrugs or Little Green Footballs the hatred is palpable, and it is based on circulating falsehoods like these. Or worse: Pamela Geller, the blogger at Atlas Shrugs, was willing to make common cause with the Vlaamse Belang, some of whose older members worked with Leon Degrelle in the 1940s. When this was pointed out to her she dismissed this saying 'Who in Europe didn't collaborate with the Nazis?' (I have a little list.) From a pro-Zionist Jew, who seems to think that every Palestinian is out to exterminate the Jewish people, that's a bit much.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"When this was pointed out to her she dismissed this saying 'Who in Europe didn't collaborate with the Nazis?'"

I find this quite astonishingly offensive. I've known several people who risked their lives, not to mention obscene tortures, working for the Resistance in France and the Netherlands. (Oddly, they themselves didn't speak much about it; it was from their spouses/friends that I learned what they'd done.) It would be interesting to speculate if, under similar circumstances, Geller might have displayed the same level of courage. For her to smear their heroism with her own narcissistic pig-ignorance and ill informed malice makes me see red.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

It is, I'd say, beyond offensive. It is insane. I've come across racism and racial hatred in my time, but this sort of thing just boggles the mind.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"It is insane."

Well, that part's kind of taken for granted, mate . . .