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July 19, 2006

UK: Muslims Blame The Media For Their Poor Image

A new survey has tried to explore the attitudes of Muslims and non-Muslims. It is discussed by IRNA and Arabic News, as its main findings state that Muslims blame the media for Islamophobia.

There are some statistical flaws in the survey, which is called UNDERSTANDING THE OTHER PERSPECTIVE: Muslim and non-Muslim Relations, which was carried out by Global Market Insite for Muslim Voice. The whole survey can be downloaded in pdf format here. The problems with the survey are twofold - firstly it was carried out on the internet, which would mean that a large class of people have not delivered their opinions, and secondly the numbers are small. Between April 13 and May 2 this year, 1002 adults were polled, who were not picked on grounds of religion. GMI only gathered 264 Muslim respondents and so, from its website, Muslim Voice surveyed an additional 242 Muslims (who had to have already found Muslim Voice's website and then registered). But for Jewish respondents, only 103 were polled.

Anyway, this is IRNA's article, which shall be reproduced in its entirety, as Iran is currently engaged in illegal activity, and it is our house policy to ignore their copyright until they obey international law.

Muslims Blame Media For Islamophobia

British Muslims feel that the biggest problem they face is the negative media coverage, according to a new survey published Tuesday.

An overwhelming 92 percent feel the media coverage is either a very significant or significant problem, more than twice as high as the rest of the population.

The study, carried out by Global Market Insite, Muslim Voice UK, Queens University in Belfast and the University of Liverpool, found also that Muslims are most concerned about Islamophobia, Western foreign policy and human rights violation of Muslims.

Some 40 percent of Muslims blamed anti-Islamic feelings on the media, while 74 percent of non-Muslims blamed Islamophobia on the 9/11 bombings.

Director of Muslim Voice UK, Shaista Gohir, said that domestically Muslims also have concerns about not being accepted as British and discrimination in employment and by the police and government.

"Non-Muslims acknowledge that Islamophobia is a threat to social cohesion, but do not recognise the discrimination faced by Muslims.

Instead, they are more concerned about the lack of integration that they blame on Muslims," Gohir said.

She said that the findings suggested the underlying cause of many of the problems was the "lack of understanding of the other side's perspective and misconceptions about Islam."

"There is shared concern amongst respondents that Muslims and non-Muslims don't understand each other and there is recognition of the fact that promotion of the 'clash of civilisations' creates divisions in society," the Muslim Voice director said.

She argued that it was essential to gauge attitude with a view to resolving the current climate of strained relations between Muslims and the West due to 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan war, the London bombings and the Danish cartoon row.

Gohir set out recommendation including community and police action to break down barriers, tackling discrimination, protecting human rights, more responsible media reporting and reviewing British foreign policy.

"It was striking that Muslims feel more strongly about international issues than say, their treatment by police or discrimination in the UK," she added.

She also warned that "Islamophobia, Western foreign policy and human rights abuses of Muslims are contributing substantially to the alienation of UK Muslims."

Colin Irwin from the Institute of Irish Studies, who was discussing the findings in the House of Lords Tuesday, drew parallels between the division of UK Muslims and non-Muslims and the Catholic-Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland.

"A failure to identify and deal with the problems at the heart of conflicts can lead to increased violence as the UK Government knows from the Troubles" in Ireland, Irwin said.

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Colin Irwin is right. People should look at the issues at the heart of conflicts, such as the hate and contempt for infidels which is displayed in the Koran, the fact that Muslims refuse to allow their daughters to marry non-Muslims, citing religious principles as reasons, and the fact that Muslims themselves, by indulging in arranged marriages with people from alien countries and by choosing to live in Muslim only ghettoes, are deliberately isolating themselves from the mainstream. But Shaista Gopta does not wish to acknowledge these issues. No questions on Muslims' religious obligations to despise kaffirs, their customs and their ways were introduced into the survey's questions.

More interesting and authentic studies have been produced by Pew Global Attitudes and Populus. So once again, another soundbite is created for the media, one that we have heard many times before, that Islamophobia is the fault of non-Muslims and their media, not the fault of terrorists acting in the name of Islam, or Muslims themselves treating non-Muslims with arrogance and contempt, while nonetheless living in kaffir societies.

When one of these surveys acknowledges or addresses the contempt for kaffirs found in the Koran and preached in mosques, then I may take it seriously.

To be fair to Shaista Gopta, one result of her conclusions has been ignored by IRNA, and Arabic News which duplicates their description. She states on page 74 of the survey, under its "conclusions" that:

"Muslims are also very critical of the Muslim community in the UK and want Muslim leaders, Muslim organisations and even parents to deal with the many problems within the community (i.e. the generation gap, women issues and problems between different sects and nationalities), as well tackle the problematic relations between Muslims and the wider community. It is therefore also highly likely that problems within Britain's Muslim community are contributing to the alienation of young Muslims."

Now why did IRNA not mention that concluding paragraph?

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 19, 2006 4:00 AM

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