Hi all,
I was just reading his article and I noticed him making the point
Why am I and millions of Muslims like me not heard? I guess the first answer to that would be we don't sell newspapers and don't make for particularly good reading or television.Who wants to hear about a boring married Muslim who works 9-5, struggles like every one else to pay bills, loves watching football and lives an average life like the rest of the British public. By the sounds of things not even I would read about me.
Which is true, articles about terrorism and Muslim extremists sell far more papers. Which got me thinking, why don't the Muslim community at large do something that the papers will notice? I'm talking about a peacful march of some description, holding banners with messages along the lines of 'Not in my Name' and refer to terrorists and extremists. Make a point as well of saying that non Muslims are more then welcome to March along side you.
See if the papers can ignore that!
I say this as a non-Muslim, and hope what I'm saying doesn't seem too ridiculous. It would certainly take a lot of wind out the despicable BNP's sails, and it would give the media something truly positive to report about our Muslim community.
Unrealistic?
my name is Irfan khan aswell do i have sumting in common with this guy maybe who knows
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane, by those who couldn't hear the music...
We don't have to prove that we are against terrorism.
If anyone thinks that the Muslim community condones terrorism then that is their narrow-minded ignorance.
What we can prove is that the media generalises, simplifies, and sensationalises issues about Muslims.
Jews are not required to launch mass protests to condemn every Israeli human rights abuse in order to prove to decent-minded people that they respect human rights.
Americans are not required to go on mass marches to show they are against their gov's adventure in Iraq.
Indians are not required to go mass demonstrations to show that they don't want to kill Big Brother housemates.
Muslims don't have to go on mass marches against terrorism to prove that they are against murder.
This is an unrealistic demand often heard from Islamophobes.
You're right Beast, you don't 'Have' to do anything.
American's weren't required to march against their Government's invasion of Iraq, yet millions of them did it anyway, and the world saw.
Sirtalksalot
[url=http//www.talk-uk.com]UK news, politics, and current affairs forum.[/url]
However, Muslims have condemned terrorism.
http://www.cair-net.org/html/911statements.html
Yes I know, but to be blunt. It's not enough.
There's a huge PR war out there at the moment, on the one side is Islam and on the other side the right-wing. It's the negative stories about Muslims that are making the headlines, and the right-wing are exploiting it.
The rise of the BNP's popularity is a sure sign that little by little they are gaining ground. Like you said, you don't have to do anything about it. When the times comes that you do have to do something about it, it will probably be too late.
Sirtalksalot
[url=http//www.talk-uk.com]UK news, politics, and current affairs forum.[/url]
If anyone is in any doubt that Muslims condone terrorism then they are being narrow-minded and prejudiced.
Muslims march all the time. But it only gets reported if it's related to the "West" and pictures acompanying the story are always of burning flags and effigies or bearded men with their mouths wide open.
Muslims marched peacefully during the "cartoon controversy" but it recieved minimal coverage in the media. What was overwhelmingly featured was the 100 or so people who shouted violent slogans in a completely different "march".
Instead of playing the media's game and trying to get it cover us in its own sensationalist dumbed-down way we should be engaging in discourse about the media. We should analyse it, critique it, discuss its effetcs and try to get it to change to a truly neutral, empathetic and informative medium.
I think we make th epoint in every issue fo The revival.
Considering each issue has had a circulation of between 10 and 20 thousand, I do not know how we can make abigger point.
And then members of The Revivla have been on antional TV, met ministers, the PM and made the same points, I think it is a bit lackadaisical demanding more.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
There you go, you're giving examples yourself of how Muslims are mis-represented in the media. I think you're ignoring the power it has over people as well; calling people narrow minded is simplistic and doesn't really do anything to solve the problem.
If challenging the Media's neutrality is the way to go, I don't see anyone doing it, so either no one is or it's not working. What I do see is the right-wing working day and night to exploit the media, and gaining support.
Does this not concern you in the slightest? It concerns me and I'm not even a Muslim. So you don't want to march, fine. But something needs to be done, and I'm not being funny but I don't think Revive is going to manage it alone. Especially as I imagine most of it's readers are Muslim anyway.
Sirtalksalot
[url=http//www.talk-uk.com]UK news, politics, and current affairs forum.[/url]
I agree there are serious probs out there.
But there's no one answer. And efforts to take on the media are not going well. There's a Muslim org called MPAC which tries to engage the media but it needs time to find its feet.
However, in academic discourse about the print press there is an acceptance that the media is right-wing and racist. The press' anti-Muslim stance is academically recognised.
[url=http://www.freewebs.com/johnrichardson/books.htm]Link1[/url]
[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Culture-Issues-Cultural-Media-Studies/dp/0335210...
It's just a matter of Muslims picking up what the academics are doing and making good use of it.
But, contrary to popular opinion, Muslims are quite apathetic (either because they have jobs (docs, engineers, businesspeople) or they can't be bothered). It's going to take a while to get many of them to help those Muslims who are trying to be effective.