Welcome back after the weekend as I start the 5th week of this blog. Feeling run down, with a headache and my nose blocked so already struggling to type much, but I guess I'll somehow manage to get something down! My average is still over 1000 words, but I guess it's time to provide some quality with the words, sometimes the blogs have been about the quantity and hence the quality has suffered, but it will always be a working progress, so I will continue to improve as time passes.
Before I go on, I've got to mention the football (only one paragraph this time, so skip to the next one if you don't want to read about it). The disappointment continues, after stating that the season is already over last month I continue to harbor hope which continues to be dashed! We can't win the Premiership this season, 8 points behind at this stage and Man Utd this Sunday, it does not look good. The fact that I can't stop hoping is what being a supporter is all about I guess. It would be easier to stop following Liverpool altogether now that the Premiership is out of my their reach, and as much as my wife would like that to happen, it's just impossible to do so! I wish it could be different; I have to at least try!
Swiftly moving on, and I unwittingly revealed the existence of this blog to someone on Sunday! Although he knows it exists, he doesn't know the address, so the challenge is to see whether he'll find it! He's extremely resourceful and I'm certain he'll find it sometime this week, but it'll be interesting to see how long he takes to find it! I was reluctant to tell him about the blog because some of the topics (especially the political ones) I've written about, have been based on ideas by him and I guess now I'll have to wait and see what he thinks when he reads them!
At the end of the day, we've always spoken about certain topics with a view to doing something proactive about it and never gotten round to it. I guess keeping a blog is a good way of doing that. I'm not as knowledgeable on certain aspects so I nick some of his ideas and try to develop it further in this blog. When he finds it, we should be able to develop it further, but in the meantime, it'll be fun to see how long he takes.
As I was driving to work this morning, I was thinking about what topic to type about and struggling to come up with any ideas. I was listening to Radio 4 and 5Live and it wasn't long before a topic came up. The presenter on 5Live was going through today's newspaper headlines; Daily Express: muslim teacher wearing the veil should be sacked, The Independent: map of muslim extremist centres in Britain and The Guardian: university staff to spy on muslim students.
Everywhere I look there is yet another attack on muslims in this country. It's an absolute disgrace. It's just one thing after another and has become really disheartening. The mainstream media just continues to cover negative and heavily critical and biased news against muslims and has created such harmful vibes against muslims throughout the country. After 9/11, the attacks on muslims have grown steadily, and I used to be quite blasé about it, thinking that it would never affect me and other muslims, the majority of whom carry on with their lives, contributing great deals to the British economy and society. That viewpoint has changed drastically and now I really worry about the status of muslims in this country.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is now a concentrated effort by the majority of media outlets to try and get as much negative coverage about muslims as possible. Every newspaper, radio show or TV news show seems to have unhelpful or unconstructive topics about muslims. It all appears to serve one purpose, to create as much anti-muslim, islamophobic feelings as possible throughout the nation.
I've yet to meet anyone who has had a problem with me because I'm a muslim, but I have heard others people mention anti-muslim feeling directed towards them for no reason and I now think it is only a matter of time before it happens to me. Why has it worked out like this? Why such a concentrated effort to try and condemn muslims?
The religion of Islam is a completely peaceful religion which like many other religions has been misinterpreted to gross degrees by certain muslims which have led to some of the atrocities around the world. What must be understood is that the people who carry out such atrocities are not muslims. They have no right to call themselves muslims. There is no where in Islam which justifies such violence, death and destruction which has been caused across the globe. It is a travesty that such acts are apparently held in the name of Islam.
It has all stemmed from this. The government has made token efforts to try and present a view that it is only the extremist muslims that they are after and the rest of the muslim community should be praised and treated no differently to others, and then on the other side continue to release reports of disharmony with the muslim community due to certain values, the veil being the most recent.
I know I've spoken about it a couple of times already, but this veil issue is really getting carried away. Note how they no longer speak about the nikkab, it is only the veil that is mentioned, which includes both the face covering and the headscarf. The media are purposely trying to get it into our heads that the veil is wrong and that includes the headscarf. A teacher has recently been suspended because she refused to remove her nikkab. Is the school trying to say that she can no longer impart knowledge to her students because of the nikkab? She's been employed there whilst wearing the nikkab and all of a sudden she has lost the ability to teach? What would they prefer? A teacher who wears revealing clothes in a classroom of teenage boys? How much teaching would be achieved then? What a gross overreaction!
Issues like this are just touching the surface. The coverage has become immense, and all of it negative. Did you know a muslim recently won the Nobel Peace Prize? I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't, such has been the limited coverage about it. I only heard it as a footnote last week on the main 6pm news on 5Live and then had to look it up online.
Something needs to be done. Whenever there’s any criticism against other faiths, you quickly hear of people coming out and condemning the views and preventing the issues getting out of hand. There seems to be none of that with regard to muslims. Often prominent muslims are asked to express their views, but nothing changes, their views are placed to one side and the situation carries on as normal. My friend, who I mentioned earlier, works in the media and is constantly striving to put across a fairer viewpoint, with more coverage for more muslims, but it needs to be more widespread, one person or channel can only do so much.
The media cover, for now, is out of our control. What needs to happen is some common ground to be found amongst the muslims and for organisations to form which can then represent the muslim view for the public. The Muslim Council of Britain is one such organisation, but it is poorly managed. I've tried to join it for sometime in an attempt to have some input from a medical point of view and have been unsuccessful. With so much time on my hands, I am keen to try to get the muslim viewpoint across. This blog is a way of doing that, but not many people read it at this stage. I want to have more of an input and need to find avenues that will make that possible. The muslims need to unite together in an effort to stop all this negative coverage or at least start having a comeback against the coverage.
Until we fight back and present Islam's true values, the criticism will continue. Something needs to be done and fast otherwise things are only going to get worse. It is easy for us to sit at home and carry on with our normal lives, I used to feel that way, but the more I think about it the more I realise that it's only going to get worse. Will you be surprised if the government starts to press for laws against the veil? No, so it needs to be stopped and stopped fast! In the meantime what are your views on the subject? How do you feel about the coverage that muslims get in the media? Any ideas on how to respond? I need more people to read this blog!
Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?
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2 comments:
Just a few days ago, i was on the train going home when an english man-(a christian)- approached me and asked what my views were on jack straws comment on the veil. First i was a bit weary of chatting to this total stranger that i'd never seen or spoken to in my life, but i thought- Well..WHY NOT?, i dont get people asking me everyday what my opinion is...and maybe this might help one person understand me..an ordinary, non-extreme "good" muslim (well i'd like to think so atleast!)
So anyway, i told him that Islam teaches women to dress modestly..and if anything should be showing its most likely your face, hands and feet.& taking off the hijab is like removing a part of your own body- this obviously depends on how important hijaab is to a person and people should try and understand this relationship. He brought up the issue about that teacher-which i dont agree with either.Teachers are the most important people in our lives, they could be our parents, lecturers and so on. There would obviously be some kind of communication barrier if you never saw their face as you wouldnt be able to distinguish their facial expressions, moods etc. Visual colourful objects and displays are used to attract young children so they can learn, if your talking to an almost black canvas,with a voice- how far can you really go? using the tone of their voice? (remember we are talking about little kids here!)...hmm i think that sums up my view on that issue.
After trying to explain why muslims were
"complaining too much"(which was his initial view)i figured out that instead of starting to moan about it myself i had to give him a clear cut message which would make sense to him. (i wont elaborate on this because theres too much to write about!)
So i'd like to end this "comment" (or essay rather)with the point that...Not everyone is in the media, and it is very difficult for alot of us to get into it, but we have to find other ways of going about this "fighting back" that your talking about..There are so many other ways of communicating, so even by sitting on a train and deciding to chat to a random stranger can make a big difference in changing someones view; because his certainly did!
Thank you for you response. I totally agree that there are many ways to have a "fightback," but I also feel the focus should be on creating more opportunities to present Islam in a better light, because not everyone is as inquisitive as the guy on the train.
I'm not in the media either, but I'm trying to create such opportunities and this blog is hopefully one such opportunity, to provide a chance for people to read different views on Islam to the ones they hear on the media and so thanks again for your comments.
As for the teacher, you may have heard by now that she lost her case for discrimination. She actually teaches GCSE students, so perhaps they are less reliant on facial expression and just need the knowledge for their exams. I agree that the nikaab can be a barrier, but if laws are introduced to ban the nikaab, it'll only be a matter of time before it goes all the way and the banning of the headscarf completely, that's why it needs to nipped in the bud!
Take care.
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