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Beyond the veil
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The examples of Jack Straw and Nick Griffin have brought the idea of 'Islamophobia' to the fore. But the issues are complex, particularly when it comes to women.
DATELINE: 26/12/06
Recent events have thrown into sharp focus the way Islam and Muslims are portrayed by politicians and the British media. In October, Labour MP Jack Straw, ignited a fiery debate. He asked Muslim women attending his Blackburn surgery wearing veils covering their faces, (niqabs) to consider removing them to aid communication.
Mr Straw wrote in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph that he believed the wearing of niqabs was a "visible statement of separation and of difference" that made "positive relations" between British communities "more difficult".
His comments drew a furious response from many Islamic organisations that condemned him demonstrating a lack of understanding and placing Muslim women into a difficult position.
In November Nick Griffin, the Leader of the British National Party (BNP) was cleared of inciting racial hatred. The unanimous verdict was reached despite evidence collected in a TV documentary that showed Griffin insulting Islam and the Koran.
Immediately after the verdict Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, intimated that the laws on racial hatred might be strengthened. But some people believe Griffin's arrest was motivated by his right-wing politics and not his statements on Islam.
BBC executives have said they feel it would be inappropriate for a veiled woman to present the news. But, in December, Channel 4 announced its forthcoming alternative Christmas message will be given by a Muslim woman wearing a full-face veil.
Islam and Muslim women is a confused and contentious area. Free Press interviewed Dr Jamila Bchir and asked her for her thoughts on the subject.
Dr Bchir is an Iraqi lesbian feminist who taught sociology at the University of Baghdad in the 1980s. She has been in the UK for the past three years researching attitudes to the intersection of religion and gender issues.
Free Press: Is Islam being accurately reported by British journalists?
Jamila Bchir
: Many Arab women have suffered greatly - being sacked from jobs, beaten by male relatives, sometimes being murdered - to speak out against the patriarchal violence of Islam. Honour killings in Jordan and Egypt are daily occurrences. Last month a 15 year-old girl was hanged from an industrial crane in a small Iranian town in front of a complicit crowd of all-male onlookers.
Stoning of women still occurs in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Western journalists often broadcast information about it, but their editorial and "opinion" pieces are far less condemnatory than previously. Ten years ago feminists labelled all three monotheistic religions as ludicrous and oppressive. Now only non-religious bigotry can be easily condemned. Only a handful of journalists, including Polly Toynbee, have had the courage to describe themselves as "Islamophobes".
Are radical Arab women like yourself "Islamophobic"?
The Islamicists’ most brilliant tactical victory was to appropriate the language of victimhood. "Islamophobia" suggests a totally spurious analogy with "homophobia", which Western journalists have gone along with. Yes, we are proud to be called "Islamophobic" - but only as Jews, gays and gypsies, with the same logic, should be called "Naziphobes".
You have said that Western journalists have betrayed the cause of women. Could you expand on this?
Journalists are protective towards religion and especially Islam not because of their tolerance and integrity; it is fear, a reaction to the obsessive religious bandwagon started by Blair and his ministers.
Ten years ago it would have been impossible for a self-proclaimed reactionary Catholic, who has repeatedly refused to condemn church homophobia, to be a senior cabinet minister. Blunkett, Brown and Beckett all opposed equal rights for gay people in the first three years of the administration, giving religious reasons.
Newspapers give spectacularly excessive coverage to religious views and this month Archbishop Carey is included on a BBC4 Planet Earth - the Future panel otherwise made up entirely of professional ecologists.
You especially resent The Independent’s Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.Why?
She constantly implies that Islam is analogous to Christianity in having "moderate" and "extreme" wings; however, there are no imams in any branch of Islam or in any mosque in the world who believe women are equal to men as legal witnesses or as enablers of divorce; no imams believe gay people are anything other than evil.
This story of "moderate" Islam is simply a Blairite confection to keep ethnic minorities voting Labour.
What are your thoughts on the BNP/Nick Griffin trial and verdict?
What Griffin said about Islam is much milder than the calm outrage of Professor Richard Dawkins in his recent The God Delusion. He calls all three monotheisms "revengeful", "odious", "imbecile creeds" etc. But journalists rave about it and only go after yobs in pubs.
It’s completely hypocritical. Griffin was only prosecuted because of his right-wing views, not because his words about religion were illegal. And of course there was no case to answer. Free speech is under serious threat from the left at the moment, just as it was from the right a few decades ago.
Last modified: Tuesday, December 26, 2006
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Journalism Theory & Practice
Orwell in Tribune: "As I Please" and other writings 1943-7
Are we moving from their media to ours?
What We Stand For
Text Size
Journalism gets younger and cheaper
The Angry Buzz: This Week and Current Affairs Television
Text Size
A Voice for Media Freedom
Media literacy reviews from Ofcom
