I'm A Muslim And I'm A Problem: UK Media - Stand Up, Stand Out, Spread Love, Stop Hate
20 August 2017Tahmid Islam,
citizensuk.org
That's the message the Sun newspaper and Trevor Kavanagh have put across. The
repercussion of such a message is fear and ignorance ultimately manifesting in
hate towards my community and the communities that I work with.
The press and the media have a huge responsibility as a source of information
for millions of people, to put out stories in which they are accountable for.
If you write a story that scapegoats and boxes a community into a specific
negative category you harbour people's fear and insecurities, you are held
accountable to the violence and hate that comes after.
As a young Muslim and a community organiser, I worry for my community and
those that I represent. My dad, who wears a cap and has a full-length beard,
has to travel to work everyday on public transport; my sisters, who adopt the
hijab, take the train to college and university and I have to think about
whether they're ok and safe everyday.
The Islamic institutions I work with face the full brunt of hate too. Just two
months ago we had a horrific incident occur at Muslim Welfare House in
Islington, a member of North London Citizens. Because of the hate and
ignorance exacerbated by the press, a man decided that it was ok to run over
Muslims congregating after taraweeh prayers leading to the death of one man
and severe injuries of others.
It's not just the Muslim community that feel the impact of ignorant and
ill-mannered articles written irresponsibly by the Sun and other papers. We
have concerned parents of primary school children from eastern European
backgrounds whom recall stories of how their kids are told by other kids to
'go home' and 'go back to where you came from'. We have one of our campaign
leaders of Stand Up, Stand Out, Arjun, whom is a young Sikh man being harassed
and racially abused on public transport. Arjun recalls stories of how he was
called 'Talban' on the train by other passengers for wearing a Turban.
The issue of hate reaches far and wide, and the papers do a good job at
catalysing it.
Despite the hate we receive our communities are doing an amazing job at
showing solidarity and demanding a more accountable press. Immediately after
the attack at Muslim Welfare House, our Citizens UK members across London came
together every night during the last week of Ramadan delivering dates and
protecting those entering the mosque to break their fast. These members were
Churches, Synagogues, schools and other local mosques.
Stand Up, Stand Out is a campaign group led by young people from migrant
backgrounds. We are working to ensure that the press are held accountable for
what they write.
The campaign started because our founder, Keren had heard that some of her
family members were on one of the boats that Katie Hopkins wrote the infamous
'rescue boats? I'd use gunships to stop migrants' article about. Keren's
family members died that day. Since then SUSO, all of who have tales similar
to Keren and Arjun have been working to get big advertisers like Body Shop and
Vodafone stop paying money out to papers like the Sun.
With the help of our friends Stop Funding Hate we managed to convince Body
Shop to stop advertising with the Daily Mail through our action and
campaigning.
Stop Funding Hate are today launching their phone campaign encouraging phone
companies to stop advertising with such papers. As a Muslim and loyal EE
customer I find it very disappointing to see them advertising next to an
article that calls my community a 'problem.'
Stand Up, Stand Out and Stop Funding Hate encourage customers of phone
companies such as EE, Three and Vodafone to stop advertising next to such
hateful articles. We as all communities and backgrounds need to stand together
against hate just like those that showed solidarity to Muslim Welfare House.
Stand Up, Stand Out, Spread Love, Stop Hate.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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