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East London acid attack: When Muslims are the victims, we refuse to call it


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East London acid attack: When Muslims are the victims, we refuse to call it terrorism

The differences in how we talk about attacks on Muslims, as opposed to those perpetrated by Muslims, reveal a double standard rooted in Islamophobia

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The Independent Online
 

resham-khan.gif Resham Khan was an aspiring model until she became victim of a vicious acid attack in east London 

Jameel Muhktar and his cousin Resham Khan will never forget what happened at 9.15am on June 21. They were victims of a horrific acid attack by a white male in east London. Jameel went into an induced coma and Resham’s career as an aspiring model is now over. The pair firmly believe this was an Islamophobic hate crime.  

As shocking as the attack was, most mainstream media has either failed to cover it or at best relegated it to a minor story. One can’t help but feel that if Jameel and Resham were James and Rebecca, and white rather than Asian, then their images would have made headline news for at least a day. 

This is not the first time tragedy befalling British Muslims has been treated differently from non-Muslims. Cast your mind back to the brutal murders of Mohammed Saleem and Mushin Ahmed, who were knifed and kicked to death respectively.  Compare and contrast the coverage of their murders to the rightful attention received by Jo Cox’s vicious murder and fusilier Lee Rigby’s. The latter names are now rightly permanently etched into our minds, whereas Mohamed Saleem and Muhsin Ahmed are virtually unknown outside the Muslim community.

The lack of reporting is not the only problem; a dual reluctance to brand attacks against Muslims as “terrorism”, while attacks by white men are reported as anything but terror, just smacks of sheer media double-standards in the eyes of British Muslims. When Jo Cox was murdered by a right-wing terrorist, The Sun preferred to report it as “mental illness of a loner” while the Daily Mail wasfiercely criticised for not even putting it on the front page. No surprise then that in the immediate aftermath of the Finsbury Park tragedy, Ashish Joshi of Sky News was hounded by Muslims filled with rage outside the mosque who demanded that the mowing down of Muslims be called out for what it is: a “terrorist attack”. 

 
 
 
 
 
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Jeremy Corbyn highlights link between foreign wars and ‘terrorism at home’

The simple, underlying, and inconvenient truth is that Islamophobia is now institutionalised within parts of our society. This week I wrote an open letter to the Home Secretary challenging her to come good on the “full protection” she promised British Muslims and revealing some troubling statistics. Figures show there are nearly 7,000 anti-Muslim hate crimes a year. Between March 2016 and March 2017, there were 143,920 anti-Muslim or anti-Islamic Tweets sent from the UK – this amounts to 393 a day.

The National Equality Panel found Muslims are paid 13-21 per cent less than others with equal qualifications. BBC research showed Muslim job applicants were three times less likely to be offered an interview.

For every one occasion a positive or neutral reference is used to describe Muslims in the print press, there are no fewer than twenty-one occasions of negative or extremist references. ChildLine showed that Muslim children seem to be bearing the brunt of a 69 per cent increase in playground racism with “bomber” and “terrorist” being used all too frequently.  

The 10 developed countries suffering the most deaths from terrorism

 

       

      To add insult to injury, since 2010 successive Tory governments which could have tackled Islamophobic hate crimes have effectively boycotted mainstream Muslim organisations and instead dealt with a tiny number of government stooges lacking any credibility in the Muslim community.  Worse still, if media reports are to be believed then Mak Chishty, the former Met officer roundly criticised by over 100 Muslim organisations may well land the job of the new countering extremism commission – more evidence that the Government is just not listening.

      Only when we treat Muslims like equals will things finally improve.

       

      http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/east-london-acid-attack-terrorism-islamophobia-a7817466.html 

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      It's horrible.  

      There's a very orchestrated campaign since 2001 against Muslims. It all really started during the 90s. I recall it may be 1991 or 1992, I went to the cinema to watch that film with Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis where he's an undercover spy. The bads in the film were Muslim. I remember when my friends and I went out of the cinema we were commenting "of course,  now that the Russians aren't the enemy anymore, they needed new enemies in films.  It's either the Muslims or the Chinese". 

      Little did we know that they needed an enemy in real life too.  Since 2001 it's all been a lie. 

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      13 hours ago, Mmmmm said:

      It's sickening and horrifying. This needs to be taken seriously by the police and government.

      Totally.  Shameful and wrong that people are not calling these acts Terrorism.  Hate crimes and terrorism should never be tolerated and should always be exposed for what they are.  

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      15 hours ago, karbatal said:

       Since 2001 it's all been a lie. 

      The attacks in Europe aren't lies though. I think a lot of ppl underestimate Wahabism/ Conservative Islam, promoted by YOU KNOW WHO and whose manifestation is ISIS. Of course there is the segregation of the young muslims and the radicalization. But that aint a myth, unfortunately.

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      Elijah,  ISIS is funded with Western money.  

      Of course the attacks are not invented,  but no ISIS or Al Qaeda would exist if if hadn't been funded,  used and sustained by Western policies. 

       

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      6 minutes ago, karbatal said:

      Elijah,  ISIS is funded with Western money.  

      Of course the attacks are not invented,  but no ISIS or Al Qaeda would exist if if hadn't been funded,  used and sustained by Western policies. 

       

      I think they are funded by the Saudis which fund the west, not vice versa :)

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      No.  They're funded by Arabia who has money because all western buys their oil instead of Iranian for example.  Or allowing Turkey to export illegal oil bought from ISIS in Iraq. 

      Your money for gasoline goes to ISIS. Simple as that 

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      Mortifying.

      Can't imagine how the model is coping with her dreams completely smashed.

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      On 7/1/2017 at 1:37 PM, karbatal said:

      It's horrible.  

      There's a very orchestrated campaign since 2001 against Muslims. It all really started during the 90s. I recall it may be 1991 or 1992, I went to the cinema to watch that film with Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis where he's an undercover spy. The bads in the film were Muslim. I remember when my friends and I went out of the cinema we were commenting "of course,  now that the Russians aren't the enemy anymore, they needed new enemies in films.  It's either the Muslims or the Chinese". 

      Little did we know that they needed an enemy in real life too.  Since 2001 it's all been a lie. 

      Yeah i definately noticed this as well in 80s films always has bad guys as Russian while later films its muslims or chinese. Kinda weird how media influences society not sure if on purpose but its sad 

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      2 hours ago, karbatal said:

      There's been another attack against Muslims,  this time in France.  

      Shooting near a mosque,  seven injured,  one of them a little girl. 

      Sickening and horrific 

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