Anyone reading the Sun newspaper a few days ago would have thought that the end of the world had arrived since the ‘Muslim’ Head of Religion and Ethics, Aaqil Ahmed, had simply made a comment. So, what was that comment that the ‘Muslim’ Head of Religion and Ethics had made – (apologies for stressing the ‘Muslim’ element, though you see it is precisely what the Sun article casually threw into their piece on him.)

“the corporation’s (religious) output should be measured against the “religious make-up” of Britain.”

Sounds logical. Well quite, but not according to the Sun piece that decided to snipe from the sidelines as to the professionalism and judgement of Aaqil Ahmed. Not to be outdone in the, ‘we have an opinion and we will fit what we believe are facts to the story we want to spin stakes’, the Sun decided to open its frontal attack with fears of the Adhan or the Call to Prayer being commissioned by someone who was Muslim. Not exactly what Aaqil Ahmed had said, but what better way to generate some fear than to suggest to Middle England that they will be shaken out of their slumber because of those muezzins and mullahs, all blasting out some Arabic sounding calls to prayer.

This was followed by the ‘how dare he’ framing of the Commissioner as the person,

“who previously compared Mary and Joseph to illegal migrants.”

Just in case, you missed it, the (Muslim) Commissioner who simply mentioned that programming should reflect the audience, was now insulting Mary and Joseph, as though they were those pesky, dark looking and ‘foreign’ illegal migrants.

Which then led onto the Sun’s strategy of suggesting that Aaqil had a secret bias for Islam, as thought he could not set aside his judgement at work from his faith. The salvo’s on his judgement were summed up in the following statements,

“Mr Ahmed — whose appointment in 2009 was criticised by the Archbishop of Canterbury of the time Rowan Williams,”

“While working for Channel 4, Mr Ahmed upset Roman Catholic priests by commissioning documentaries that appeared to contain a pro-Islam bias.”

“One series, called Christianity: A History, was criticised by Church figures for trivialising the religion.”

Judging by the comments made by the Sun, you would think that the mild-mannered and introspective Aaqil Ahmed was a raging Islamist with undertones to attack Christianity and secretly create the conditions for a favourable treatment of Islam. Well, doesn’t that sound like promotion of anti-Muslim tropes, we think so.

Lost to the Sun

What has been lost in the Sun piece has been the variety of programmes about other faiths that have been commissioned by Mr Ahmed during his tenure, including programmes that have challenged rigid doctrinal thinking in faiths, including Islam. Hardly the image that the Sun portrays, which in reality is of a professional man who is willing to challenge issues within faith, including his own. Nor does the Sun want to consider the challenging work that he has commissioned in order to highlight how some people are treated just because they are fleeing from wars and turmoil and who are refugees.

The issue here is whether the Sun would run such a story against any other Commissioner from another faith? All of this just because Mr Ahmed suggested that programming should reflect the variety of audiences in the UK. So, next time any Commissioner makes a suggestion that is vaguely in line with this comment, we are assuming that their past will be dredged up, suggestions of bias made and their faith brought into the equation.

The post Shock, Horror, How Dare Top Commissioning Editor Question the Status Quo appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Woman of Tatar Muslim Background Triumphs at Eurovision

As the nation was glued to their television screens, a small but important fact missed many by. This fact, was that the Ukrainian lead singer known as Dzjamala, is in fact a Muslim female – Susanna Jamaladinova.

Dzjamala performed the song “1944” during the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm and was born in Kirghiz (Kyrgyzstan) to a Crimean Tatar father and an Armenian mother. Both Dzjamala and her father are Muslims and with her mother being Christian and her family are in fact a microcosm of the mix of faiths and the co-existence of Christian and Muslim histories in our continent.

During Stalin’s era many Tatars were treated with particular disdain and many lost their lives as they were transported from areas like the Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania to gulags around the Soviet Union. This relocation meant that Dzjamala was born in Kyrgyzstan , though when Ukraine gained independence, she returned back to her ancestral home.

Dzjamala’s win comes on the back of a year which has seen London elect a Mayor who is a Muslim and with the ‘Great British Bake Off’ being won by Nadiya in 2015. We say that those promoting anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry, that they are in the minority and they do not speak for our country or the majority of voices within them.

We also have to make clear that there are some groups purporting to advocate for British Muslims who promote a corrosive victim narrative suggesting that Muslims have no future in Europe and that they are perpetual victims. Your narrative is also defunct and downright dangerous. Muslims have a future in Europe and will continue to do so and in fact Dzjamala’s story reflects this very fact.

There may well be difficult times in the future around the place of Muslims in Europe, though this will never take away from the fact that Europe needs Muslims as much as Muslims need Europe. This relationship which has lasted over a thousand years will continue and shows that those who sell perpetual victim-hood sell a busted flush.

The post Muslims Win Eurovision, the London Mayoralty & the Great British Bake Off appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Individual Pleads Guilty to Islamophobic Assault on Muslim Woman Wearing the Hijab

A North Carolina man admitted on Friday that he ripped off a Muslim woman’s head scarf during a flight to New Mexico last December after saying, “Take it off! This is America!”

Gill Payne, 37, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in New Mexico to one count of using force to intentionally obstruct the woman from freely exercising her religious beliefs, prosecutors said.

“No matter one’s faith, all Americans are entitled to peacefully exercise their religious beliefs free from discrimination and violence,” said Vanita Gupta, head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

An attorney for Payne did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Payne admitted that on a flight last December, he approached the aisle where the Muslim woman was seated shortly before landing in Albuquerque, and stopped next to her seat, Prosecutors said.

Payne then told the woman, a stranger identified in court documents as K.A., to take off her hijab, saying something to the effect of “Take it off! This is America!” prosecutors said.

Payne then grabbed the back of the hijab and “pulled it all the way off,” leaving her head exposed.

“As a result, K.A. felt violated and quickly pulled the hijab back up and covered her head again,” prosecutors said in a statement.

A sentencing hearing for Payne has not yet been set, prosecutors said.

The guilty plea comes in the wake of a number of anti-Muslim incidents in the United States.

Earlier this week, a Muslim advocacy group said a California student was embarrassed and distressed after her name was incorrectly listed as Isis, the abbreviated name of the Islamic militant group.

In late April, a New Jersey school board member resigned after drawing fire over anti-Muslim Facebook posts, including one saying, “America needs to get rid of people like you.”

In the wake of deadly attacks by Islamist militants in Paris and California last year, Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican White House nominee, called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

The post ‘This is America’ air traveler says guilty of yanking Muslim’s scarf appeared first on TELL MAMA.

A recent story published by MailOnline and The Sun reposted an argument between TfL passengers from December 14, 2014.

The respective headlines gave weight to the ‘You white sl*g!’ and ‘Don’t call me a white b***h!’ comments. We are then informed that ‘Two white women and two women wearing hijabs fired insults at each other while a horrified onlooker filmed the whole thing’. And ‘Shocking moment ‘racist’ Muslim women face off with white women in vicious confrontation on a London train’.

Both journalists make efforts to transcribe the argument, its insults and abuses. Yet the MailOnline copy makes little effort to highlight the abusive comments directed at the Muslim women. It acknowledges that they experience a ‘torrent of racist and Islamophobic abuse’; but does little to provide readers with statements until the end of the article.

Missing from the MailOnline copy are these statements:

“I don’t care if that’s your family or not or one of yous (sic), I don’t give a s**t she’s sitting there with her headscarf on being racist.”

“She’s sitting there with a headscarf on like I’m going to be threatened.”

“You’re a Muslim p***k, with that s**t round your head.”

To the Sun’s credit, the journalist did acknowledge that the argument was not quite so one-sided. But the accusation of racism remains directed solely at the Muslim women, abusive statements directed at the Muslim women are not afforded the same scrutiny, even when the MailOnline article acknowledges that the Muslim women experienced racist and Islamophobic abuse.

The MailOnline copy did acknowledge that the video surfaced in December 2014; but you’d need to read further down the article to learn this fact. The Sun, however, made the odd claim that  ‘an eyewitness filmed the altercation in March but the footage has only just surfaced online’. This may owe to the fact the article appeared a day after the MailOnline version appeared online.

In a heated and unpleasant argument where neither side comes across well, the context of what triggered the argument eludes both articles. That context does appear in the original video description.

YouTube user Jo Hip wrote that the argument had started ten minutes before they hit record. According to Jo Hip, “it all started when the white girl noticed the somalian girls steering at her and making comments under their breaths, after a while the white girl asked them, ‘Why do you keep on looking at me?. The Somalian girls responded by saying, ‘We’re free to look at whoever we want’”.

The description then adds:”After a while the white girl said ‘ I’ve dealt with many people like you and I won’t be intimidated’. When the Somalian girls heard the White girl say ‘People like you’, they assumed she was talking about their religion or race, they then said’ What do you mean people like us? Somalian? Muslim?? Well you’re nothing but a ‘White Slag’.”

Only after hearing the utterance of ‘white slag’ did the video record. The justification for filming was “to show the ignorance of people. Ignorance knows no colour or religion.”

This distorted framing of the article perhaps influenced some the comments from MailOnline readers. It reflected their own anxieties towards multiculturalism. Others recycled myths that the police would favour the Muslim women. It also captured their pessimism and fatalism. Soon it became clear that the comments focused less on the content and more on their own broader concerns and biases.

A bigger question, however, remains: why was a video uploaded in December 2014 reposted in 2016?

The post How a MailOnline article distorted a video from 2014 to highlight ‘racist’ Muslim women appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Mayoral Campaign Was Run on the Basis of Smears, Innuendo & Negativity

The Conservative Mayoral campaign that has been run fixating on extremists and past associations with extremists may well have put off voters from listening to the public policies of Zac Goldsmith. Zac Goldsmith himself is a man who cares about issues affecting communities and is someone with a genuine desire to make a positive change for communities. Yet the campaign placed around him may well have also damaged his public reputation in the way that it constantly sniped at past events in the life of Sadiq Khan. It gave the impression of Goldsmith as being aggressive and playing to the lowest common denominator, of placing extremism with a Labour Muslim Mayoral candidate with no real tangible evidence.

Stories even went back to 2004, as a way of placing a question mark in the minds of voters, as though he was somehow secretly ‘one of them’. What ‘one of them’ meant was left to the reader, though it was a subtle attempt to suggest that people could not trust Sadiq Khan.

It looks like the people of London have rejected the attacks and the negative campaigning against Khan’s character. Also, let us be honest and say that whilst associations which politicians had should be questioned since they are in the public eye, the constant focus on who Khan met sometimes over a decade ago showed that the Tory campaign was solely based on pressing the button on extremism and Khan. They were playing to this core campaigning theme with little regard of the damage that it was doing to its image in Muslim communities. We believe that this will have short and medium term implications for the Conservatives as many Muslims remember and associate this campaign with them. This in itself is sad since this Conservative Government has ben strong on tackling anti-Muslim prejudice and ensuring that this is pushed through at a national and local level. This should also not be forgotten.

We hope that such a campaign is assigned to the past. It is clear that Londoners have rejected the negative campaign and in significant numbers. We also welcome the new Mayor of London and hope that he unites Londoners rather than dividing them.

The post Never Again Should Such a Torrid Campaign Be Run for the Mayor of London appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Sikh and Hindu villagers in a Malla village in Ludhiana, India helped renovate and re-open a historic mosque.

The mosque had closed in 1947 due to partial building collapse. But a communal rebuilding effort led to its inauguration on February 29.

Both faiths assisted with fundraising and construction. Muslims are a tiny minority in a village where 90 per cent of residents are Sikh and 9 per cent Hindu. In the past, Muslims had to travel out of the village to pray at a mosque.

The Majlis Ahrar Islam Hind Party of Ludhiana had contacted Maulana Habib Ur Rehman Sani Ludhianavi to assist.

Ludhianvi told the Time of India that “Even as the village has just one Muslim family, the response had been overwhelming”.

Villagers arranged a communal langar during the inauguration. Ludhianavi then published photos of the event on Facebook.

The villagers in Ludhiana highlight how communities work together. Iqbal Hussain, a local Muslim in the village, expressed his gratitude and the bonds of affection for other faiths in his village.

The post Hindu and Sikh villagers rebuild mosque shut since 1947 appeared first on Religious Reader.

The planning application for an Ahmadiyya mosque in Scunthorpe has been highlighted by the Scunthorpe Telegraph.  We understand that some members of the local Muslim community also objected to the planning application for this mosque and various reasons were given from mosques already being present and functioning in the area, through to the design and adaptation of the Ahmaddiya mosque to its local surroundings.

We have said before that we are not going to get into a theological discussion and this is not the role of Tell MAMA. Our role is to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance. Yet, when we hear such terms used against the Ahmaddiya community, who are simply looking to develop a mosque, we have to state what is patently obvious; that differences can be resolved without resorting to terms that have implications which are bigoted and prejudiced such as ‘banana republic’.

This video sadly shows a handful of individuals stating that the Ahmaddiya mosque is not a ‘mosque’ but a ‘temple.’ It also shows one individual suggesting that individuals from the Ahmaddiya community may have come from ‘a banana republic.’

Our call is that differences can be resolved through dialogue and discussion. We hear from Muslims that Islam promotes dialogue, education and learning. We ask that local members of Muslim communities in Scunthorpe meet with one another to find a resolution to this issue. As long as there divisions, they will be manipulated and used by extremist far right groups to drive a wedge between communities. This is the last thing that residents of Scunthorpe need and things can only be resolved through dialogue.

We would like to stress that there will always be differences in life. The key thing is to ensure the safety of all local communities in Scunthorpe and to resolve issues through discourse and with language that does not inflame tensions between communities.

Lastly, the text on this video below shows how some may frame this issue. They will use it to malign Muslims and to seek division. May we ask for calm and cool heads at this time and we are here to mediate and assist if required.

We all deserve to live our lives in dignity and free from fear. Let us keep this in mind when working with each other and when interacting with each other in this tiny island of ours.

The post Divisions in Scunthorpe Need Cool & Level Heads on Ahmaddiya Mosque Application appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The planning application for an Ahmadiyya mosque in Scunthorpe has been highlighted by the Scunthorpe Telegraph.  We understand that some members of the local Muslim community also objected to the planning application for this mosque and various reasons were given from mosques already being present and functioning in the area, through to the design and adaptation of the Ahmaddiya mosque to its local surroundings.

We have said before that we are not going to get into a theological discussion and this is not the role of Tell MAMA. Our role is to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance. Yet, when we hear such terms used against the Ahmaddiya community, who are simply looking to develop a mosque, we have to state what is patently obvious; that differences can be resolved without resorting to terms that have implications which are bigoted and prejudiced such as ‘banana republic’.

This video sadly shows a handful of individuals stating that the Ahmaddiya mosque is not a ‘mosque’ but a ‘temple.’ It also shows one individual suggesting that individuals from the Ahmaddiya community may have come from ‘a banana republic.’

Our call is that differences can be resolved through dialogue and discussion. We hear from Muslims that Islam promotes dialogue, education and learning. We ask that local members of Muslim communities in Scunthorpe meet with one another to find a resolution to this issue. As long as there divisions, they will be manipulated and used by extremist far right groups to drive a wedge between communities. This is the last thing that residents of Scunthorpe need and things can only be resolved through dialogue.

We would like to stress that there will always be differences in life. The key thing is to ensure the safety of all local communities in Scunthorpe and to resolve issues through discourse and with language that does not inflame tensions between communities.

Lastly, the text on this video below shows how some may frame this issue. They will use it to malign Muslims and to seek division. May we ask for calm and cool heads at this time and we are here to mediate and assist if required.

We all deserve to live our lives in dignity and free from fear. Let us keep this in mind when working with each other and when interacting with each other in this tiny island of ours.

The post Divisions in Scunthorpe Need Cool & Level Heads on Ahmaddiya Mosque Application appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The planning application for an Ahmadiyya mosque in Scunthorpe has been highlighted by the Scunthorpe Telegraph.  We understand that some members of the local Muslim community also objected to the planning application for this mosque and various reasons were given from mosques already being present and functioning in the area, through to the design and adaptation of the Ahmaddiya mosque to its local surroundings.

We have said before that we are not going to get into a theological discussion and this is not the role of Tell MAMA. Our role is to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance. Yet, when we hear such terms used against the Ahmaddiya community, who are simply looking to develop a mosque, we have to state what is patently obvious; that differences can be resolved without resorting to terms that have implications which are bigoted and prejudiced such as ‘banana republic’.

This video sadly shows a handful of individuals stating that the Ahmaddiya mosque is not a ‘mosque’ but a ‘temple.’ It also shows one individual suggesting that individuals from the Ahmaddiya community may have come from ‘a banana republic.’

Our call is that differences can be resolved through dialogue and discussion. We hear from Muslims that Islam promotes dialogue, education and learning. We ask that local members of Muslim communities in Scunthorpe meet with one another to find a resolution to this issue. As long as there divisions, they will be manipulated and used by extremist far right groups to drive a wedge between communities. This is the last thing that residents of Scunthorpe need and things can only be resolved through dialogue.

We would like to stress that there will always be differences in life. The key thing is to ensure the safety of all local communities in Scunthorpe and to resolve issues through discourse and with language that does not inflame tensions between communities.

Lastly, the text on this video below shows how some may frame this issue. They will use it to malign Muslims and to seek division. May we ask for calm and cool heads at this time and we are here to mediate and assist if required.

We all deserve to live our lives in dignity and free from fear. Let us keep this in mind when working with each other and when interacting with each other in this tiny island of ours.

The post Divisions in Scunthorpe Need Cool & Level Heads on Ahmaddiya Mosque Application appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The planning application for an Ahmadiyya mosque in Scunthorpe has been highlighted by the Scunthorpe Telegraph.  We understand that some members of the local Muslim community also objected to the planning application for this mosque and various reasons were given from mosques already being present and functioning in the area, through to the design and adaptation of the Ahmaddiya mosque to its local surroundings.

We have said before that we are not going to get into a theological discussion and this is not the role of Tell MAMA. Our role is to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance. Yet, when we hear such terms used against the Ahmaddiya community, who are simply looking to develop a mosque, we have to state what is patently obvious; that differences can be resolved without resorting to terms that have implications which are bigoted and prejudiced such as ‘banana republic’.

This video sadly shows a handful of individuals stating that the Ahmaddiya mosque is not a ‘mosque’ but a ‘temple.’ It also shows one individual suggesting that individuals from the Ahmaddiya community may have come from ‘a banana republic.’

Our call is that differences can be resolved through dialogue and discussion. We hear from Muslims that Islam promotes dialogue, education and learning. We ask that local members of Muslim communities in Scunthorpe meet with one another to find a resolution to this issue. As long as there divisions, they will be manipulated and used by extremist far right groups to drive a wedge between communities. This is the last thing that residents of Scunthorpe need and things can only be resolved through dialogue.

We would like to stress that there will always be differences in life. The key thing is to ensure the safety of all local communities in Scunthorpe and to resolve issues through discourse and with language that does not inflame tensions between communities.

Lastly, the text on this video below shows how some may frame this issue. They will use it to malign Muslims and to seek division. May we ask for calm and cool heads at this time and we are here to mediate and assist if required.

We all deserve to live our lives in dignity and free from fear. Let us keep this in mind when working with each other and when interacting with each other in this tiny island of ours.

The post Divisions in Scunthorpe Need Cool & Level Heads on Ahmaddiya Mosque Application appeared first on TELL MAMA.