An interesting case study is how the positive news story of an outstanding Muslim surgeon Mohamad Ali Jawad who pioneered cutting edge surgery to save the face of Katie Piper was reported as "A plastic surgeon......." rather than a Muslim Plastic surgeon. Murdoch's Sky was also the same in its coverage and sadly Victoria at the BBC did not appear to even mention him.
Please don't get me wrong I'm not calling for self censorship. In my opinion if a negative story involving a Muslim requires coverage I'll frankly be the first to cover it however, what I am calling for is some consistency to ensure when a positive news involving Muslims arises it is not hidden from view or simply ignored because it does not fit the wider negative agenda of some of our fleet street hacks and proprietors.
Wouldn't consistency imply that if this man is "a Muslim plastic surgeon" not "a plastic surgeon", then the ignorant idiots who blew up London on 7/7 were "Muslim terrorists" rather than (spectacularly un-Islamic) "terrorists"?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't look helpful, does it? :(
You are really are desparate for good news on Muslims if you think that should have been turned into a happy Muslim story.
ReplyDeleteThe guy is a plastic surgeon. Doing something plastic surgeons do. Period.
I mean what about his home town, his college, perhaps he's left handed, is he thin, tall, short, badly dressed, does he support Liverpool? What's his political party? What else would you like to know about him?