Article 1
Headline: Islamic scholar jailed for trying to kill father-in-law
Section: News
Written by: Chris Osuh
Page/URL: Link
Accompanying Photos:
Outline: This article from the online edition of the M.E.N reports on the sentencing of a man who tried to murder his father-in-law.
As is evidently clear from the headline the readers are left in no doubt as to the religious background of the man as well as his profession, he is described as an "Islamic Scholar". By its definition the word "scholar" is used to denote someone with mastery in a particular field of study.
The 2nd paragraph of the article states that the man, Mohammed Saghir "...dedicated his life to studying the Koran and aspired to become an imam". If someone is aspiring to become something then clearly it would be premature to say the least to describe them as a "scholar" or master of a particular discipline.
The significance of using this word in the context of the article is that it wrongly gives readers the view that a person fully versed in Islamic law went on to try and kill one of his own family members. If the person was indeed a "scholar" of Islamic law then he would have found very clear and explicit rulings within Islamic law condemning murder.
However readers will no doubt think that if someone who's meant to uphold the values and act as a role model for the islamic faith can commit such an act what does that say about the faith?
The rest of the article describes how the man planned and carried out the attack and at one point it states that he felt remorse at his actions and asked his father-in-law to write a letter forgiving him.
In the second to last paragraph it states that the victim "...was urged to write a statement saying he forgave his son-in-law by family and religious elders who did not want to see the case go to court". This implies that "religious elders" wanted to cover up the crime when in fact if the elders were truly "religious" as Osuh states they would have pushed for the opposite i.e. for the case to go to court as Islam does not condone such acts.
As is evidently clear from the headline the readers are left in no doubt as to the religious background of the man as well as his profession, he is described as an "Islamic Scholar". By its definition the word "scholar" is used to denote someone with mastery in a particular field of study.
The 2nd paragraph of the article states that the man, Mohammed Saghir "...dedicated his life to studying the Koran and aspired to become an imam". If someone is aspiring to become something then clearly it would be premature to say the least to describe them as a "scholar" or master of a particular discipline.
The significance of using this word in the context of the article is that it wrongly gives readers the view that a person fully versed in Islamic law went on to try and kill one of his own family members. If the person was indeed a "scholar" of Islamic law then he would have found very clear and explicit rulings within Islamic law condemning murder.
However readers will no doubt think that if someone who's meant to uphold the values and act as a role model for the islamic faith can commit such an act what does that say about the faith?
The rest of the article describes how the man planned and carried out the attack and at one point it states that he felt remorse at his actions and asked his father-in-law to write a letter forgiving him.
In the second to last paragraph it states that the victim "...was urged to write a statement saying he forgave his son-in-law by family and religious elders who did not want to see the case go to court". This implies that "religious elders" wanted to cover up the crime when in fact if the elders were truly "religious" as Osuh states they would have pushed for the opposite i.e. for the case to go to court as Islam does not condone such acts.
The article along with a very unflattering photo of Mohammed Saghir does no favours to the image of Islam nor to that of Imaams and Muslim community leaders. Chris Osuh inaccurately describes Saghir as a "Scholar" when clearly by his own comments at the beginning of the article he is most definitely not. In summary this is another article that will further help to propogate a negative view of Islam and Muslims thanks to classic tabloid reporting by Osuh.
Article Verdict: Negative
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