Wednesday 1st April

Metro

Article 1
Headline: Three sons' wives 'kept like slaves'
Section: News
Written by: Jo Steele
Page: 7

Outline: This news story about a woman in Blackburn, Lancashire who treated her 3 sons wives like slaves subjecting them to beatings, restricting access out of the house and making them work day & night.

The woman in question is 63 year old Naseebah Bibi and all of the 3 women, the "wives", involved in this ordeal tale are from Pakistan.

There is however no mention of their religious background in the article and it is presented factually hence is awarded a 'neutral' rating.

Article Verdict: Neutral

Manchester Evening News (City Edition)

Article 1
Headline: Break the language barrier
Section: Features
Written by: Yakub Qureshi
Page: 9

Outline: This article is printed on a full page and is about a primary school in Rochdale called Heybrook.

The article examines the fact that all 520 pupils at the school speak English as a 'foreign' language and their ethnic origin is from the Asian Subcontinent.

The article presents an extremely positive view of the pupils and features comments from the Headteacher at the school who acknowledges that many of the pupils come from bilingual households.

The article goes onto mention that the ability to speak another language actually helps the children and an example is given where pupils have enthusiastically taken to French lessons because they have a natural aptitude for foreign languages.

The article also mentions that whilst the school has no white students the pupils do mix with white peers at various extra-curricular events that are organised in the Rochdale area, in addition to this it's pointed out that most of the students will go onto a mixed race high school that has been praised for its diversity.

It's highlighted that the school's results in the core subjects of Maths, English and Science are at a par with the national average thus rebutting any notion that the pupils may be at a disadvantage.

There is mention of the pupils religious background towards the end of the article where it states that most pupils are Muslim although the school is non-denominational and "has permission to opt out of Christian-led prayers at assembly"

The article also mentions that the schools is due to receive a "good" grading from Ofsted later this month and ends with a quote from the Headteacher, who is not Asian and states that he would want his own children to come to this school.

Overall this is a very positive article which rubbishes many of the reports/comments and analyses that are published by right wing and right leaning thinktanks & political figures, which suggest that not speaking English as a 1st language puts people at a disadvantage. Clearly in the case of Heybrook primary it doesn't and hats off to Yakub Qureshi for bringing this to the attention of all of M.E.N's readers.

Article Verdict: Positive

Tuesday 31st March

Manchester Evening News (City Edition)

Article 1
Headline: Top doc 'sexually abused women during abortions'
Section: Front page
Written by: Mike Silingsby
Page: Front Page and continued on page 2

Outline: This article is about a doctor, Narendra Sharma, who has been accused of sexually abusing patients. Although not a Muslim I have decided to include this story to see how news about another minority group is presented by the M.E.N.

Thr first thing to note is that there is no reference made to Dr Sharma's ethnic or religious background in the text of the article although there is a photo of him on the front page and there is some commentary on page 2 that alludes to the fact that allegations against Dr Sharma by his former colleagues may have been driven on racial grounds.

However the story itself is factual in nature with no attempt to address Dr Sharma according to his ethnicity or religious background. He is treated as an individual who is alleged to have committed these acts. A 'not applicable' rating is given as this story as it does not relate to reporting about Muslims or Islam but has been featured to present a point of contrast should a similar story ever be featured about a Muslim person in a similar situation.

Article Verdict: Not Applicable

Article 2
Headline: Teenager held over bouncer killing
Section: News
Written by: ?
Page: Page 2

Outline: This story is about a doorman, Mohamed Kaleem Rafeek, who was killed in Manchester.

The story describes the circumstances that may have led up to the attack, which appears to have been a revenge attack for an earlier altercation when Mr Rafeek refused to allow entry to a group of people.

The article is written in a factual manner and there is no mention of Mr Rafeek's ethnicity or religious background hence it is given a 'neutral' rating

Article Verdict: Neutral

Article 3
Headline: Mum who called for a holy war is spared jail
Section: News
Written by: Lucy Collins
Page: Page 13

Outline: This article occupies alomst three quarters of a page and the photo of the "Mum" takes almost half of the space allocated to the article.

There are 2 sub headings to the headline, the second of which reads;

• "Muslims urged to go abroad and fight a jihad"

This story is about Shella Roma who is accused of distributing leaflets inciting people to commit acts of terrorism.

Whilst the article makes reference to Jihad and presents its interpretation as holy war, Ms Roma is not identified by her religious background although anyone reading the article will be able to guess fairly easily that she is Muslim given the content of the article.

A description of the alleged activities that have led to Ms Roma's conviction are presented in the story, including that Ms Roma gave her husband 200 copies to dsitribute outside a Mosque.

Interestingly the presiding Judge's comments are also presented including the following comment by QC Clement Goldstone

"You sought to distribute them (the leaflets) in two ways, by leaving them in your home.....and, more significantly, to distribute outside a Mosque to which normal, practicing Muslims had gone to pray"

This was a sympathetic comment directed towards the wider Muslim community by Judge Goldstone, which sought to disassociate Ms Roma's actions from the wider Muslim community. Carrying it in the article was a positive move however Lucy Collins should have also obtained a comment from the Management Committee of the Mosque outside which copies of the leaflets were distributed to present a view from the community.

Given that the content of the article is related to terrorism and there is mention of the words Jihad and Mosque the article presents a negative view of Islam to the readers although there doesn't appear to be any willful intent on part of the author, Lucy Collins thus this is given a 'negative' rating.

Article Verdict: Negative

Metro

Article 1
Headline: '19 dead' in eight-hour gunfight at police school
Section: News
Written by: Joel Taylor
Page: 15

Outline: This article covers the terrorist attack on a Police training academy outside Lahore, Pakistan.

The second paragraph uses the words "Islamist militants". There are 3 photos featured in the article, two of which show wounded policemen and the 3rd shows one of the attackers.

Whilst referring to the attackers as "Islamist Militants", Joel Taylor fails to mention that most of the victims of the terrorists were Muslim and that Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim Country. The reason for this is to show readers that acts of terror are not crimes committed solely against Non-Muslim victims, in a lot of instances the victims are in fact Muslim.

This would help readers disassociate acts of terror from Islam and Muslims, in this respect the article presents a negative portrayal of Islam.

Article Verdict: Negative

Article 2
Headline: Drawing on the horror of war
Section: Metrolife
Written by: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
Page: 24

Outline: This is a review of a DVD called "Waltz with Bashir", an animated documentary by a former Israeli conscript during the Lebanon invasion - Ari Folman.

In the review Larushka Ivan-Zadeh provides commentary which tells readers about the context to the film, a factual and sympathetic narrative is provided as readers are told that the film is set against the backdrop of the "invasion of Lebanon, when Israeli troops stood by as an unknown number of Palestinians were massacred".

This is an important point to make when referring to the massacre of Palestinian Civilians at Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, which was a horrendous crime that wouldn't have happened had the Israeli soliders not allowed and helped the Christian Militia in carrying out this crime. The language used by Ivan-Zadeh doesn't try to dress up the truth in diplomatic language and leaves readers with a disturbing image of soldiers allowing a massacre to unfold, which unfortunately in this case is the truth.

As this review, rightfully, presents the Israeli action in Lebanon as a negative which included this massacre it encourages the readers to have a sympathetic view towards the Palestinians hence it's given a 'positive' rating.

Article Verdict: Positive

Monday 30th March

Metro

Nill Return

Manchester Evening News (City Edition)

Nill Return

We've been taking a snooze!

Apologies but we've taken our eye off the ball, quite literally, hence why there hasn't been any activity on Manchetser Evening Snooze.

However we will be rectifying this situation and you should start to see more life on this site, even if it's just to say - Nil Return.

Thanks for bearing with us.

Thursday 18th December

Metro

Article 1
Headline: 'Sacked' over sexy dress
Section: News
Written by: ?
Page: 9

Outline: This story is about Fata Lemes, a waitress who claims that she was sacked from her job because she refused to wear a revealing dress.

The article describes Ms Leme as "A Muslim cocktail waitress..." yet the article doesn't actually state that Ms Lemes' refusal was bacause of religious beliefs. This description of Ms Lemes are the actual opening words of the article.

Reading the story one realises that Ms Lemes thought that management at the bar "...allowed staff to be treated as prostitutes".

This shows that the main driver for Ms Lemes' refusal appears to have been on grounds of gender i.e. the desire not to be seen as a sex object by customers at the bar. With that in mind the mention of Ms Lemes' religious beliefs actually has nothing to do with the story and only seeks to create a connection in the readers minds. A connection which doesn't exist, even in the article itself.

For highlighting Ms Lemes' faith unnecessarilly this article is marked as negative.

Article Verdict: Negative

Article 2
Headline: Betting boss loses £200m over US ban
Section: News
Written by: Miles Erwin
Page: 22

Outline: This story isn't about Islam or Muslims but I have included it as it's written by Miles Erwin for the Metro.

The story is about the boss of a gambling company falling foul of US internet gambling rules. The man in question is Anurag Dikshit.

I have previously highlighted stories involving members of minority communities and commented that in most cases where Muslims aren't involved the ethnic background of the subjects is left out as is the case with this particular story. This is how it should be however some journalists do sometimes point out that a person in a story is a Muslim when there is usually no relevance to the article.

Miles Erwin previously wrote about 2 students who received racist jokes from 118 118. In that story he referred to "A Muslim student". In that particular story it would have been more appropriate to describe the man as an Asian student because the racist jokes were targeted at the Asian Community bur Erwin chose to use the term Muslim.

It's interesting to note that Erwin fails to mention anything about the ethnic background of Mr Anurag Dikshit, he doesn't use any words like "Hindu Businessman" or "Asian millionnaire" etc.

No rating will be given to this story however Erwin's future reporting involving ethnic minorities will be closely watched to see whether he only chooses to highlight Muslim individuals in his articles.

Article Verdict: N/A

Article 3
Headline: Blinded by their beliefs?
Section: Metro Mail
Written by: Reader letters
Page: 40

Outline: On Tuesday the Metro featured a story about a blind man who was refused entry into an Indian restaurant because the owners objected to his guide dog on religious grounds.

I gave the article a negative rating as it portrayed a negative view of Muslims and here's the evidence to support that.

Feedback from the 2 readers is presented and both are negative against Islam and mention that too much has been compromised to appease religious groups.

I will repeat once again that the owners of the Indian restaurant shouldn't have treated Mr Elder-Brown the way they did but the Metro's rather short article (less than 100 words) generalised the actions of the restaurant owners leaving people thinking that perhaps all Muslims would treat blind people and their guide dogs this way.

The very short Metro article was enough to provoke a negative response from at least 2 people, who know how many more complained.

Whilst this isn't an article I've brought this up because it shows the power of media and the way they report about Muslims.

Article Verdict: N/A

Tuesday 16th December

Metro

Article 1
Headline: Curry ban for guide dog man
Section: News
Written by: ?
Page: 11

Outline: This is a very short piece, under 100 words, and is a about a blind man, Mr Alun Elder-Brown, who was refused entry into a restaurant because of his guide dog. The article states that the owners refused entry to Mr Elder-Brown because dogs "offended Islamic beliefs".

Whilst the actions of the owners were undoubtedly wrong the article does help to create a negative view of Muslims. A better way to present the news would have been to say that the "owners believed that dogs offended their religious beliefs", this is because not all Muslims would have treated Mr Elder-Brown this way.

Article Verdict: Negative

Article 2
Headline: Iraqis back 'shoe bomber'
Section: News
Written by: ?
Page: 13

Outline: Whilst not mentioning Muslims or Islam specifically I felt it important to include this article in the round up because of the sensationalism used in the headline.

This story is referring to the now famous shoe throwing incident at George W Bush by Muntadhar Al-Zaidi in Baghdad.

The headline makes it seem as though Mr Al-Zaidi had explosives in his shoes when this is clearly false hence the headline represents a breach of the Press Complaint Commission 's Code of Practice, Clause 1 on Accuracy.

Article Verdict: Negative

Monday 15th December

Metro

Article 1
Headline: 'Forced marriage' bride freed from parents' jail
Section: News
Written by: Jo Steele
Page: 7

Outline: This story is about UK based Dr Humayra Amedin, who was held against her wishes by her parents in Bangladesh for 5 months whilst they planned her forced marriage. The article mentions that she's been given permission by a court to fly back to Britain.

Jo Steele writes that the reason for her imprisonment was because her parents "wanted her to marry a fellow Muslim". This is written on line 9 as the closing sentence on the 2nd paragraph of the article.

The article goes onto state that Dr Amedin's boyfriend is Hindu and that this "angered her family..."

Whilst this article explore a very important topic, that of forced marriages, after reading it one is left with the impression that this is somehow linked to Muslims. This is particularly true given the rationale presented for Dr Amedin's imprisonment by Steele in this article.

Unfortunately forced marriages are a curse that afflicts people belonging to the 3 major faith groups of the Subcontinent, i.e. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs. However no mention of this is made by Steele in the article and the word Muslim is specifically mentioned hence this is marked as a negative.

Article Verdict: Negative


Manchester Evening News (City Edition)

Article 1
Headline: Freed, NHS doc held by family for 'forced marriage'
Section: News
Written by: Maddison Jones
Page: 12

Outline: Like the Metro the MEN also carries this story although they refer to her as Dr Humayra Abedin rather than Amedin like the Metro.

The MEN also mentions that Dr Abedin had a Hindu boyfriend "which angered her Muslim family..." who wanted "...to force her to marry a Muslim Stranger."

Like the Metro Maddison Jones also makes reference to Muslims but does so twice in her article in the 7th paragraph.

Jones also fails to mention that forced marriages are, unfortunately, common aross various faith groups in the Subcontinent and thus creates an association of forced marriages with Muslims. For this reason the article is marked as negative

Article Verdict: Negative

Article 2
Headline: It truly is the season to goodwill - for all faiths
Section: News
Written by: Neal Keeling
Page: 18

Outline: This is an article which talks about the 1st multifaith gathering in Manchester to celebrate 3 religious festivals; Christmas, Eid-ul-Adha and Chanukah.

Chairman of the Muslim-Jewish forum Councillor Afzal Khan is mentioned as well as reference to his CBE for inter-faith work.

The article is a very positive piece which shows the co-operation and coming together of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities in celebration and is quite prominent. Photos of representatives of each of the 3 faiths are also featured.

The article also makes reference to a speech by Hazel Blears MP who talks about the richness of society because of faith.

Article Verdict: Positive