Monday 6th April

Manchester Evening News (City Edition)

Article 1

Headline: Bouncers go on march after workmate's death
Section: News
Written by: Paul Britton
Page: 2

Outline: This article relates to the story published in the M.E.N on Tuesday 31st March (reference: article 2) about the murder of a doorman, Mohamed Kaleem Rafeek, in Rusholme.

This article features a photo and reports on a demonstration organised by doormen to show respect to Mohamed Kaleem Rafeek and protest about poor working conditions including threats to personal safety.

The article describes Mr Rafeek's life outside of work and mentions that he was studying at Trafford College training to be an electrician and also mentions the school he attended. It states that Mr Rafeek was Sri Lankan born and came to Britain when he was 12 and could speak 5 languages.

It presents Mr Rafeek in a positive light, unlike the report on Tuesday 31st March, this time Mr Rafeek's ethinicity is mentioned but in a neutral factual manner however his religious background is not mentioned.

This is a factual piece and reflects positively on Mr Rafeek's life, had it also mentioned that he was Muslim then this too could have been viewed positively by the readers especially considering the article's prominent position.

A rating of neutral is applicable in this instance.

Article Verdict: Neutral

Article 2

Headline: Asian business achievers are honoured in awards
Section: Business
Written by: ?
Page: 23

Outline: This article is about an awards ceremony in Manchester to honour achievement by British Asians.

Although referrring to the winners by their ethnicity this is necessary for the article as the awards ceremony is specific to British Asians, despite the ethnic reference it is presented in a positive manner i. e. the people have gained success in their respective fields.

Several of the winners are mentioned including Amar Rashid of Manchester law firm Pannone, Ameena Patel of a bakery run by women in Blackburn called Meena Bakery and Adeeba Malik who is deputy Chief Executive of a Bradford based training agency, QED-UK.

All the people mentioned above appear to be Muslim however not a single one is introduced as Muslim. This really is a missed opportunity to present readers with an alternative and positive view of Muslims as successful business people especially when the list includes 2 women.

Although the content of the article is neutral I do feel that this is one opportunity where an effort should have been made to let the readers know that these people are successful British Muslims. After all the word Muslim is all too often used in negative contexts, this would have made a refreshing change hence it's a 'missed opportunity' for some positive PR

Artice Verdict: Neutral

Metro

Article 1
Headline: Mosque suicide bomber kills 22
Section: World Digest
Written by: ?
Page: 12

Outline: This news brief is printed on 12 lines and features less than 60 words. It's about a bomb blast at a Mosque in Pakistan on Sunday. The story is presented in a factual manner and other than mention of the word Mosque there is no other religious reference in the brief. In short, it's a factual piece about a tragic event.

Artice Verdict: Neutral

Friday 3rd April

Manchester Evening News (City Edition)

Nil Return

Metro

Nil Return

Thursday 2nd April

Manchester Evening News (City Edition)

Article 1
Headline: Protest puts foie gras off the menu
Section: News
Written by: Ria Nortcliffe
Page: 18

Outline: This article is not related to Muslims but is featured because I felt it would be reported in a completely different way had Muslims been involved.

It refers to a restaurant in Cheshire that had its windows smashed by what the paper describes as "animal rights campaigners" who also daubed graffiti on the walls reading 'foie gras'. As a result of the attack the restaurant has now decided to stop serving foie gras.

The use of the word campaigners is particularly interesting because someone who campaigns for change doesn't necessarilly smash windows and engage in acts of vandalism, whilst I am completely sympathetic and support the aims of genuine campaigners who want to have foie gras banned these individuals should have been referred to as "animal rights extremists" because of their use of violence.

The term campaigners softened their actions in the minds of readers as campaigners would refer to people who pursue non-violent means to achieve an outcome i.e. advertising to get increased sales or petitioning to lobby for change, not smashing windows.

For argument's sake imagine for a second that the perpetrators were Muslim who had smashed the windows of a porn shop that had opened in a family residential area and the shop had closed as a result. The headlines would probably come out with terms like 'extremists', 'shariah mob' or 'shopkeeper forced to close for fear of terror'....etc The list could go on.

I am recording this article to present a point of contrast should a story like this ever emerge involving Muslims. I'd be interested to see how the M.E.N reports it. For this article a 'not applicable' rating is awarded.

Article Verdict: Not Applicable

Metro

Nil Return

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.