DON’T BLAME THE MEDIA FOR ISLAMOPHOBIA
Jews and Muslims have more in common than most people think. And not just on the superficial level of pork avoidance, a love of shawarma and ( male) circumcision. In Canada, both the Jewish and Muslim communities are periodically riled up with claims that they are being victimized by epidemics of acute antiSemitism and Islamophobia. These claims are baseless in both cases.
I flipped a coin. Let’s start with the Jews.
Every year, B’nai Brith Canada releases its Audit of Anti- Semitic Incidents. And every year, B’nai Brith assures us that its numbers prove that Jews are besieged by a “rising tide of anti-Semitism.”
“All one needs to do is look to the comment section of any major news site on a story examining the Israel- Hamas conflict,” declared B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn when the most recent report was published. “Almost without exception, legitimate debate and dialogue devolves to accusations of the murder of children, Zionist plots and the use of anti- Semitic language blaming the ‘Jews.’ “
But when you examine B’nai Brith’s catalogue of supposedly horrifying anti- Semitic episodes, what you find is a menagerie of demented Internet crackpots and teenage graffiti artists spray-painting backward swastikas on fences. There is no “rising tide of antiSemitism” in Canada. It only feels that way because whenever some loon in a strip- mall mosque does express a hate- on for Jews, the incident becomes a sensation on social media.
In other cases, the examples of anti- Semitism are padded out with hateful statements that aren’t really about Jews at all — but quite specifically about the Israeli government. The idea that criticizing Israel automatically qualifies as a form of disguised anti- Semitism has become a lazy debating trick.
Based on the scattered anecdotal reports I hear, I’d say that Islamophobia is somewhat more common in Canadian society than anti- Semitism. You rarely hear of some kid named Avi or Mordechai getting mistakenly put on a no- fly list, for instance. And this month, well- heeled spectators came out to a debate in downtown Toronto where the star performer promoted the thesis that Muslim refugees just can’t be trusted not to rape our Judeo- Christian babies. That’s bad. As was last week’s debunked and retracted Halifax newspaper story about little Muslim children plotting global Islamic conquest from the merry-go-round.
Nevertheless, hate- s peech watchdogs take things too far when they suggest that the mainstream media are somehow cheerleading Canada’s fringe Muslimhaters.
This month, former Toronto Star columnist and editorial- page editor Haroon Siddiqui told an audience at the city’s Aga Khan Museum that — according to the Star’s summary — “the media have contributed to widespread Islamophobia by conflating Muslim terrorists with all Muslims.”
In his speech, excerpted in the Star, Siddiqui declared: “The biggest culprits have been the National Post and the Postmedia group of newspapers across the country, which now include the Sun chain. Hardly a week goes by without these publications finding something or other wrong with Muslims and Islam. These publications are forever looking for terror- ists under every Canadian minaret. They are hunting for any imam or any Muslim who might make some outrageous statement that can be splashed as proof of rampant Muslim militancy or malevolence.”
Siddiqui and I have appeared on media panels together. I like the guy, and have found him to be quite moderate on most issues. But what he’s written here is unfair.
Yes, the media are fascinated with terrorism — because our readers are fascinated by terrorism. Just as they are fascinated with all forms of horrifying violence — including the kind caused by street gangs, natural disasters and Karla Homolka. It’s human nature. We pay attention when things go bang and boom and all bloody-like.
We also pay attention to questions of motive. And since Islamist terrorists from Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant, Boko Haram, al- Shabab and al- Qaida insistently, repeatedly and explicitly tell us that they are committing their slaughter in the name of Islam, we report that, too. When terrorists in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia stop praising Allah as they self-detonate — or, better yet, stop self- detonating altogether — we media types will be the first to report on that phenomenon, as well.
Moreover, it would be nice if Siddiqui might acknowledge that in the last two years, not one but two Canadian governments — Stephen Harper’s Tories and Pauline Marois’ Parti Québécois — have been booted out of office in large part because media commentators were disgusted by their Islamophobic fearmongering on the niqab issue. I myself was working at the National Post during the 2014 Quebec election campaign, and personally authored several articles denouncing the xenophobic messaging from PQ hardliners. In both cases, it wasn’t media Islamophobia that held sway at the polls, it was media anti-Islamophobia.
Canadians should be proud that they live in a tolerant country where both anti- Semitism and Islamophobia are marginalized and discredited sentiments. Haroon Siddiqui is correct to advocate vigilance against these forms of hatred, but he greatly exaggerates the scope of the problem.
WHEN TERRORISTS STOP PRAISING ALLAH AS THEY DETONATE — OR, BETTER YET, STOP DETONATING ALTOGETHER — WE WILL BE THE FIRST TO REPORT ON IT.