JUNE - MEDIA MONITORING HIGHLIGHTS
Belgium – New Measure on Religious Symbols in School Prompts anti-Muslim narratives
Date of publication: 24 June 2020
Media outlet: Sceptr, alternative media covering news in Belgium and the Netherlands
Author: Tom Lallemand
Headline: “Headscarf now permitted in principle in Ghent city schools”
Links: https://bit.ly/2Zc7zZ1
Description of the anti-Muslim and anti-migrant content: This month the Municipality of Gent passed a measure which stipulated that from September 1st 2020, all public high schools will allow students to wear religious symbols. Speaking of the new measure, Green party politician and Education council member in Gent Elke Decruynaere said: "Students must be able to be 100% themselves, but there must be respect". The main aim of the measure was to promote more tolerance and inclusion, with Decruynaer explaining: “Students are given the freedom to choose for themselves and to open up to diversity. Students must be themselves and start the search with themselves and society. It is a privilege that young people learn to deal with diversity and other opinions right from the school desks. They should just start talking to it and not avoid the subject with a ban.”
Not everyone was happy with this new measure. Sceptr published an article with the headline “Headscarf now permitted in principle in Ghent city schools” which focusses solely on the headscarf and explains how nationalist party N-VA is against the measure. On Twitter, N-VA policitian Anneleen Van Bossuyt shared her exasperation at the new measure, and right-wing populating Vlaams Belang policitian Tom Van Grieken shared the Sceptr article on Facebook along with the message: “Incomprehensible. The headscarf is a symbol of the oppression of women.”
Myth debunked: There are a few elements to this case to discuss. Firstly, the focus on only headscarves in regard to the new measure, which in actuality now allows all religious symbols to be worn in high school. This includes a necklace of the cross, for example, or a kippah, which is not mentioned in any articles on this topic. Why the sole focus on the headscarf? Banning the headscarf has been a topic in several European countries, including Belgium; however, only focusing on this element of the new measure further highlights this one expression of religion and negates the full picture. Furthermore, it feeds into the ‘Islamisation’ narrative, which is often employed by the far right. Sceptr was not the only news outlet to focus only on the headscarf, many news outlets in Belgium did so too. Sceptr’s inclusion of the N-VA reaction to the measure, and lack of inclusion of any other views, clearly shows bias. This bias is further confirmed by Tom Van Grieken’s sharing of the Sceptr article on Facebook. We have shown several times how Tom Van Grieken shares dangerous anti-Muslim and anti-migrant narratives, and how these are often mirrored in Sceptr. We can see that in a way, they are almost working together here to establish a larger sensationalist narrative. Van Grieken is followed by almost half a million people on Facebook, promoting Sceptr’s inflammatory and often dangerous content to a large audience.
Lastly, there is a key voice missing in almost all pieces on this topic: Muslim women. The majority of articles focussed on the headscarf, but none included the perspective of Muslim women and how they feel about this new measure. Journalism is about accurate reporting and showing all sides to a story, something which is clearly missing here. How do young Muslim women in Gent feel? Are they happy about the new measure, or maybe concerned? Their voices are lost in this discussion, a discussion which is cantered around them.
More to read:
Lack Of Inclusive Muslim Media Lets Islamophobia Flourish
Muslims in Europe: The Construction of a “Problem”
Greece – Major Newspaper Presents Quran in Biased Manner
Date of publication: 24 June 2020
Media outlet: in.gr, a popular and one of the oldest news website in Greece, owned by a new media tycoon who also owns other media, television, websites and historical newspapers.
Author: Andreas Andrianopoulos
Headline: “Is Islam compatible with democracy?”
Link: https://bit.ly/2VmTyXn
Description of the anti-Muslim content: This article was written in response to a recently published book titled “Islamic foundation of a liberal society". The author of this article, Andreas Andrianopoulos, is a former politician and now well-respected author. He leads the article with: “Islam (=submission) is based on devotion to the words of the prophet”, followed by the opening sentence: “Lately, efforts have been made to embellish Islam in relation to its compatibility with freedom and democracy”. Andrianopoulos then goes on the pick out and ‘analyze’ a few verses of the Quran, claiming that the issues of “replacement”, “deceptions” and “movement” are key to Islam. He states: "As for the "movement", which is now expressed with migration flows, it is a cornerstone of the Islamic religion, in which Muslims follow the example of Muhammad and his first followers, who moved from Mecca to Medina to dominate. The Qur'an clearly speaks of this obligation of "moving for the purposes of Allah" (Qur'an 2: 218).” With this, he is essentially claiming that Muslim migrants are only coming to Europe to spread Islam. Andrianopoulos also talks about the Islamic concept of ‘Taqiyya’ which he claims allows believers to deceive non-believers, that is, to do things they do not believe in order to defend Islam.
Myth debunked: Nowhere is the article are Andrianopoulos’s theological or historical accreditations mentioned, because he does not have these. Yet, the author presents himself as someone with a deep knowledge of the Quran. This article is a classic case of cherry-picking, which is when someone selectively presents ‘evidence’ to prove a certain point, ignoring significant other evidence which could contradict or disprove their point. In this case, Andrianopoulos clearly wants to make the claim that Islam is not compatible with democracy, and therefore does not belong in Europe. To ‘prove’ this claim, he picks certain verses from the Quran which he believes show that Muslims deceive and lie in order to ‘further’ Islam. What he fails to do is present the larger case of the Quran: as with all holy books, there are versus which could be deemed problematic in the Quran, but we cannot analyze these without providing full context, which would be best done by an expert with a theological background. Similarly, we could pick out verses from the Bible which show violence and intolerance, but this would not be accurate without providing context.
Andrianopoulos mentions the Islamic principle of ‘Taqiyya’ in his piece, a topic which we have covered in the past. In December 2019, Melanie Phillips wrote a piece for The Times in which she referenced ‘Taqiyya’ without providing proper information or context, resulting in a sensationalist claim being made. A lack of religious literacy in clear in both these examples, and it shows a need for more training for journalists and writers, and to give space to experts on these topics. Yes, religion and it’s principles should be open to discussion, but it must be done in an informed way in order to avoid misinformation and sensationalism.
More to read:
Melanie Phillips and the Taqiyya odyssey
Islamophobia in Greece - 2018 Annual Report
UK – Katie Hopkins Uses the Persecution of Jews to Push Far-Right Narrative
Date of publication: 5 June 2020
Public figure: Katie Hopkins
Platform: Twitter
Description of the antisemitic content: In response to images and videos circulated of police officers kneeling at Black Lives Matter protests in support of the movement, Katie Hopkins shared a tweet which stated: “Here are some Nazis in the 1930s after demanding Jews ‘took a knee’ in front of them. Slightly different methodology, same end result. Humiliation and debasement of one race in order to allow the other to feel and act superior”. This was shared along with a related image. Hopkins shared this tweet with the words: “Treat every day like Sept 1st 1939. The sands of time are moving fast against white people in the U.K.”
Myth debunked: Many were outraged by Hopkins’ comparisons between the atrocities against Jews during the second world war, and police offers kneeling to show support for Black Lives Matter. On Twitter, Jewish News UK online editor Jack Mendal described the incident as Hopkins “using persecution of Jews by Nazis, to spread white supremacism.” He further added: “Jews were being forced to clean the pavement next to Nazi guards. People 'taking the knee' today are showing solidarity with an oppressed community in America [and globally], after centuries of institutionalized racism.” Not only do Hopkins’ comments look to associate the plight of Jews during the second world war with the far-right idea that white people are being ‘overtaken’, but it also looks to pit two oppressed groups against one another. Hopkins has since been permanently suspended from the platform. This action came after multiple temporary suspensions of Hopkins’ account due to violations of Twitter’s hate speech policies, with her most recent suspension just months prior in January 2020. Twitter did not point to any specific tweets as rationale for her suspension, however, Hopkins has a clear history of spreading hate speech on the platform. Hopkins tweeted this content 2 weeks before her permanent suspension. In those 2 weeks the tweet was pinned to the top of her profile, easily accessible to her over 1 million followers.
More to read:
Katie Hopkins permanently removed from Twitter
Katie Hopkins – Ousted Troll of the Month
7 times Katie Hopkins hit the headlines
France – National Rally Politician Shares Video of Masked Gunmen to Discredit BlackLivesMatter and Muslims
Date of publication: 15 June 2020
Author: Jean Messiha, top member of the far-right National Rally party
Media outlet: Twitter
Link: https://bit.ly/3i7lGY6
Description of the anti-Muslim content: In mid-June, during the widespread protests for racial justice sparked by the murder of George Floyd in the USA, the French politician Jean Messiha tweeted: “Paramilitary parade of small Islamo-thug fascists in #Dijon. War weapons and handguns galore. This is how the progressive leftists have transformed France: a wasteland abandoned to Huns. You said #PoliceViolence? #StopThugs”. With these words, Messiha shared a video, taken from the platform Snapchat, showing a dozen of hooded young men in a city, swearing and displaying their guns. Some of the young men in the video can be heard shouting that that the police can “no longer resist” because it is weaker than them. Others say that they are “the Muslims”.
Myth Debunked: Jean Messiha is a far-right politician known for his provocations against Muslims and those with a migrant background. With this tweet, he is trying to both discredit the global anti-racist demonstrations and the Muslim population in France by associating them with a threatening group of criminals. Little is known about the people in the video, but Messiha used it to depict Muslims as a problem, and a threat for the country. He is using the common anti-Muslims stereotype that describes Muslims as violent. Messiha’s comment also fits in within the narrative that frames the protestors, rather than an unjust system, as the problem. While almost 1,500 complaints against police officers were filed in France last year, Messiha downplays police violence while reversing the blame on those he calls “thugs” - a racially charged term recently used by Donald Trump to refer to Black Lives Matter protesters.
More to read:
Why extreme actions shouldn’t delegitimize a protest
Why Are The Protesters Being Framed As The Problem? White Supremacy
Germany – Antisemitic Dog Whistling Depicts Soros as the Mastermind of the Black Lives Matter protests
Date of publication: 8 June 2020
Media outlet: ScienceFiles, a far-right fringe blog
Link: https://bit.ly/384js7r
Headline: “Who funds Black Lives Matter? - Soros, who else, but not only”
Description of the antisemitic content: Not only is this article deeply racist against Black people who are fighting for racial justice, but it also contains antisemitic dog-whistling. Part of a series that looks into the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, this article focuses specifically on who funds it. The author writes that BLM is financially supported by large donors, including George Soros's Open Society Foundations. The Hungarian born Jewish billionaire and philanthropist George Soros is portrayed here as influencing the antiracist protests from “behind the scenes”. His involvement is described as mysterious, as working from the shadows through his Open Society Foundation (OSF). With outrage, the article calls BLM a “communist” and “Marxist” organisation that aims to destroy the existing society, operating like a “crazy sect”, especially when they mobilise quickly to stage demonstrations across the USA.
Myth Debunked: Accusing Soros of being responsible for world events is one of the most common dog-whistles for antisemites. Without expressing openly antisemitic messages and without mentioning words such as Jews or Jewish, Soros works as a code, something that has gradually shifted from the far-right fringes to the mainstream. The portrayal of Jewish people as the masterminds, the string-pullers who want to undermine the established order, lurking behind the scenes of all events, is an age-old antisemitic trope. Because he is wealthy and Jewish, Soros has been the protagonist of countless conspiracy theories that all entail him supposedly trying to take control of the world and profiting from it. The article includes little information about Soros, and yet his name features in the headline. In this respect, it knowingly exploits Soros’s name, and the conspiracy narratives with which it is associated, framing the entire story through an antisemitic lens. As for the BLM demonstrations, this blog is not the only one spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories alleging that George Soros is “funding chaos” by paying protesters to take to the street. High-profile figures in right-wing circles, from the former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to several commentators and US actors, have been slandering Soros on Twitter and television as a danger for the country for fuelling the protests. Such claims have been categorically disproven in a recent report by the Poynter Institute.
More to read:
The Anti-Semitism Lurking Behind George Soros Conspiracy Theories
Belgium – La Libre Publishes Opinion Piece on Secularism with Anti-Muslim Dog-Whistling
Date of publication: 11 June 2020
Media outlet: La Libre, mainstream French-language news outlet
Author: Nadia Geerts, teacher and writer
Headline: “Yes to neutrality in higher education”
Link: https://bit.ly/3exNGlH
Description of the anti-Muslim content: This article is an opinion piece in support of the decision by the Constitutional Court of Belgium which, on the 4th of June, ruled that the ban of religious symbols in higher education was not contrary to the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The decision was a response to a complaint initiated by a group of Muslim women who were studying at the Francisco Ferrer Brussels university college, where wearing religious symbols is not allowed. The author, secularism militant Nadia Geerts, stresses the importance of teaching “neutrality” to students, especially those that will be working as teachers in the future. She writes that the decision by the Constitutional Court is an “excellent signal” as it “embraces the cause of a ‘republican’ interpretation of equality, associated with equal treatment”, instead of a “conception of equality, which requires the recognition of differentiated rights and eventually undermines equality of all before the law.” Although the ban concerns all religious symbols, La Libre chose an image depicting Muslim women, despite not mentioning them at all in the article. And yet, the article is rife with anti-Muslim dog whistling. Terms such as “community pressures” and “most radicalised students” are expressions often used within anti-Muslim narratives. There are also a number of implicit disparaging references to Muslim women specifically, including inferred attacks to those who refuse to remove their headscarf: “The student who refuses - or does not see the need - to remove their convictional symbols [...] would send a very clear and not very reassuring signal concerning their disposition to ‘refrain from testifying in favour of a religious system”.
Myth debunked: Although the decision by the Constitutional Court – reported as a quote in the article - admits that the ruling might disproportionately affect certain minorities, Nadia Geerts fails to recognise this. In fact, her delight about the Court ruling, and her implicit disparaging attacks against Muslim women and Muslim communities, suggest that she is aware of it and approves of it. Contrary to what the author claims, radical forms of secularism, such as the one in place in Belgium, do not ensure the equal treatment of all before the law. They are exclusionary policies that unequally affect some categories of the population more than others, amplifying the existing barriers and forms of discrimination that Muslim women already face in society. The Constitutional Court ruling prompted a widespread response on social media, where many students and young people, especially Muslim women, expressed their concerns using hashtags such as #TouchePasAMesEtudes (Don’t touch my studies) and #HijabisFightBack. A dozen of higher education institutions stood up against the ruling, declaring that wearing the headscarf and other religious symbols is allowed in their schools.
More to read:
Why the French left has a problem with Islamophobia
Belgian universities are facing heat for headscarf ban
Hungary – 888.hu News Site Publishes Video Sensationalising Muslim Birth Figures and Reproducing Great Replacement Narrative
Date of publication: 12 June 2020
Author: Marcell Békési
Media outlet: 888.hu, government-friendly news site
Headline: “Europe's Islamisation is happening at an alarming pace. VIDEO”
Link: https://bit.ly/31kjtTu
Description of the anti-Muslim content: The pro-government news site 888.hu has published a video datavisualisation of the changing percentage of the Muslim population in Western countries from 1948 to 2019. To accompany the video is a short explanation that highlights Sweden as the most emblematic case. “Thirty years ago, even in Sweden, there was no noticeable number of immigrants, today more Muslim children than white are slowly being born,” the article says. The author uses fear-mongering expressions, such as “The process can become irreversibly fast, even within a single generation”, to refer to the Muslim population currently living in Western and Northern Europe.
Myth Debunked: The video used by 888.hu has no sources, nor does the article provide any, which means that the data provided cannot be trusted. Even if these figures were true, the article frames the presence of Muslims in Europe as a problem. The alarmist tone used, suggests that this trend is something we should be worried about. The underlying narrative is the Great Replacement, a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory that believes that white people in Europe are being outnumbered by POC, especially Muslims, who want to “destroy the European civilisation”. This mythology is what has motivated white supremacists to kill people in Germany, New Zealand and Texas. Sweden is also a recurring example in the far-right and conservative scene. Seen by white nationalists as the poster child of the disasters brought of immigration, small incidents are sensationalistically inflated and treated as emblematic of the importance of anti-immigration policies.
More to read:
The myth of Eurabia: how a far-right conspiracy theory went mainstream
