I usually don’t read tabloid newspapers but when I do…
… it is absolutely absurd what I read. I was checking my regular news pages when it came to my mind that I should check tabloids for interesting topics, as well. So I took a look at the website of the Sun and of course most of the articles were celebrity related news. However, there was one article that drew my interest:
The little abstract that one can read in the screenshot actually contains already the sublime message of the article: “Why can Muslims do things that Christians were denied to do”. At the same time, however, it doesn’t say anything about what happened in reality.
There has been a decision that buses across the U.K., including London, Birmingham, and Manchester, should carry posters saying “Subhan Allah” (Glory be to God in Arabic) during Ramadan. The idea comes from Britain’s biggest Muslim charity organisation, Islamic Relief, who aims to improve the negative image of Islam by raising money for Syrian refugees.
Raising money for people in need, where is the problem here?
Well, the problem basically seems to be that Muslims initiated the campaign. Christian leaders were surprised that launching the campaign was possible as their Lord’s Prayer ad had been banned from cinemas in December 2016. As a result they started arguing that it is not comprehensible that they have been denied to launch a religious campaign while Muslims are allowed to. Now here comes the interesting part about this: Those two incidents simply cannot be compared.
The Transport for London (TfL) is responsible for the ads on the capital’s buses but has no influence at all on ads shown in the cinema. In fact, it was the Digital Cinema Media (DCM) who banned the ad because their policy forbids any content that can be considered “political or religious advertising”. So why do Christian leaders react upset? Maybe they should have informed themselves in the first place.
The TfL also has a policy that does not permit any posters that can be linked to a “political party or campaign”. However, religious ads can be an exception, as it is the case with the Subhan Allah ad. In that context the Sun refers back to a Christian charity organisation in 2012 whose campaign was banned by the former Mayor Boris Johnson. One might think, “How cruel is that? How then can they allow an Islamic ad on London buses while Christian ads are banned from the public”? Well, probably because their idea of charity was helping to “cure” all those poor gay people by promoting gay conversion therapy.
The ad was so offensive that even the conservative Boris Johnson denied it which leads to the question why the article must specifically mention Sadiq Khan as the new mayor of London in the last paragraph.
It is ridiculous but at the same time I am shocked that such a populist article makes it into the news and especially the overall racist comments made me feel sick. Although this is just one article from the Sun, I don’t think this will remain the only one. According to Wikipedia the Sun is the most influential daily newspaper across the U.K. with around two million copies. It is depressing that poorly researched and written articles will shape the opinion of so many people. In times where Muslim refugees seek help in Europe it is our chance to form stronger bonds between Christian and Muslim cultures. The last thing we need now are newspapers spreading a wave of Islamophopia across the continent.
