Channel 4’s film and pamphlet warn that 7/7 attacks have fuelled the rise of violence, intolerance and hatred against Muslims.

CAIRO — From vilification in media to harassment by far-right politicians and even verbal and physical attacks, welcome to post 7/7 Britain where Muslims are the target, a new documentary on Britain’s Channel 4 reveals.“Islamophobia is a tremendous force for unification in British public culture,” journalist Peter Oborne and political commentator James Jones write in the pamphlet “Muslims under Siege” that accompanies their documentary for Channel 4.

“Its appeal is wide-ranging. Adherents can be found among ardent churchgoers and militant atheists.”

The program, “It should not happen to a Muslim,” was aired on Monday July 7, to commemorate the anniversary of the July 2005 tube and bus bombings in London.

The film and the accompanying pamphlet warn that these attacks have fuelled the rise of violence, intolerance and hatred against British Muslims.

“Islamophobia… has increased after both the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist outrages that have clearly created a deeper resentment and fear of British Muslims than existed before.”

Both the documentary and the pamphlet highlight the rise in physical and verbal attacks on Muslims ever over the past few years.

“Physical attacks are the manifestation of a growing anti-Muslim sentiment,” the pamphlet says.

“For many in the Muslim community, Britain is becoming a very frightening place.”

Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2 million.

Since the 7/7 attacks, which killed 56 commuters including 4 Muslim bombers, British Muslims have complained of a growing Islamophobic climate in the European country.

A Financial Times opinion poll has showed recently that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims.

Shameful Media  

Oborne and Jones found that the most obvious sector where Muslims are routinely vilified is the media.

The documentary and the pamphlet found  that the most obvious sector where Muslims are routinely vilified is the media.

“How easy it is to create misleading and exaggerated stories about Islam and Muslims and get them published,” the pamphlet says.

“It will demonstrate how it is permissible to invidiously single out Muslims in newspaper headlines in a way that would be unthinkable in any other minority, except perhaps paedophiles.”

Oborne and Jones said that by studying some 974 stories in all mainstream newspapers that covered Islam over eight years from 2000, they found that nearly 60 percent talks about Muslim terrorism, religious issues and cultural differences.

“These stories all portrayed Muslims as a source of trouble,” they said.

“By contrast only 5 per cent of stories were based on problems facing British Muslims.”

The writers highlight a particular story published by The Sun tabloid in October 2006, which described in detail how a “Muslim hate mob” the vandalized a house of British war heroes.

“But there was one very big problem with The Sun story. There was no Muslim involvement of any kind.

“What the Sun had done was to take a local story about a piece of vandalism, probably caused by local snobbery… and convert it into another kind of story altogether about evil Muslims.”

The journalists say the tabloid’s case “is far from unique.”

They affirm that while preparing the documentary, they discovered this is typical of reporting of Muslims across large parts of the mainstream British media.

“It can be encountered in the best circles: among our most famous novelists, among columnists from the Independent and Guardian newspapers.”

“I am an Islamophobe, and proud of it,” writes Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee in the Independent.

“Islamophobia?” the Sunday Times columnist Rod Liddle asks in the title of an article.

“Count me in.”

Far-Rightists

The film and the report also reveal that Muslims are the new target group of extreme-right politicians.

“The far right in British politics has turned away from Jews and blacks, its traditional targets, and shifted its focus onto Muslims instead.”

Oborne and Jones added that the far-right, whites-only British National party (BNP) is now using the Islamophobia card to win support among the society.

“If they are to make the move to mainstream respectability, they need an issue that allows them to exploit people’s fears about immigrants and Britain’s ethnic minority communities without being branded racist extremists.

“They have found that issue,” they said. “The BNP has gone all out to tap into a rich vein of anti-Muslim sentiment.

“BNP members are more likely to focus on terrorism, the evils of Islam, and scare stories of Britain becoming an Islamic state.”

The journalists end their investigation emphasizing the need to change the public culture regarding Muslims.

“We think we should all feel a little bit ashamed about the way we treat Muslims in the media, in our politics, and on our streets.

“They are our fellow citizens, yet often we barely acknowledge them. We misrepresent them and in certain cases we persecute them.

“We do not treat Muslims with the tolerance, decency and fairness that we so often like to boast is the British way.”