On Tuesday 17th June, 31-year-old Nahid Almanea was brutally beaten and then stabbed 16 times to death in broad daylight. She died at the scene from injuries to her body, head, neck and arms. No personal belongings were taken excluding robbery as a motive; however the victim was dressed in Islamic clothing, wearing a hijab and a full-length navy blue gown, indicating the strong possibility that this was a religiously-motivated, Islamophobic hate crime.
Read the above paragraph again and you will notice an unnerving silence. No major headlines plastered across national tabloids, no high profile news coverage dedicating time and expert analysis, no politicians competing to condemn this sickening hate crime, no emergency cabinet meeting convened to discuss the protection of Muslim women. Just the matter-of-fact reporting of a murder in Colchester.
Now, consider the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby just over a year ago in Woolwich on 22nd May 2013. The response from the media and politicians was overwhelming and the Muslim community at large was made to take collective responsibility for the actions of two crazed knifemen, brought up in South London. Now ask yourself in the cold light of day, is a life equal to a life in modern day Britain? George Orwell wrote, ‘All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.’ He was of course using animals to illustrate the flawed social constructs and inequalities in society. His classic novel, Animal Farm was published in 1945 but the sad reality is that Muslims are reliving this experience on a day to day basis in Britain today.
Essex Police released haunting CCTV footage of Nahid Almanea’s final moments, walking along a footpath twenty minutes before her life was brutally taken in a bid to encourage witnesses. However, responsibility for this heinous crime does not fall solely on the shoulders of the murderous and hateful individual who held the knife. This person did not wake up one morning and decide to stab an innocent and defenceless woman 16 times. The sequence of events that motivated this individual date back months and even years to a highly orchestrated plan to dehumanise the Muslim community and unlock every social safeguard that exists in our community to prevent the persecution of this minority.
Malcolm X famously stated, ‘If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.’ Think back to the Daily Mail cartoons printed in the run up to the planned Muslim Fun Day at Legoland in March 2014, depicting Muslims as suicide bombers and terrorists, blowing themselves up in a shower of Lego bricks. Even the style and imagery of the cartoons resemble the pre-world war II Nazi caricatures of the Jews depicting them as a scourge on society that needed to be eradicated. Little wonder that in 1934 the Daily Mail wholeheartedly supported the British Union of Fascists, stating that they were a ‘…a well organised party of the right ready to take over responsibility for national affairs with the same directness of purpose and energy of method as Hitler and Mussolini have displayed’[1]. History seems to be repeating itself in front of our very eyes as the Daily Mail remains true to its fascist past.
In times of crisis we look to our leaders to navigate us through turbulent waters, to steady the ship and ensure the nation regains a steady course consistent with its values and principles. There is perhaps no clearer example of the betrayal of this trust than the Education Secretary Michael Gove. A political journalist by profession, universally loathed by Educationalists, Schools and Teaching Unions, he has sought to use two highly politicised issues, namely Extremism and Education, to create a completely fabricated and toxic narrative known as the ‘Trojan Horse’. Based on a completely fictitious letter, Gove has propagated the lurid idea of a ‘Muslim plot’ to take over and radicalise state schools in Birmingham.
In 1918 the US Senator Hiram Warren Johnson said, ‘The first casualty of war is truth’. Particularly apt when you consider that as part of Gove’s self-styled crusade on “extremism” in Birmingham schools, he sent in Ofsted inspectors to 21 schools for snap inspections, which then miraculously uncovered evidence of ‘a culture of fear and intimidation’ and accused the Labour-led Birmingham City Council of failing to ‘keep pupils safe from the potential risks of radicalisation and extremism’. Indeed the first casualty of a crusade is the truth. And the first collateral damage is the very institutions which are the instruments of that crusade. Ofsted prides itself on being ‘independent and impartial’ and reports directly to parliament. Its reputation now lies in tatters after a politically-motivated campaign of intimidation against some of the most successful schools in Birmingham and having downgraded schools as ‘inadequate’ which they themselves had only weeks ago declared as ‘outstanding’!
Gove is undoubtedly positioning himself at the right wing of his party for a leadership challenge in the near future. This is clear from the very public spat he had with the Home Secretary Theresa May. In briefings with journalists, he blamed the Home Office for failing to ‘drain the swamp’ of radicalised Islām in the UK. So what was the response of David Cameron to two of the most senior ministers in his cabinet publically briefing journalists against each other? What was his response to malicious targeting of one of the largest minorities in Britain? What was his response to a dangerous narrative of religious hatred and Islamophobia being propagated in the British media by career politicians seeking to excite an electorate in the prequel to a general election?
He joined the bandwagon! He recycled a half-baked headline grabbing an infamous slogan first coined by himself at a conference in Munich in 2011: ‘Muscular liberalism’; a lecture which is largely believed to have been produced by Gove himself. Every great leader has a defining moment which stamps their legacy in history – a moment where they choose principle over party politics, the good of the nation over self-interest. Mandela upon being released from prison after 27 years of incarceration famously forgave his captors and preached a doctrine of reconciliation in the interests of national unity. Cameron simply lacks the conviction, self-belief and vision to lead his party and country.
The murder of Nahid Almanea is a tragic symptom of a divided and deceived society. Through a relentless political and media campaign of hate, elements of British society have been coaxed into hating their Muslim neighbours. With the populous distracted and consumed with loathing for their fellow countrymen, our government rides the tide of hatred, justifying its foreign policy as it slowly strips away the rights and freedoms of British citizens.
Intimidation will not drive the Muslim community away from their own faith. Islām is their DNA—it defines them. Attacks of this nature only serve to unify Muslims and deepen their commitment. The faith has a long and proud history of perseverance in the face of oppression. Persecution only serves to rejuvenate believers and their sense of purpose.
Today we stand at a watershed moment for modern day Britain. Just as the racially-motivated murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 forced Britain to come to terms with its institutional racism, the tragic murder of Nahid Almanea and its downplaying by the establishment must be the moment where British society confronts the religious discrimination, Islamophobia and hate crime faced by Muslims everyday, and pulls back from the precipice of a new age holocaust in Europe.
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Source: www.islam21c.com
Notes:
[1] ‘Daily Mail, 15 January 1934
“The facts are out there for anyone serious about seeking out the truth.”
They are indeed.
Nahid Almanea was not the victim of “a religiously-motivated, Islamophobic hate crime.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Colchester_murders
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Salam
I cannot write at length due to time restriction, however , I would like to add to many of my earlier views that just like the jews were given an independent homeland we as muslims need our homeland within United Kindom or Europe.
A state governed by our own very sharia laws
and separate from the protestant uk laws.
If Scotland can do it ; the jews can achieve it
So we must also ask for it.
We will attract alot of investment.
We will survive.
We will have Zero tolerance on murder as well as
electrocution or hanging by death for murder.
Everone will be fingerprinted.
“George Orwell once wrote, ‘All people are created equal but some are more equal than others.’”
No he didn’t.
You show the same accuracy in the rest of your post. We don’t know who murdered Nahid Almanea or what their motives were as yet, so to expect ” major headlines plastered across national tabloids… high profile news coverage dedicating time and expert analysis… politicians competing to condemn this sickening hate crime… emergency cabinet meeting convened to discuss the protection of Muslim women” is absurd. The case of Lee Rigby was different. The men who murdered him spouted islamically-based justifications, demanded that they be put on video and set out to get themselves “martyred”. They were, as the saying goes, bang to rights. There has been no “downplaying by the establishment”. Of that of which we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent. Until we know the reasons for Nahid Almanea’s death we must be silent.
My, my, my, how easily distracted you are. The point of the article is to highlight a stark reality that the reaction to a murder in the UK is utterly dependent on the ethnicity, race or religion of the perpetrator and victim; there are plenty of conclusive examples to show this, even if this murder turns out to be something completely random. The point is, despite it not being known yet – look at the language used in the media – instead of exercising caution in making conclusions the opposite conclusions are often being drawn.
And as for the Orwell quote you might want to google ‘Animal Farm’…
I suggest you check on Animal Farm. No doubt the original poster thinks it is called People Farm.
Please give examples from Nahid Almanea’s murder where the media have not shown caution in drawing conclusions. The only conclusion being drawn without evidence is the assumption that Nahid Almanea was murdered because she was a hijab-wearing muslim.
In fact, as- say- this case http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/leicester-house-fire-two-men-found-guilty-of-murdering-mother-shehnila-taufiq-and-her-three-children-9558107.html shows, there is a tendency to assume islamophobia as the inspiration for the murder of muslims when there is no reason for the belief.
As for the book – you should have googled it by now, you’ve got no excuse. If you did so, and thought it is literally referring to animals, then… well you do have an excuse, because you must be 11 years old or something.
As for examples, you could look at the video of the sky news interview on this page, in particular the last 30 seconds. Or whatever, you might be late for school, son.
The question is not whether the book “is literally referring to animals” but whether Uthman Ahmed quoted it correctly. He did not. In fact he distorted what Orwell wrote so badly that he completely altered what Orwell was referring to. No doubt his other quotations and references are equally accurate.
Again, is there any evidence beyond the fact that Nahid Almanea was a muslim in a hijab for the claim that she was murdered because she was a muslim? The police have said it is a possible motive. They have not- and cannot- say it was a definite motive. As with the Leicester murders there is an immediate tendency to ascribe the deaths of muslims to islamophobia even- or especially- when there is no evidence for it.
There is no Sky interview on this page about Nahid Almanea’s murder. Which one are you referring to?
It is entertaining to notice that Uthman Ahmed has changed “George Orwell once wrote that all people are created equal but some are more equal than others.” to “George Orwell once wrote that all people are created equal but some are more equal than others.”
No more accurate, but more deniable.
plus, the writer calls the killers of Lee Rigby ‘crazed knifeman’ but the killer of Almanea had a plan whereby “the sequence of events that motivated this individual date back months and even years to a highly orchestrated plan to dehumanise the Muslim community and unlock every social safeguard that exists in our community to prevent the persecution of this minority.” – You cant have it both, plus you’re drawing inferences to prove your article when this is still an unsolved murder. Very poor journalism.
My favourite part is Nawaz Ahmeds comment – the writer refers to Orwell and then this clown states he wants everyone fingerprinted… the irony
Masha’Allah a well written and thought provoking article.
Jazak Allah khair
Gove is a spineless maggot (sorry maggots!). Like his predessessors, he has no problems with Loyalist Protestant fanaticism in schools in occupied Northern Ireland. Millions are spent by his brief , segregating schools , which preach in particular, anti-Catholic hatred. As if late the Ulster Unionists ( the political allies of the Tories) have been supporting a priest who has made virulent islamophibic ‘sermons’.
The media here, with the likes of the BBC and The Sun, have the blood of this young lady on their lying, manipulative hands.
They cannot evade eternal Justice. Like Khalid said, God will have the last, Eternal, Word.
I disagree with you samy that the western media lacks “educated” Muslims putting their views forward in the media. This does not justify the hatred towards Muslims. Our scholars are too afraid to speak up from the fear of having MI6 and MI5 smashing their way through their houses. So there goes our just and fair representation.
Hitler used propaganda material & the media to promote his hatred of Jews, dehumanising them thus making them an easy target, eventually leading to the holacaust. Likewise this is exactly what the western media are doing, they are dehumanising us through the disgusting language they use such as fundamentalist; terrorist, Islamist, fanatics and so forth; placing every element of our deen under the microscope making us easy targets to these hate crimes.
The hypocrisy makes me sick. Muslim blood has become soo cheap that it doesn’t befit the mainstream media to report it. If it was the other way round can you imagine???
Have perseverance. God will have the last word. Every vanity will be brought to naught. The prophets came as warners and bearers of good news. The warning being for those who insist on rejecting their creator & sustainer the while pandering to depravity, and the good news for those who chose to believe in God and do some good works during their short time in this nether life. The paradise & hell fire have been made ready. Let everyone chose their destination.
Asia, just go to any major news website on the net: BBC, CNN, FOX, Reuters, ABC, NBC, CBS, you name it. Click on any headline story concerning Muslims. Scroll down to the comments section and click. If you were an average non-Muslim, you would be hard-pressed not to hate Islam after reading those comments; You could almost count the Muslim rebuttals on your fingers! These stories are read by millions of non-Muslims, day after day after day. Imagine how reading these articles for years on end would shape a non-Muslims psyche. Why don’t Western educated Muslims do something about these one way hate threads? Why aren’t there hundreds of Muslim comments every time a negative article concerning Muslims appears on one of these news websites? If your individual comment can reduce or eliminate the hatred of even one non-Muslim towards Muslims, isn’t it worth it?
Michael Gove seams very awkward in his role as Education Minister. During these challenging times I would have thought that someone of a higher calibre would have better suited the role.
Looks like women walking the street in Saudia Arabia are safer than the women walking the streets of Britain
Thankyou for this insightful article. Cometh the hour cometh the man. Well done to muslims for not been impressed by the shallow machinations & innuendo being banded about by immoral institutions that should know better.
The hatred of Muslims in the West is partly due to educated Muslims not voicing their views in the print media. When an average non Muslim opens up an anti Muslim news thread on the net, he finds no effective rebuttals by Muslims. The ones he does find are either written in pathetic English or full of filthy language. No wonder the media can easily persuade the non Muslim readership. Educated Muslims must voice their views on the media or we will have to answer to Allah for neglecting our responsibilities.
The facts are out there for anyone serious about seeking out the truth.
great article! Very well written; concise and to the point. I think there should some sort of ‘action alert’ organized with a list of things that Muslims in the UK can do following this tragic incident (i.e. writing to MP’s, demonstration, putting pressure on the government to come up with the establishment of some sort of new law that protects Muslims in the UK such as putting some limits as to what the press can or cannot write, more security being deployed in the UK streets to protect Muslims, some more severe and harsh punishment towards hate crimes and racism, banning of existing racist groups in the UK etc). Allahu’A’laam