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In the name of Allah, most Gracious,
most Merciful
The media lost balance when reporting the tragic death of Ms. Parvez
By Abubakar N. Kasim
Freelance writer based in Toronto
The media in general loses its focus, disregards objectivity and balanced reporting and forgets its ethical and professional responsibility when the suspect of a crime is thought to be a Muslim.
The religion of the suspect is all of a sudden associated with the crime and the perpetrator’s action is somehow linked to his or her religion and eventually all Muslims are forced to defend their faith as if they were all behind the crime.
The media never uses this approach when the suspect of a crime is from other faith communities. Things are quite different then where the reporting is usually conducted in a more balanced and professional manner. The suspect is the only one who is held responsible for the criminal offence and not the faith or the community he or she might belong to.
But when a Muslim is alleged to have committed a crime, things are completely different. The suspect is presumed guilty until proven otherwise and the religion is directly linked to the crime.
On Tuesday morning, December 11, disturbing news was reported in the media about a 16-year old teenage girl who was allegedly strangled by her father. The 57 year old father and a taxi driver, Mr. Muhammad Parvez, was arrested and faces murder charges for the death of his daughter Ms. Aqsa Parvez, as reported in the news.
While this distressing and upsetting news was still unfolding and the authorities and investigators did not complete their investigation, the media had already joined the dots and solved the puzzle and concluded that the incident was due to the refusal of the teenage daughter to wear the Muslim headscarf.
The media did not even feel shy in jumping to conclusion prematurely while the analysis and investigation was not even finalized.
The National Post wrote on Dec. 11 in a headline, “Dad charged after daughter killed in clash over hijab” and “Friends say father disapproved of Western dress.”
Maclean’s magazine on the other hand reported on the same day, “Muslim teen's dad charged in her death; friends say she chafed at hijab.”
Even the Toronto Star which is usually is a balanced newspaper jumped into the wagon in associating the faith with the crime. Among its headlines on Dec. 11 were, Hijab can divide families.”
Ironically, when reporting about a Christian Priest who faces charges of sexual assaults, the title in the same newspaper simply read, “Minister faces sex assault charges.” The report was quiet short and there was no blame or criticism of the faith the suspect belonged and preached people to.
If on the other hand if a Muslim clergyman was alleged with exactly the same crime, there would have been pages in the news media about how Islam denigrate women; why the faith is a threat to the society at large; and how mosques are not only harboring terrorists but producing rapist clergymen also.
Parents would have been warned never to send their children to Mosques alone and imams are not to be trusted anymore.
The title would have instead read something like, “A Muslim scholar Faces sex assault charges.” And the so-called experts on terrorism would have been readily available in the news to ad fuel into the fire.
Not only the suspect would have been found guilty and judged by the media, the entire faith would have been scrutinized and put on the spotlight.
Muslim organizations would have been forced to come up with statements of condemnations and the media would have still found the statements to fall short in combating the problem.
Hatemongers would have appeared on television in warning people about the threat of Islamo-facism. The so-called moderate Muslims on the other hand would have played their role in creating fear and negative stereotype about the faith.
I wonder what kind of approach would the media have played with regards to the coverage of Robert Pickton’s trial over the disappearance of many women in his pig farm in British Columbia.
The alleged serial killer was sentenced on Dec. 11 to life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years for his conviction on six counts of second-degree murder.
The media never even once did they mention his faith but has he been a Muslim or related to one, the reporting would have different altogether. Not only him, the entire faith would have been on trial and he would have been presumed guilty even before the trial had begun.
The media in general ought and should conduct themselves with high level of integrity and professionalism when reporting the news. They should use caution and not associate the faith with the acts of the alleged perpetrator.
Hate mongers who always like to jump to conclusions when the suspect is a Muslim should not forget that every community including their own has bad apples who do heinous things sometimes.
Not only Muslims but every other group has mad men in its midst and to blame the entire faith community for the actions of someone from its ranks is a crime itself that should be abhorred and condemned in the strongest language possible.
People should treat this tragic and horrific incident as a horrible crime and should not blame the faith of whoever might be thought to be behind it.
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