Villains or victims: Muslims in the media

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he tragic murder of three Muslim students in North Carolina is a devastating act of violence that will scar the community engulfed in the aftermath for weeks to come. Although we’ll never be sure of the motivations for the murders, it seems to be a parking dispute that triggered them.

That was undoubtedly a pathetic reason for ending the lives of three people, and it disregarded religious motivation, and the importance the staunch atheism of Craig Hicks. Many friends and family were unsatisfied with an answer that attempts to distract from the differences between the victims and suspect. But the murder has also sparked a discussion over the paltry weight Muslim lives carry in today’s Western media.

Although it may be impossible to wonder now, the immediate aftermath of the incident painted a very different picture. In Britain, only three news outlets responded – AP, the Independent and Al-Jazeera. In the USA, the situation was similar. Many major news networks apparently didn’t see the importance of what had happened, but murder is murder, no matter how you frame it. It was only after Twitter users started responding with the hashtag #muslimlivesmatter that other outlets picked it up, frantically covering one of the most horrific events of the month.

And you have to ask – what does this say to the thousands of Muslims living in both countries? I would bet that it sends the message that actually, they don’t matter. An incident like this should have seen widespread press coverage. People should have been outraged. Everyone should be calling for atheist “leaders” to justify atheism. But there weren’t.

It’s not that the people who fail to be outraged are callous – they’re just ignorant. A generation has grown up amidst the “War on Terror”, being essentially taught that white Christians are good, and anyone else? Probably bad. And the media is just as guilty.

Although the Charlie Hebdo attacks were reprehensible, the world seems to have forgotten the shared distaste felt when the same magazine posted a picture of The Prophet (A basic violation of Islamic law, as depictions of Him are forbidden.) I’m not here to justify the people who carried out the attacks. What I’m asking is that we stop tarring all Muslims with the same brush, and remember that Charlie Hebdo was not entirely guiltless.

We need to change our attitudes, and fast. Society always seems to need a scapegoat, and the current target is undoubtedly Muslims. Why do we always have to get reassurances from “community leaders”? Why can’t we accept that the people who carry out such violent attacks are usually extremists, not representative of the whole community? And why is it so difficult to accord everyone the same level of respect, irrespective of religion?

We have become a society that is happy to paint Muslims as villains, but becomes unnervingly quiet when the same community become victims of the murders we so vehemently condemn. That needs to change.