In a diverse city like London, you would think that the media would be smart enough to know that it’s political, racial and religious connotations have quite an effect on its readers.  Given the useful content in a newspaper like the Metro, The London Paper or London Lite anyway, it is very surprising to see anything of substance at all, if you’re lucky enough to come across some piece of news that doesn’t deal with a celebrity’s life.  Of course, the fact that millions of Londoners are so engrossed in such a pittiful waste of time reflects on the quality of audience, and keeping that in mind, the newspapers should take special responsibility for what they publish, since they may be the largest party to blame for spreading widespread incompetence in London.

That said, in the Monday, December 15th edition of Metro Newspaper, the company showed signs of serious religious discrimination when it printed news about the Bengali-British doctor Humayra Abedin had been held captive by her parents.  But what was interesting was that the writers felt the need to highlight that the her parents were Muslim on the front page.  The paper explicitly stated that she was held captive by her ‘Muslim’ parents.  What in the world would possess newspapers to publish derogatory content like that on the front page?  When you read that sentence, what rung in your head was ‘bloody Muslims, up to their tricks again.’  Now, I’ll be the first person to do some Muslim bashing, largely because many Muslims deserve.  But I’m a Muslim, and I speak from first hand experience.  The Metro need not write in such negative tunes about Islam or Muslims, because that simply does not promote a harmonious atmosphere in a city London.

Their next, stupid, yet more deviant act was mention the phrase “Pakistan terror plots” or something to that effect at the bottom right hand side of the page in bold print.  What the hell was that about?  I don’t see them mentioning any other news in bold print on the front page at the bottom; but hey, promote hatred against Pakis?  Once again, I have a few Pakistan bashing articles on this site, but I speak from experience, while the newspaper is promoting and suggesting that Pakistan plots terrorst attacks.  That’s like asking for trouble, because when you keep saying that somebody is a terrorist again and again, guess what, you leave them no option but to behave like one.

It was extremely cheeky and discriminatory of Metro point out Muslim and Pakistani faults on the first page to a crowd that they target in a city like London. The newspaper, even if it is a trash newspaper, needs to assume more responsibility and try not to say things that could have negative racial or religious implications.

What reflects on the paper’s discriminatory behaviour is the fact that I’ve never seen them mention that Robert Mugabe is a devout Christian, thereby implying how he is a prime example of derogatory (that seems like my new favourite word today) Christiandom.  But of course, all the self exploding toads are Muslim, as are the parents who keep their children captive.

Shame, Metro.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 8:15 am and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.