Is The Media Becoming Christianophobic?
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Fifty completely innocent Muslims, including men, women and children were murdered by a far right terrorist in New Zealand a few days ago. Horrific. Evil. Contemptuous. Pick a superlative and it won’t be enough to describe what the mad man responsible did. It made headline new across the world, and rightly so. It was a massacre of innocents on a gruesome scale.
Since February of this year – that is last month by the way if, like me, you lose track of time – 120 Christians have been massacred by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria. At least 42 of them on February 26th.
This did not make headline news across the world. Well, if it did, it certainly didn’t make headline news on the BBC nor, as far as I can ascertain, any of the major news channels.
Well, let’s check shall we?
BP News (Baptists Press), Metrovoice News (which seems to be from Kansas?), CBN (a Christian media outlet), Christianity Today and so on and so forth.
Not exactly the BBC or CNN or what have you is it?
I haven’t got an ax to grind here by the way. Well, not in terms of being a Christian because I’m not. I happen to be an atheist.
As far as I’m concerned personally, Islam is garbage, Christianity is garbage and, come to that, all religion is garbage.
I am quite happy to respect anyone and everyone’s right to believe in whatever deity they want to believe in, from Allah to Buddah and from God to The Martian Overlord. I really couldn’t care less. Crack on.
What worries me though, is that, for some unfathomable reason – certainly in the UK at the moment – the massacre of innocent Muslims seems to be more newsworthy than the massacre of innocent Christians.
I would have thought the massacre of anybody – including atheists like me – would be equally newsworthy. Clearly not.
So, why is the mainstream media giving huge coverage to the massacre of Muslims but, seemingly, none at all to the massacre of Christians?
Dunno. I have a theory mind you. (you must have seen that coming eh?)
Liberal, secular Muslims live happily in western liberal democracies, quite simply because they are liberal, secular Muslims. Conservative Muslims, on the other hand, occasionally march in the streets demanding Shariah law and waving placards saying ‘Islam will rule the world’ and rubbish like that.
This sort of behavior tends to make the more liberal among us squirm a little bit. Criticizing Islam is often perceived as Islamophobic. Clearly it isn’t. In western liberal democracies we are entitled to criticize religion. We are entitled to criticize anything and anybody come to that.
That’s western liberal democracies for you.
The problem that western, liberal, secular democracies have at the moment – apart from far right nutters – is ‘conservative’ Islam.
I don’t mean Muslims who vote conservative by the way. I mean those who have a firm belief in the, for want of a better description, the stricter interpretation of their faith.
Women treated as second class citizens. Arranged marriages to under age girls. Multiple marriages (better known as Bigamy). A desire to make Islam the controlling influence where ever they live. A hatred of non-Muslims or, as they refer to us, ‘kaffirs’. A desire to either convert or kill all ‘kaffirs’.
The list is alarmingly long, so, hopefully, you get my drift already?
In the UK, our media – the BBC and so forth – seem hell bent on doing absolutely anything necessary to avoid offending Islam.
It is bizarre. Our Muslim population is something like 6%(?) of the population.
Certainly Christianity in the UK is somewhat on the wain. Church attendances have been falling off for years. Religion is becoming increasingly a minority thing but, Muslims have a faith that is also a culture. For the ‘conservative’ Muslim it is all encompassing. Islam is the only true faith.
Yes, the terrorist atrocity in New Zealand murdering innocent Muslims was appalling. Yes, it deserved worldwide media coverage.
Why though, is the continuing massacre of Christians – numbering considerably more than the victims in New Zealand – getting absolutely no coverage on major media channels at all? It isn’t even confined to Nigeria.
Christians in Pakistan get a pretty raw deal. Are there any in Iran? If there are they will be either dead or terminally insane to be there in the first place. Christians in Saudi Arabia get treated badly at best.
It made the news for a while but lately, nothing. 120 Christians murdered by Islamic extremist terrorists in Nigeria and nothing.
Western liberal secular democracies really need to stop pandering to Islam. Pandering to Islam will only make the horrific events in New Zealand more likely to happen again.
Ordinary people are fed up of their governments pandering to Islam. The odd ‘ordinary person’ with a mental problem or a desire to join the far right might well take their feelings of being fed up a wee bit beyond moaning about it a la New Zealand.
The media are quite right to broadcast atrocities like the one in New Zealand but, I believe they had better start giving equal air time to Islamic terrorism too.
British opposition Labour MP, Kate Hoey, has recently pointed out this glaring and worrying discrepancy by asking why ‘mainstream media’ are ignoring the slaughter of African Christians by Islamist terrorists.
When a clearly ‘left leaning’ politician notices such things, then perhaps, everyone should take note and wonder.
An Islamic murdering terrorist is just as bad as a far right murdering terrorist.
As I write, I suspect there are far more of the former around right now than the latter.
The media need to recognize it.
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No disagreement about religion, although I recognize that religious passion has produced great art and architecture and music. Religion still seems to me to be the result of a brain defect our species has. Whether it’s Marduk or Melquart or Quetzalcoatl or the talking universe, it’s a dangerous delusion.
That some of us fall all over ourselves trying to show we’re not prejudiced and that we’re often silly about it annoys me a tiny bit less, but I’m as uncomfortable with the very religious as I am with the schizophrenic and for the same reason.
The New Zealand Prime Minister’s reaction is as political as anything else and too much like the hopes and prayers attitude elsewhere. It will lead to more gun control but until we recognize that religion has killed more people than anything else, not much difference will be made.
Spot on old bean!
Glenn : the facts n figures are out there on generally reliable sources. Once Kate Hoey brought it up it pretty much confirmed it.
Apparently, New Zealand are going to broadcast the Friday call to prayer. I’m sorry. This is getting silly.
Mike : With you there old bean!
Religion is the scourge of the globe and has been for what seems like forever.
I don’t have the facts and figures to agree or disagree in an informed fashion. I do know that in the US we have Fox News who, if some secular and assimilated Muslim farts in an elevator will tell us about it and have it interpreted in a dire manner. For years we have been entertained with the idea that “the media” was ignoring the murders of white people by black people although I suspect the truth was not being well served.
When a Muslim shot up a night club in Orlando not long ago, there was rage and reprisal against Muslims. Not so much when Jews were shot up by a “Christian” but I have to agree with your feelings about religion and gods and those who actually think they are real.