The Daily Telegraph has amended a hugely controversial article it wrote in the wake of the Woolwich murder titled How to Spot A Terrorist Living in Your Neighbourhood after complaints were made to the Press Complaints Commission.
The article published in May this year detailed the tell-tale signs of a terrorist. It originally read: “The great majority of terrorists in Britain, unsurprisingly, have been Muslim males aged 16-34, a third to a half of whom were unemployed and a significant portion of the rest under-employed. Most were unmarried…
“British home-grown terrorists tend to be less well educated and of lower socio-economic status. One estimate is that about 31 per cent participated in some form of higher education, studying such subjects as engineering, business or science…
“They are not mad: levels of mental illness were roughly in line with world averages. Between a third and a quarter of those convicted in Britain and Europe had criminal records unrelated to terrorism. A fifth or more of British terrorists were immigrants, often obtaining leave to remain despite being under investigation… If you are a concerned parent, neighbour, or employer you can access free criminal records checks online.
“Essentially, there will be changes in behaviour. A sudden ostentatious insistence on religious ritual, especially in a secular context (demands for prayer rooms where no other religion has them); a withdrawal from social interaction with women and disapproval of feminine dress. There may be a sudden obsession with physical fitness, more via outdoor adventure activities than team games.
“Someone may adopt traditional Arab dress or abruptly abandon it (so as not to attract attention). They might forbid or avoid music, collect jihadi material, withdraw from contact with non-Muslims or Muslims who are not extremist; there may be single-issue conversation, vociferous hatred of the West and Israel, and perhaps attempted travel to troubled regions or misleading vagueness as to where they’ve been…. Above all, officials should pay more attention to “non-violent extremists”, the swamp from which the Woolwich murder emerged.”
But after scores of complaints about the article were made to the PCC the Telegraph made the following retraction:
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
“When this article was first posted it said that the great majority of terrorists have been Muslim males aged 16-34. The reference to terrorists should have read Islamic extremist terrorists in Britain. We have amended the article accordingly.”
PCC
Shiplu Miah, the London Coordinator for ENGAGE, an organisation focusing on empowering Muslims in effectively engaging with media and politics, recently received a reply to his PCC complaint.
“As you are aware, the PCC investigated this matter… That investigation has now concluded, and the Commission has issued a ruling. Its decision was that the newspaper had published significantly misleading information… As a result of the Commission’s decision, the newspaper was obliged to publish a correction in print. It did so on 30 September.”
But Miah told 5Pillarz that he was not satisfied with the PCC’s response.
“Like the hundreds or thousands that complained about this article, I too felt that the brazenly Islamophobic rhetoric and narrative of the article had to be challenged and a remedy sought.
“The PCC’s response was far from satisfactory. It only upheld one out of the many points of complaints that were made. The PCC refused to accept that the article breached its own codes of practice by giving highly misleading impression of all Muslims being potential terrorists and by implying that signs of a deeper commitment to Islam always indicate potential terrorism or extremism.
“The PCC, as it stands, is by and large an ineffective and toothless regulator. It is not an independent body (from the newspaper companies) and therefore it cannot be guaranteed that complaints are dealt with in a fair and impartial manner. The findings of the Leveson inquiry into press standards and its subsequent recommendations for the press industry- which have generally been accepted by all the main political parties in the UK- will soon hopefully remedy much of the problems that we currently face with the PCC.
“Until those changes that were recommended by Leveson are made in the newspaper industry, we are stuck with the current PCC. However, even with this largely ineffective body, it is still possible to challenge press media reporting and get corrections made. It may be few and far between, but there have been many cases of successful complaints that were effectively remedied by the PCC. The Muslims community, or anyone for the matter, needs to know the PCC’s codes of practice, in particular Code 1 and Code 12, to effectively challenge the press when it gets things wrongs and to maximise the likelihood of the complaints being upheld.”
