Evening Standard newspaper headline - large type with big black borders evokes a sense of mourning: "Muslims must condemn this act" with a photo. It refered to the beheading (and filming) of the American man by a group of Iraqis in retaliation of the abuses done to Iraqi prisoners by the US military.
This entry is not about the abuses themselves but about this headline and what it implies. I know from friends and colleagues who are Muslim that their lives are getting harder, that people are losing work in Britain, that kids are being beaten up and verbally abused for being Muslim.
This headline helps to foster and create a climate where all Muslims are treated as crypto-terrorists, where to be Muslim makes you guilty in the eyes of society. Just a quick reminder: we still theoretically live in a society where we are all innocent until proven guilty and where freedom of religion is enshrined in law. But this headline makes the assumption that Muslim people would not feel revolted by the beheading. It makes the assumption that without the Evening Standard, a Muslim might not have normal human feelings and that they must be told how to act by this newspaper. It also creates a further division between us and them. Us, we naturally feel revolted. You, them, must be taught to feel revolted. Cannot be trusted to feel/do the right thing. Did they have a similar headline - Americans condemn this act? No. Because the assumption is that Americans, like us, would naturally condemn the abuses.
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