British media forced to make corrections in stories about Muslims

Muslim Council of Britain has been tracking articles about Islam and Muslims to find misleading information

British newspapers have come under scrutiny for publishing a string of stories, related to Muslims, with inaccurate details.

Assistant general-secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Miqdaad Versi, has been tracking articles about Islam and Muslims to find inaccurate and misleading information.

Profile on how @MuslimCouncil 's @miqdaad is calling out incorrect stories on Muslims https://t.co/xHvec3JqqG

— MCB (@MuslimCouncil) January 19, 2017

Since November 2016, press regulator, Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), has asked for 20 retractions with another 20 under investigation while several complains have been rejected.



“Journalism plays a vital role in our democracy and the brilliant work by many journalists is being tarred by this consistent stream of negative and inaccurate reporting about Muslims,” Versi said. “There needs to be a stronger deterrent to reporting that fails to meet the highest professional standards that members of the press subscribing to Ipso have undertaken to maintain.”

Versi’s complaint prompted a correction from the Sun website when an article originally titled: 'SUPERMARKET TERROR: Gunman ‘screaming Allahu Akbar’ opens fire in Spanish supermarket while ‘carrying bag filled with petrol and gunpowder’” was changed to: “SUPERMARKET HORROR: Gunman opens fire in Spanish supermarket while ‘carrying bag filled with petrol and gunpowder’.”

The Sun corrects false claim of terror attack by gunman shouting Allahu Akbar (actually robbery by Stefan): no recognition/apology for error pic.twitter.com/UTRaabIrny

— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) January 13, 2017

Similarly, Mail Online retracted a headline suggesting ‘honour killings’ to be an extension of Islam, adding a footnote that said: “An earlier version of this article said police were investigating whether Ms Khan may have been murdered in an ‘Islamic honour killing’. We are happy to make clear that Islam as a religion does not support so-called ‘honour killings’.”



Ipso also ruled in Versi’s favour, stating that the phrase “Islamic honour killing” suggested that “the killing had been motivated by Islam, when there was no basis for saying that religion had played a role in this killing”.

Mail Online forced to retract bogus claim that honour killing was "Islamic" after my complaint to @IpsoNews https://t.co/RScmd8JmWW

— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) July 20, 2016

Another misleading title by the Express claimed “religious groups could ban the new £5 note because the Bank of England could not promise they were halal” had to be amended to “New £5 could be BANNED by religious groups as Bank CAN’T promise what note is made of". The newspaper further added that “Whilst the article quoted concerns of Hindu faith leaders in fact it did not refer to other faith leaders of the Muslim, Jewish or Buddhist communities. The use of the word ‘Halal’ in the headline was incorrect given the context of the article.”

Express forced to correct yet another false story about Muslims after my complaint: this time about a Muslim coalition against Daesh pic.twitter.com/eUixSCdKin

— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) January 19, 2017

“Newspaper editors need to seriously consider whether such a large number of inaccuracies on this one issue is in line with the basic standards of professional standards that they claim to adhere to, or whether it is indicative of the prioritisation of click-baiting over accuracy in the case of serial offenders. This has real-life consequences as far-right extremists share such false stories, leading to rising hostility towards Muslims,” Versi added.

This article originally appeared on the Guardian