YouTube comedian and activist Strange Sanum acts out a parody video, “You Know You’re Muslim When ... ” (IMAGE FROM YOUTUBE)As soon as reports came in Friday morning about a bombing and massacre in Norway, the knee-jerk rection by media organizations around the world was to speculate that “Muslim terrorists” were the perpetrators.
By the evening, it became clear that a 32-year-old Norwegian Christian man named Anders Behring Breivik was responsible for the attacks.
The error was clear, and yet many continued to try to link the attacks toal-Qaeda’s influence.
Some were not so keen to let the blame continue. On Twitter, YouTube comedian and activist Strange Sanun started a satirical hashtag#blamethemuslims to “highlight how ridiculous it is to blame Muslims for every problem in the world.”
The hashtag #blamethemuslims shined a light on Europe’s Islamophobia and the media’s mistake, which commentator’s around the world were only starting to point out.
Ahmed Moor at Al Jazeera wrote that the Western media’s response “demonstrates the extent to which reactionary bigotry” and anti-Muslim sentiment have “infected mainstream thought.”
Jeff Sparrow at ABC argued that this once again showed Europe’s “mainstreaming of a violent, apocalyptic anti-Muslim discourse.”
The Post’s Right Turn blog came under fire for rushing to make a “jihadist connection.”
And the New York Times was criticized by Glenn Greenwald at Salon for using the word “terrorist” when referring to Muslims but switching to the word “extremist” when the perpetrator turned out to be Christian.
By Sunday, the hashtag had become a trending topic after a series of satirical tweets by Sanum went viral.
Some of Sanum’s best tweets:
“I don’t have a job #blamethemuslims”
“Friday by Rebecca Black? #blamethemuslims”
“‘Wheres your homework?’ ‘I made it into a paper aeroplane and it got hijacked.’ #blamethemuslims”
Those who saw the hashtag but didn’t understand the irony reacted with shock or outrage. Some even sent Sanum death threats.
From Ghana.I think the leaders of these oil rich arab countries are to blame. A whole lot of westerners see islam as a curse to the society simply because they were made to grow up with that mentality. The only way for muslims to help curb this mentality is through dawah. What effort are these leaders doing to produce more people who can preach the religion worldwide. I think if we get a lot of dawah students in the system it would help change the mentality of the religion. The cost of religious studies should be affordable to every muslim everywhere in the world.
ReplyDeleteAs-salam alaykum I read an Article online regarding this who so called breivick, I felt really sad reading the comments down by our indian hindu brothers, Some said Islam and Muslims are cancer but the murderer wrong, Some said Islam is not a good religion and they made this guy a hero..Tears came in my eyes reading all those comments i just wish they should understand what is Islam at first point. I feel scared being an indian after reading all those comments.
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