Sunday 7 December 2014

What is the matter with these people?

Muslims in NZ are apparently suffering a greater incidence of negative discrimination, verbal abuse and psychological pressure in recent days. A recent article in the Dominion Post highlighted the issue, as did Radio New Zealand.

The negativity directed at NZ Muslims is not unique to NZ and not a new thing. We have suffered varying degrees of the same appalling nonsense since 9/11 2001 all around the world. The recent spate is presumably generated as a result of the media reporting ISIL executions of Westerners and / or media reporting of the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill, that is making its way through Parliament now. Both of these put Muslims in a bad light, as terrorists or potential terrorists.


What this really shows, is evidence of previous and ongoing poor reporting and bias in NZ news media. This is combined with, and also partially responsible for, utter ignorance in the NZ public domain about what most Western Muslims believe or stand for. 

I'm sure that the idiots who direct abuse at Muslims are unaware that is is Muslims themselves who have by far suffered the greatest number of casualties at the hands of ISIL, and continue to do so. The Western hostages killed represent a tiny fraction of the total - but they get relatively huge amounts of news coverage in NZ and the West. This is precisely the aim of the terrorists. Why are we playing their game?

NZ reporting bias was again seen in recent coverage of Unites States police brutality. This is a critical issue - if you cannot trust the law to be enforced fairly where does it leave you? We all expect better of the US. However, I would suggest the uprising has been given greater airtime and focus in NZ because it is an event in a country seen as Western and 'white' by NZ and therefore more important than events in countries populated by brown people. Tragedies and struggles of brown people around the world are ignored by NZ while we focus on the everyday utterly trivial events in NZ.

Where are the values of New Zealanders? We seem to be living in an unthinking uncaring, inward looking society, driven by greed and self-interest.


Certainly #blacklivesmatter ... brown lives matter too. All lives matter. Where is the compassion? NZ is being manipulated by the media, and not in a good way.