Daily Mail Suckered By Bigots

[Updates, two so far, at end of post]

The obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre is always on the lookout for any dirt it can get on followers of The Prophet. Sometimes they can get a little too keen, as a story from the south coast on the topical meeting of long, hot summer days and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan has been splashed by the paper in an effort to pretend that Muslims are bossing everyone else.

What's f***ing wrong with kicking Muslims, c***?!?

“Teachers 'denied schoolboy, 10, water on the hottest day of the year to avoid upsetting Muslim pupils during Ramadan'” howls the headline, as readers are told the story of Kora Blagden and her son Luke, who attends the Charles Dickens Primary School. But those familiar with the dictates of the Qur’an may have already noticed that something is not quite right about this one.

Fasting, for followers of The Prophet during Ramadan, does not include banning the drinking of water. Given the part of the world where Islam began, this should not surprise anyone. So someone is being economical with the actualité here. And, for a paper that specialises in digging around social media sites when on the lookout for anything that will embarrass their targets, the Mail has been slacking.

Behold the Daily Mail's heroine

Take Kora Blagden, for starters. And take one look at her Facebook page to see a less than Daily Mail compliant profile picture. Then simply click “About”, scroll down to “Likes”, click on “Sports Teams” and the very first image is The Firms. Who they? Well, this is “The internet’s number one place for all things football casuals ... in no way do we condone violence”. Yeah, right.

"The Firms"? Who they?

That would explain the header image, showing four men wearing protective clothing, disguising their faces, and carrying an imaginative array of weaponry. And the British Rail symbol also gives a clue: anyone who can remember that far back knows all about “The Inter-City Firm”. We are talking serious football hooliganism here. So it doesn’t get into grounds nowadays? It didn’t go away.

That's who ...

Exemplifying the casuals’ mentality is a blog post titled “Meet the disrespectful Commie who ripped up Lee Rigby flowers”, about Sarah Marshall of the Doncaster Free Press, who did no such thing, although it is entirely possible that she was present at the EDL rally where there was an incident at Sheffield cenotaph. Contact details for her were given out. Threats were made.

Sadly for the EDL and their pals in the casuals, however, the photo was not of Sarah Marshall. But they have a grim track record in threatening journalists and attempting to curb press freedom. Yes, the Daily Mail, supposed champion of press freedom, is running a story from someone who supports those who would curtail it. And Muslim scare stories from that quarter do not suggest lack of bias.

But it’s interesting to shine some light on Paul Dacre’s new-found friends.

[UPDATE1 1720 hours: one source mentioned that those not at all Islamophobic or racist people who support UKIP have been having their ninepence worth about this "story", and a visit to Facebook confirmed it: some most unfortunate comments have been made during the past 24 hours.

First example is a post from Bev Jones, to whom one fellow Kipper proclaimed "We are not a Middle East society, 500 years behind the rest of humanity". Another demanded to know "What nationality/religion was the teacher?"

Then came the priceless "The teacher in question should be prosecuted for child cruelty and discrimination against a child that actually belongs here" [my emphasis].

Another thread was started by Dino Fancellu, with the comparatively modest addition of "WTF?!"

One wag suggested "I bet they asked kids to wake up at 3am to watch Chanel [sic] 4 as part of home work" before Fancellu reminded his fellow Kippers "It's all part of the agenda, bow down to everything non English. You have to remember that the public sector is run by the Left, from top to bottom", before leaving a reference about Common Purpose.

So that's a slice of opinion from the followers of a Real Mainstream Political Party, wound up with a good stiff dose of paranoia. I'm sure Nigel "Thirsty" Farage is happy to welcome them all]

[UPDATE2 14 July 1350 hours: since the post was published, I've been told that many Muslims do not even have water between dawn and dusk, although this advice does vary a bit. What does not vary is that children who have not yet reached adolescence are not compelled to take part in fasting, which means 10 year olds. That is yet another reason not to believe Kora Blagden's story.

Meanwhile, other media outlets have been suckered into running this tale, even the normally sane Mirror (along with the usual batshit commenters). And the HuffPost UK has also run it - apparently from the PA Wire, which is presumably why so many are taking it as fact.

What is not being stressed in all these reports is that the school has stressed that it does not prevent any of its pupils from having access to water, should they need it. Perhaps the PA, and all those trusting the wire copy, should have another think about running stories that do not add up]