Sun Mosque Stabbing Hypocrisy

The Murdoch mafiosi moves in truly mysterious ways: while the increasingly hysterical froth merchants at Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) are trying to blame the far-right terror attacks in the German town of Hanau on anyone who was not responsible for them (like Angela Merkel), the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker are acting as if they have developed a conscience about attacks on Muslims.

Yesterday, there was a knife attack at London Central Mosque, sometimes called Regent’s Park Mosque. A man has been arrested and charged with attempted murder. The Sun (no link chaps, you know how it is) declared “A BRAVE Muslim holy man knifed in the neck while leading prayers at London’s Regent's Park Mosque felt like he'd been 'hit with a brick' before collapsing to the ground”. Scary Muslims™ are suddenly brave!

There was more of the same. “Man knifed Muslim prayer leader in front of 300 worshippers just after 3pm … 20 heroes jumped on attacker to disarm him as victim fell to the floor screaming in agony”. And we know that Raafat Magland, the victim, is A Good Man because “Raafat oversaw the funeral of Dodi Fayed in 1997 following his death with Princess Diana in Paris”. There is even an item on the front page.

And we are told that “Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by news of the attack. He said: ‘I'm deeply saddened to hear of the attack at the London Central Mosque. It's so awful that this should happen, especially in a place of worship. My thoughts are with the victim and all those affected.’” How times change.

This is, after all, the same Sun newspaper that has spent the past decade demonising people like Raafat Magland. The same Sun Newspaper whose deeply unpleasant former editor Kelvin McFilth went after Channel 4 presenter Fatima Manji for having the audacity to read the news the day after the truck attack on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais.

It’s the same Sun newspaper that employed, and continues to employ, the services of vicious and dishonest Murdoch enforcer Trevor Kavanagh, who abused his position as a board member of sham press regulator IPSO to back up Kel, even though Ms Manji had made a complaint … to IPSO. The Sun was a full participant in the “White girl forced into Muslim foster care” non-story, even getting Trevor Phillips to denounce it as “abuse”.

As for alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, his recent record includes the article denouncing the appearance of some Muslim women as being like “letter boxes” and “bank robbers”, in the wake of which there was a significant spike in anti-Muslim hate crime. Yet now, Bozo The Clown is all sympathy.

And what the Sun glosses over is that this is yet another example of a white male violently assaulting a Muslim man - with potentially murderous intent. “Heroes of Mosque Stabbing … knife suspect is held at London mosque yesterday after being grabbed by brave worshippers” does not even come close to atoning for all that went before.

While the Murdoch press’ change in emphasis is welcome, there are many who wish that this is the kind of reporting that should have been happening ten years ago.

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