Gay Muslim character...I never saw that coming (From Asian Image)

Gay Muslim character...I never saw that coming

12:09pm Wednesday 3rd June 2009

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You have to love the age of technology, information at your finger tips, news travelling faster than the blink of an eye.

Making friends with people half way across the world you have never met, the sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you get an email with ‘Muslim’ and BBC in the same sentence.

Friday evening, I’m looking forward to a chilled out hot summer weekend, and then I find the BBC have decided to introduce a gay Muslim into Eastenders – talk about a dampner!

Apparently the new plot line is a way to ensure that the resident Enders Muslims don’t stay “in their kitchen unit making curries for years and years”.

This, the Enders producers claim at the same time as lauding the importance of tackling issues that reflect real life.

So, I have to wander….why not tackle Islamophobia? Racial attacks? Poverty? Poor educational attainment? Stereotyping and the persistent subjection to baseless accusations?

Real Muslim life in the UK has plenty of plotlines….but where’s the fun in that?

To tackle real issues faced by almost 2 million people in the UK would require there to be a modicum of truth in the apparent concern of the BBC.

The reality is that Enders is simply cashing in on the media fodder Muslims make nowadays.

For a society hell bent on telling Muslims to occupy the middle ground – the media persistently paint Muslims as extremes – and apparently, it doesn’t matter whether that extreme is as a terrorist, a downtrodden beaten woman, an out and proud misogynist or…gay!

The circle just doesn’t seem to break, from the powers that be taking every opportunity to provoke and Muslims taking the bait every time they do, we just don’t seem to learn the lessons.

The really frustrating thing is you can predict the whole sorry episode (excuse the pun)…from the moment the story airs, to the angry reactions to the ‘see we told you Islam was bigoted’ diatribe that will follow.

And it isn’t just the media trying to get a rise. An ex-colleague of mine sent me an email about the Enders storyline…wanting to know what I think, and then quite patronisingly suggesting perhaps it was time Muslims displayed a little tolerance…Eh? Tolerance?!

You having a laugh? From where I sit Muslims show a damn site more tolerance than we’re shown.

How many Muslims go round telling people what to believe? Telling people to ‘get married’? telling people (men and women) to cover up? Now lets flip the question…How many times have Muslim women been told to take clothes off?

How many Muslim marriages are questioned as being legitimate? How many times are Muslims told their beliefs are unacceptable. Need I go on?

Muslims sell papers, increase ratings and make for good TV. Something tells me we’re the Jade Goody of the ‘news’ world…and apparently…since the opening came up, of the entertainment one too!

The fact is…when we talk about equality…George Orwell could not have been more right…some people are just more equal than others.

There is only one way we are going to combat this, and neither silence, nor taking to the streets is it. If the media is the tool being used to paint a schizophrenic picture of Muslims, then we need to paint our own masterpiece, and use to media to do it…and Comment is the only way. So come on people…Know....Comment..and tell them how it really is!.

Dr Bano Murtuja is a writer for ‘No Comment’ - Avenues for the Curious Minds

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