By: Jaber Ahmed *)
The massacre of three young Muslim students who were shot by their atheist neighbour, Craig Stephen Hicks, near the university of Chapel Hill in North Carolina on the 10th of February 2015 has sparked various criticism addressed to “Western” Media for its indefference and “unfair” coverage towards the incident. Only a few media outlets were actually covering the issue, according to Independent. Many social media activists, primarily Muslims, were disappointed with the attitude of the mainstream media in the US by saying that such attitude will only re-affirmed the longstanding Islamophobia that the violent loss of Muslim lives would not get the same attention by the major media as killings of Christians.
“#Chapel Hill Shooting Already occurred 9 hours ago. Still no coverage from CNN, Fox, MSNBC and other major media outlets” wrote Khaled Bey on twitter.
A few hours after the murders, which occurred at 5 pm local time, there were still no reports of the incident made by the mainstream media. While it took only minutes for the western media to massively spread the news of the Charlie Hebdo attack after the satirical magazine insulted the Prophet of Islam.
“I want to see the protests, I want to see the news coverage, I would like to see the parade of criticism, I would like to see the same outrage expressed as incidents in France. #ChapelHillShooting”, chirping other social media activists, Adham Kassem.
The bias of the “west” media when referring to non-Muslim perpetrators has also been so pitiful. Suspected assailants would be referred to them, not terrorists as they did when the attacker was a Muslim. There are no “extremists”, “terrorists” and “radicals” dropped into their rapid-fire reports which slowly broadcasted a day or so after the incident.
A famous caricature Carlos Latuff wrote on Twitter relating to the media bias by saying, “Now imagine if Craig Hicks were a Muslim and had shot down three young Christian or Jew … #ChapelHillShooting”.
In conclusion of what have been elaborated above, that Islamophobia in the U.S. has entered a new phase of sort of threat for the country’s multicultural society. Discrimination, harassment and intimidation towards their Muslims citizen since 9/11 would seem to be continued as the propaganda of ‘west’ as well as its media plays a significant role in raising the hatred against Muslims. Thus, this shooting could bring a new level up of seriousness to the security of Muslims in the country who claimed itself as “The Father of Democracy”.
*) The Author Is Jakarta Regional Contributors