The Oz’s report attempted to show the attack was occasioned by the girl’s wish to convert to Christianity. The only evidence for this was from a Southport neighbour of the family. The family had just moved into the area some 2 months ago.
A neighbours and a former employer of the mother in Adelaide also were quoted. The parents were described as strict, insisting their daughter achieve good academic results and enrol in a medical degree.
The Oz’s slant on the story amply illustrates what editors can do to manufacture a context. The girl’s description included that she ...
... spoke with an accent and did not wear hijab.Bloody Bangladeshi migrants speaking in their bloody Islamic accents! Indeed, very few Bangladeshi women wear the hijab.
The report also claimed it was ...
... curious for devout Muslim parents ...
... to send children to a non-denominational Christian school with sound scholastic record. Yet hundreds of Muslim children are sent my parents to exclusive private schools.
Also mentioned were ...
... Islamic sweets ...
... which the mother allegedly made at the Indian restaurant where she worked. Just last week I visited a Canberra Indian spice shop and purchased Indian sweets. I didn’t bother to ask where the “Islamic sweets” were kept. Why? Because Islamic sweets just don’t exist! Indians of all faiths eat the same sweets.
Most disturbingly, the reporters claimed there was such a thing as ...
... Koran-sanctioned ritual killing to punish the rejection of Islam … One Koran passage quotes Mohammed as saying ‘whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him’.The newspaper then alleged that a Gold Coast imam confirmed the verse existed and shouldn’t be taken literally. In fact, all he said was that any book approached with a “surface reading” would have contradictions.
In fact, no such verse exists. I challenge the authors and editors of The Oz to provide the exact reference. I also challenge them to provide evidence from classical and modern Muslim religious jurists showing Islamic sacred law sanctions killing daughters.
At the time of writing, no charges had been laid against any member of the family. The ABC report states that Qld police ...
... are not prepared to speculate on whether religion was a motive in the attacks.However, News Limited papers are quite happy to speculate, even if it means manufacturing verses of scripture.
© Irfan Yusuf 2006
Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf
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