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1/2 I’m old enough to remember when a senior Channel 4 presenter posted a lie on this very site about being ushered out from a Mosque. There were think pieces about Muslims being misogynistic and was picked up by right wing press and made the news on tv over a number of days.
These are the tweets that kicked it off and when I say every media organisation in the land covered it, I mean everyone. Not once did Cathy Newman correct the record when presumably asked for comment on the story.
This is just some of the reporting on the mosque ushering of Cathy Newman. It was covered on tv news programmes as well. Phone ins on BBC radio and LBC about it as well. It was number one story for that week.
At this point you may ask what was Cathy Newman doing trying to go to a mosque? Well this is the most insidious part of the whole sorry affair. It was an invitation for a open mosque day for non-Muslims to come and talk, that many mosques were participating in across country.
So an event organised by Mosques across the country to foster better relations between Muslims and the wider community and counter hate not only got derailed but Mosques started to get threats.
The Mosque in question released CCTV footage, contradicting Cathy Newman’s claims. She was at the wrong Mosque which was not participating, but shown directions to one that was having a open day.
Cathy Newman issued an apology and quit twitter for awhile. No police visited her at her workplace on channel 4 news nor as far as I know at her home. She didn’t lose her job even though she works on a factual news show. Just one apology and a week off like nothing happened.
So why bring this up now? Well this was at the height of Milo, Tommy Robinson Hopkins and others reign on twitter. They ran with the story added their takes and content on the story resulting in anyone visibly Muslim online at the time getting threats. Nothing happened to anyone.
Can you imagine a country wide initiative to counter Islamophobia and foster better relations between Muslims and wider community just destroyed on the basis of one woman’s tweets. No one in the media even bothered to do research or speak to mosque in question until leaked CCTV.
There was no 48hr twitter silence, no one lost their job. No police visits even though one persons lies on twitter caused a spike in recorded incidents of Mosques getting threats. Everyone who did angry phone in calls and comment pieces just moved on like nothing happened.
