by Rosie Alfatlawi
After a US mosque was bombed, many on social media accused the media of “double standards” over their coverage of the incident. But is that really the case?
The explosion took place at Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Minnesota early on Saturday as worshippers gathered for dawn prayers.
A "destructive device" was reportedly thrown into a window at the mosque around 5am, causing a blast but no injuries.
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As with previous attacks on Muslims, it was quickly suggested by many on social media that an anti-Muslim bias had been shown in reporting of the attack.
Some criticized a perceived lack of focus on the incident.
Why aren't attacks on Mosques, which are rising in frequency, worthy of more media attention?
— Khaled Beydoun (@KhaledBeydoun) August 6, 2017
A Minnesota mosque was bombed. That's terrorism. You won't see it on the headline news. It's not trending. Wonder why.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) August 6, 2017
Many accused media outlets of shying away from describing the bombing as a “terrorist attack” or “hate crime”.
Are you kidding with this headline right now? Can you not cal it terrorism because Muslims were the targets? Why the double-standard?
— Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) August 5, 2017
This is not the first time that the media have been accused of showing reluctance to call attacks targeting Muslims “terrorism”, or to refer to an apparent Islamophobic motive behind an attack.
In June a right wing extremist drove a van into a group of Muslims returning home after prayers in London, killing one and injuring ten. The perpetrator, Darren Osbourne was arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses, however the press was criticized online for not immediately calling it a “terrorist attack”.
Spot the difference. Caucasian vs Brown. Same method of terrorism, two different motives whilst reporting. #FinsburyPark pic.twitter.com/EnsEIROChC
— Waleed Zafar (@WaleedZafar1) June 19, 2017
When such accusations are made against “the media”, it raises several important questions.
What exactly is “the media”?
Outlets from Breitbart to the New York Times, from Buzzfeed to Fox News cover such incidents.
Is it those to the right wing of the media with whom these social media commenters take issue? In fact it was the New York Times, considered to be left-leaning, which received the majority of the complaints on Twitter for its headline on this story.
It is ironic that the liberal media should be target for such complaints, given that they employ a largely positive narrative with regard to Muslims. This, much to the annoyance of many on the far right who similarly berate “the media” for perceived excessive attention on and tolerance towards Muslim and other minority groups.
The New York Times are out to destroy America, their readers are communists and radical muslims
— summer lee (@littlesummer17) July 10, 2017
You realize the ban is Muslim majority countries, not a ban on Muslims, right? Also to note, Obama admin chose the 6 countries listed in ban pic.twitter.com/pwHm8TBy6V
— Michelle Leigh (@OneBlueRose511) July 26, 2017
Was this attack "downplayed" in the media?
If we are looking at how much the news itself was reported, it does not hold true that it received no “media attention”. It was covered by many news sites from across the spectrum in the US and elsewhere.
The lack of an uproar over the attack can, in part, be attributed to the fact that it did not cause any physical injury or considerable damage to the building.
Did “the media” shy away from calling the attack a “hate crime” or “terrorism”?
Of all the news sites to cover the attack, only Newsweek mentioned “terrorism” in its headline: “Bomb Explodes at Minnesota Mosque During Morning Prayers; FBI Terrorism Task Force Investigating”.
“Police initially said it was too early to call the incident a hate crime,” the article stated.
“However, the FBI, including members of the agency’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, were quickly on the scene at the building.”
The Washington Post reported that Rick Thornton, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the investigation, had said on Saturday afternoon: “Is it a hate crime? Is it an act of terror?…Again, that’s what the investigation is going to determine.”
Fox News also paraphrased Thornton, saying that “investigators will try to determine whether the incident was a hate crime and who may have been behind it”. However, it did not quote his speculation with regard to if this could be “an act of terror”.
Other media sources, including NPR and CNN did not mention that statement or refer to "terror".
However, CNN did quote Amir Malik, the Council for American-Islamic Relations’ civil rights director in Minnesota who said: "If a bias motive is proven, this attack would represent another in a long list of hate incidents targeting Islamic institutions nationwide in recent months".
Meanwhile, NPR cited a CAIR press release noting “an unprecedented spike in hate incidents targeting Muslims and other minority groups since the November 8 election.”
Buzzfeed also did not refer to terrorism but did indicate that “officials have not yet said whether they are treating the incident as a hate crime.”
The Buzzfeed report added that the police had indicated that "nothing significant" in terms of hate crimes had happened recently in the area.
However, according to the mosque’s executive director, Mohamed Omar, in recent times the mosque had been the target of threatening and hateful messages.
“People talking about us, telling us, accusing us that we shouldn’t be here, that we are like a burden to the community or we are like harming it,” Omar told local media.
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So, it seems that media coverage from across the spectrum was perhaps a little bit light on speculation about possible motives for the attack. But this was largely because it would have been entirely that; conjecture. How could the media call it an Islamophobic hate crime or terrorist attack if nothing was known about the perpetrator?
