I apologize for repeating this sobering anecdote, but — alas — it’s relevant again.
When “Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion” was released in 2008, several of the authors took part in a circle-the-globe trip for events linked to the issues covered in the book. One interesting — or disturbing — forum took place with journalism students at the multi-faith Convergence Institute of Media in Bangalore, India.
The topic, of course, was how to improve religion-news coverage in print and broadcast media. In a previous post — “Life and death (and faith) in India” — I noted:
I was struck by one consistent response from the audience, which I would estimate was about 50 percent Hindu, 25 percent Muslim and 25 percent Christian. When asked what was the greatest obstacle to accurate, mainstream coverage of events and trends in religion, the response of one young Muslim male was blunt. When our media cover religion news, he said, more people end up dead. Other students repeated this theme during our meetings.
In other words, when journalists cover religion stories, this only makes the conflicts worse. It is better to either ignore them or to downplay them, masking the nature of the conflicts behind phrases such as "community conflicts" or saying that the events are caused by disputes about "culture" or "Indian values."
Cover the story WRONG and more people die, they said. But if you cover the story ACCURATELY, even more people will die. As a rule, editors and producers resorted to vague terms — “community violence” was common — to hide bloody sectarian divides. Journalism is not an option when covering religious divides in India.
With that in mind, consider the foggy “word salad” language at the top of this recent BBC report about what were clearly sectarian riots in East Leicester. This is from a web archive, since the story was updated later without explanation. The bottom line: The religion angles in this story were too hot to mention.
Police and community leaders have called for calm after large numbers of people became involved in disorder in parts of East Leicester. Footage online shows hundreds of people, mainly men, filling the streets. …
It is the latest in a series of disturbances to have broken out following an India and Pakistan cricket match on 28 August.
A significant police operation will remain in the area in the coming days. … Community leaders from East Leicester were on the ground with officers, and were calling for calm and encouraging people to go home, the force added.
As so often happens, these days, a Substack publication — see “SW1 Bitesize: the Leicester Riots 2022” — did some online research and filled in the religion gaps. For example:
The police also reported that there was footage of “a man pulling down a flag outside a religious building on Melton Road”. But which communities and which religion?
An earlier BBC story stated that 27 people had been arrested previous for another “series of disturbances” which were also linked to the cricket match. They quoted the temporary Chief Constable thanking the community for calling for calm, although again, nobody says which community.
Let’s keep reading. As it turns out, the answers to basic questions were hiding in clear sight.
This is long, but essential. The blitz of relevant URLs? That’s in the Substack piece:
All of this coyness seems very strange when anyone capable of going on Twitter and searching “Leicester Muslim” or “Leicester Hindu” will quickly find a wide range of videos which quickly make it apparent that this was a sectarian riot between those two groups. Using those videos, the timeline becomes clearer:
* Events began with a Hindu protest crowd, who were filmed walking down the road chanting sectarian slogans. In some footage they are clearly chanting “Jai Shree Ram”. Although it can be used as a greeting, in recent years it has been used by Hindu lynch mobs in India. There were claims some of the Hindus may have travelled from London to join the protest, although it’s unconfirmed.
* In response to this, Muslim protestors quickly gathered and mobs formed to attack the Hindus. They managed to trap the Hindu protestors in a small area, with lines of police protecting them and keeping the mobs apart. On videos, Muslims can be heard blaming a minority of Hindu extremists, who they say hate Muslims.
* As night descended and the two mobs remained kept apart by large amounts of police, more and more young men arrived to join. Groups of Muslims were said to be arriving from all over the West Midlands, whilst voices within the mob called for more reinforcements. Footage shows Muslim men chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “Takbir”, phrases often although not exclusively associated with jihadists.
* Things were thrown at the police. At least one person was badly beaten. And a Muslim climbed onto a Hindu temple and threw down their flag.
Officials expressed concern that “right-wing” groups would take advantage of news reports about the riots. The logic, of course, is that conservatives oppose “multiculturalism” and, thus, it is hard for journalists do to “safe” reports about clashes of this kind between ethnic and religious groups.
However, BBC producers eventually decided to update the report with a few relevant facts. Here is the top of the update (with the previous version removed). The lede still talks about “community” issues, but the new second paragraph led into this discussion of what is clearly an ongoing problem:
Officers tried to hold back crowds amid tensions involving mainly young men from sections of the Muslim and Hindu communities. Police said two arrests had been made, and that the trouble flared up after "an unplanned protest".
It is the latest of several incidents, including violence after an India and Pakistan cricket match on 28 August. A significant police operation will remain in the area in the coming days.
Suleman Nagdi, of the Leicester-based Federation of Muslim Organisations told the BBC: "What we have seen on the streets is very alarming.
"There have been problems in the community since the India and Pakistan cricket match and while that game often sparks gatherings they have not in the past turned this ugly.
"We need calm — the disorder has to stop and it has to stop now. There are some very dissatisfied young men who have been causing havoc.
"We need to get the message out that this must end and try to do this through parents and grandparents talking to their sons."
Then there was this from a “community” leader, who is, in fact, a religious leader (I combined the long quote into one block of text to save some space):
Sanjiv Patel, who represents Hindu and Jain temples across Leicester, said he was deeply saddened and shocked by Saturday night's disorder.
He said: "We have lived in harmony in the city for many decades but over the past few weeks it is clear there are things that need to be discussed around the table to get out what people are unhappy about. Resorting to violence is not the way to deal with this.
"We are horrified and deplore what was going on (yesterday) and across the last two weeks. Across the Hindu and Jain community and with our Muslim brothers and sisters and leaders we are consistently saying 'calm minds, calm heads'."
He warned people to be wary of disinformation on social media.
Once again, we see the mass-media puzzle of our day. If mainstream newsrooms will not cover the facts in many crucial stories — or only report one side of the story, either the right or the left — where are people supposed to go for coverage, other than social media?
In this case, smartphone videos provided lots of information, but without context. Balance and context used to be the terrain of professional journalists. Right?
But were the religion angles simply too dangerous in this case? Maybe East Leicester and other communities are now news markets that require the rules seen in Bangalore and other tense environments in India?
Just asking.
FIRST IMAGE: Cartoon image illustrating the concept of a “word salad,” found at FireAwayMarmot.com