It's Okay When We Do It - Or How A Wish for Inclusivity Made McCarthyism Seem Okay

Now, what would you say if I told you that there was a push for inclusivity in Britain by a group called "Hope Not Hate" and was trying to bring together Muslims and non-Muslims? You'd probably be all for that. But what happens when the group Hope Not Hate comes out with a 180 page report that lists people and organizations that that they deem to be 'anti-Muslim'. To me, that's when things start to get rather sketchy. The minute you start making a list of enemies while claiming to be anti-fascist in your mission statement, alarm bells start going off in my head. I browse all sorts of news outlets and found it being reported by The Daily Beast and The Jewish Chronicle Online. But then I went to places like Huffington Post and The Guardian and I found they weren't talking about how screwed up it is to keep a list of anyone who's an enemy to you. What's even worse, they weren't looking at the issue that brought me to this report in the first place. From The Jewish chronicle Online: "...But it also highlights progressive Muslim voices and Muslim reformers who have attempted to counter jihadi groups, while appearing to label them as Islamophobic."

Now THAT is screwed up and now the entire alarm center in my head is going off like crazy. The Guardian is downright praising them for combating racism and Islamophobia as they put it, but why in the name of God's green Earth do you need to put down progressive Muslims and counter jihadi groups as people who are anti-Muslim? Not only that, but it feels more like a hit list than a boycott/shaming list. In 2013, Hope Not Hate made a smaller, similar list that had Dutch author, journalist and Islam-critic Lars Hedegaard. In the same year, an assassination attempt was made against him. The guy says what he wants for years and in the same year he gets branded "anti-Muslim" is the year someone decides its time for him to die.

This now moves us to a critical lens and it has to do with race and the apologist. There's this feeling of white guilt that moves in the left-leaning media and a feeling that portraying someone negatively, who is currently under fire by the right-leaning media, is wrong. I decided to look into who wrote The Guardian article and it was written by Mark Townsend, a middle-aged white male and it made the article made a lot of sense. It feels like apologism. Mark is supporting Hope Not Hate, but doesn't seem to notice, or doesn't seem to care, that this list reads more as a hit-list and that moderate, reformed, and progressive Muslims are on the list. As a journalist, it's our job to look deeper into the story and report it as best we can. The article does lean very heavily towards Hope Not Hate and includes a lot of fear/hate mongering for Muslims to be against these growing 'right-wing, on the verge of being openly Nazi, Islamophobes', but doesn't talk about what can be done. But I think making a list of your enemies isn't the best place to start.