COMMUNITY OPINION was divided over an eye-catching image on the front page of Britain’s biggest selling newspaper.
In its Wednesday edition, The Sun said it was “urging communities across the country to make a stand to prevent barbaric Islamic State extremists radicalising British youths”.
It accompanied its commentary with an image of a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf with a pattern resembling the British union flag.
The initiative was praised by The Guardian as “[using] its muscle to make a valid political intervention”, but not everyone agreed. The leading Turkish Cypriot peer Baroness Hussein Ece criticised the choice of a Muslim religious symbol on the front cover even though the paper called for people of “all faiths” to take a stand.
The Sun devoted seven pages to its initiative, which featured counter-extremism group Inspire’s co-director Sara Khan’s message calling for unity among British Muslims.
In an editorial, the newspaper said: “Most British Muslims are proud to belong to both a nationality and a religion which value peace, tolerance and the sanctity of life.
“They consider IS a disgusting perversion of their faith, not its lionhearted champions. Respect and understanding are powerful forces against hatred.”
But Baroness Hussein-Ece told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday: “I think the idea that unless we all [as Muslims] come out and issue statements to say we condemn the so called ISIS these barbaric murderers that somehow we’re sympathetic to them [is wrong].
“When I saw the cover it said people of all faiths, yet it depicts a woman wearing a hijab.”
She said the cover appeared to imply that any Muslims who did not come out against IS were supporting it.
The Twitter account of Mangal 2 Restaurant in Dalston, meanwhile, tweeted: “Oh gee, thank you @TheSunNewspaper. As if all Muslims favour extreme terrorism and you’ve swayed these psychos.”
