The mainstream media is reluctant to fully confront the nature of the far-right riots, and has a history of structural Islamophobia and racism, argues Des Freedman 

‘The media and political class is complicit in the far right, racist and Islamophobic violence we’re seeing across our country.’ 

That’s what the Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana tweeted after doing her best on ITV’s Good Morning Britain to get the presenters – including Ed Balls, husband of the home secretary – to acknowledge that the ongoing fascist-organised pogroms against Muslims in the UK should be described as Islamophobic. 

The very idea that there should even be a debate about whether we’re seeing specifically anti-Muslim racism when mosques are being targeted and anti-Muslim slogans chanted is laughable. If synagogues were being firebombed and Jewish people physically assaulted on the streets, we can assume that there wouldn’t be a debate on whether this was an example of anti-Semitism. 

Meanwhile, media reports of the riots all too often talk of ‘two sides’ facing up to each other – such as the BBC’s reporting of a far-right mobilisation in Plymouth which was opposed by anti-racist groups – trying to equate fascist violence with defence of communities under attack. At other times, we see journalists bending over backwards to ‘understand’ the motivations of people willing to attack mosques by describing them as simply ‘pro-British’. Some outlets are even prepared to quote known fascists without any hesitation, such as an article in the Southend Echo which actually concluded with a long quote from Britain First co-founder Paul Golding that was not rebutted. 

Far from the media systematically calling the riots fascist and Islamophobic, there’s a real danger that the media are reluctant to alienate too many of their potential audience. This is because Islamophobia runs very deep in British society and has been fostered by politicians whether Labour, Tory or further to the right. For example, prime minister Keir Starmer, when condemning the ‘rioters’ at this week’s Cabinet, focused on ‘violent disorder’ and ‘criminal activity’ without actually mentioning Islamophobia, while it’s less than a year ago that then home secretary Suella Braverman’s ‘dog whistle’ over pro-Palestine marches actually encouraged fascists onto the streets. 

A legacy of media Islamophobia 

But Islamophobia is amplified as well by a media that has long sought to portray Muslims as a ‘problem’ that needs tackling and, more broadly, immigration as a ‘boil’ that needs lancing. Sometimes this takes the most obvious and disgusting form – witness the endless headlines in tabloids like the Mail, Express and Sun lambasting immigrants (mostly when they’re not white) and the platforming across the media of anti-immigrant politicians claiming that ‘we want our country back’. 

Anti-Muslim racism, however, is not confined just to the tabloids. The majority of the mainstream media jumped on the ‘Stop the Boats’ agenda thus further normalising the argument that ‘illegal migration’ is the main problem faced by a country whose assets have stripped by billionaires and corrupt politicians, not desperate refugees. Meanwhile Nigel Farage, whose general election campaign in Clacton was effectively focused on stopping immigration, accounted for 10% of all TV coverage of individuals during the election – significantly more than any other politician except for Starmer and Rishi Sunak. 

As the Centre for Media Monitoring argued back in 2021, mainstream media coverage of Islam is overwhelmingly hostile and distorted. In a comprehensive study of mainstream media, nearly 60% of articles were found to associate Muslims with ‘negative aspects and behaviour’. The report concluded that ‘a large section of the media still favours voices that echo colonial-era tropes which see Muslims as dangerous fanatics, terrorists and misogynists whilst giving preference to voices which regurgitate these tropes.’ 

Nothing has changed. The Sun’s ‘topic’ page on Islam right now leads with the following categories: Terrorism, Hamas News, Israel Hamas War and Judaism. There is nothing that associates Muslims with any positive contribution to society. 

Of course, the British media have, for many years, published sensationalist accounts of crimes and ‘negative behaviour’. When white people or Christians are convicted of crimes, their ethnicity or religion is not usually reported or seen as relevant. But when black or Asian people are associated with crime, the media all too often highlight their ethnicity or religion (or both) as causal – suggesting that their backgrounds made these crimes almost inevitable and making this the fault of whole communities. 

This is not accidental but structural racism. So Zarah Sultana is absolutely right to highlight the media’s central role in paving the way for this wave of fascist violence and to describe the media as ‘complicit’. The media’s historic misrepresentation and marginalisation of Muslims and their defensive coverage of immigration has led to a poisonous situation. They can pretend to throw up their hands in horror but this is, at least in part, on them.