• Authentic dialogue is needed in order to increase social cohesion in Great Britain and eradicate culture wars.
• The mainstream media and politicians have a very serious responsibility to combat the rise in Islamophobia.
Ali Miraj is not my idea of radio delight. In fact, I often find myself feeling exasperated and turning off the radio when he’s on. However, he may be yours, particularly, if you are someone who is willing to passively absorb Islamophobia and racism.
To illustrate my point, fear not, I come bearing receipts dear readers.
In response to the awful debacle which occurred in Manchester airport last week, a caller responded to the live phone-in which was conducted by Miraj.
“I’m not being racist but this is what these kind of people do, fight like animals.” The caller expressed.
The caller was clearly referring to Asians. And, stop the clocks, he was being racist.
In a toothless manner, Miraj failed to address the caller’s comments or seek further clarification at the very least.
On a separate occasion, during another live call-in, Miraj engaged in conversation with former Anglican Bishop Dr. Gavin Ashenden.
The discussion this time was pertaining to faith schools allocating all their places on religious grounds.
Bishop Ashenden began his diabolical Islamophobic rant, “We have to be brave and talk about how religions differ from each other.”
His response, however, was far from courageous; it was a deplorable attempt at vilifying Muslims in the most reprehensible manner. He went onto say how this would cause no issues for Anglicans and for Catholics it might be rather useful. “I would have to leave it to your listeners to imagine what would happen if we had an exclusively Islamic school.” He then referred to the case of Michaela School as the “Islamic take over.”
”Islam is a very successful, very muscular, very determined, very focused religion…but it doesn’t easily take prisoners, it doesn’t easily compromise and if you’re going to put Islamic schools in a situation where there is no built-in capacity for integration well then I think it’s fairly obvious what we are going to get.” Bishop Ashenden’s insinuation reverberated with a clear sense of disdain towards Islam and Muslims.
Lo and behold, Miraj did not confront any of these comments, which would have been appropriate in the spirit of broadcasting integrity.
The previous employment of individuals such as Maajid Nawaz on LBC, whose depiction of Islam and Muslims left many UK Muslims with a sour taste. Miraj similarly adopts a problematic rhetoric. Although Miraj’s approach is not as extreme as Nawaz’s once was, it is consistently unjust towards the Muslim community and perpetuates a narrative that facilitates in demonising them.
It is important to note that Nawaz has since taken a turn for the good, as evidenced by his X feed. His affairs are between him and Allah. However, it is a grave shame that he has not yet apologised to the Muslim ummah for the harm he attempted to cause and the mass misinformation he spread about Islam and his brothers and sisters in faith on national radio.
Ali Miraj does not represent me as a British Muslim, he certainly does not represent the mainstream Islamic position. While he might argue that he should only be expected to represent himself, which is a valid point, it remains crucial that we see diverse representation in mainstream media. Furthermore, employing a pattern of such presenters is not doing anything for powerful and authentic dialogue and social cohesion in Great Britain, and is in fact, exacerbating culture wars.
I mean, we already have outlets such as Talk TV and the Daily Mail that serve to terrify Dave’s mum about Muslims.
While LBC employs presenters who hail from different ends of the political spectrum, in May, Sangita Myska was given the chop following a fiery clash with an Israeli government spokesperson over its military action in Gaza. Interestingly, she was replaced swiftly with Jewish Zionist Venessa Feltz.
James O’Brien on the other hand, has consistently been speaking up against the barbaric genocide of Palestinians since October 7th, and has been doing a stellar job might I add. However, perhaps if he went ‘too far,’ (with people who really mattered), he too would lose his job.
Islamophobic attacks in the UK have recently surged by 600%, as reported by both the Metropolitan Police and the charity Tell Mamma. Consequently, the mainstream media and politicians have a very serious responsibility to combat it.
As a born-and-raised Londoner, this city is my home. I hope and pray that we make strides so that I no longer hear Islamophobia going unchallenged when I switch on the radio while stuck in traffic on the A406.
