• Press hypocrisy: Despite professing justice and morality, the Daily Mail maintains an unmonitored comments section.
• A significant portion of the comments exhibits overt Islamophobia and reprehensible hatred towards Muslims.
Dr. Asif Munaf from Sheffield is currently featured in the newest season of The Apprentice. This week he was dragged through the British tabloids for speaking out against the “near genocide” taking place in Palestine (as declared by the United Nations) and his criticism of Israel (despite Israel being trialled for war crimes). He has subsequently apologised and received “specialist training” due to his previous social media posts.
An Apprentice spokesperson said: “After filming had taken place, we were made aware of concerns over social media posts that Munaf had made after he had left the process.
Munaf has also appeared on BBC One show Dragons’ Den and owns a ‘wellness brand’, was scolded by the producers of the show, so he that he could “understand why his posts may cause offence”.
His posts criticised Zionism rather than Jews or Judaism, thus rejecting any notion of anti-Semitism, as erroneously suggested by the press.
It is crucial to acknowledge the distressing reality in Gaza, where the death toll has reached 27,000. The BBC have aligned with Israel despite Israel’s Minister reprehensibly referring to Palestinians as ‘human animals,’ and a Knesset member advocating for methods ‘more painful than death’.
The very press who are supposed torchbearers for justice and morality have paradoxically allowed for their comments section to be completely unmonitored.
Reporting the sentencing of former PM Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi this week, also bore witness to several Islamophobic comments that have been allowed:
Free speech, ostensibly a pillar of democratic societies. However, it appears that certain individuals or groups face disproportionate scrutiny and consequences for expressing their opinions, while others enjoy immunity.
