How Come

[pdust]

in the newspapers it always tells when someone is muslim but it never says joe bloggs christian or joe bloggs jew or joe bloggs atheist ? or does it and ive not noticed?

[ummmm]

I think it depends what they are reporting and the nationality of the people they are reporting on.

If a Jewish gang were grooming young girls for sex I'm sure their faith would be mentioned. If it's an English gang doing the same I think it is assumed they are Christian as this is mainly a Christian country.

[emmie]

they have and do, Christian couple fined for not allowing homosexual couple in their B&B, or a Christian woman having to fight to wear a cross, the list goes on.
Perhaps they say Muslim because of unrest and civil war currently raging in Syria. Not to mention other conflicts, i don't think Israel gets of lightly either.

[jno]

ideally a newspaper would only mention someone's religion when it's relevant to the story. But sometimes they just can't help themselves.

[Canary42]

How do you know it ALWAYS tells if it's a Muslim involved. Many of the 'other' reports where religion is unspecified are possibly Muslim.

flawed logic I'm afraid :-)

[mikey4444]

Its a sad reflection on British society that when anybody in the news isn't white, and Anglo Saxon, their ethnicity is seen to be important.

There was a factor in the recent court case from Rochdale that wasn't mentioned very much. As well as the men involved in paedophile being most Muslim, they were also mostly taxi drivers ! I am not suggesting that every taxi driver in Britain is a serial sexual offender, in the same way that I'm not suggesting that every Muslim man is one either.

Whatever we say about Britain being a multicultural society these day, the person who stands out from the crowd, whether he is brown, or black, or dresses differently will always be worthy of a mention in our media.

[emmie]

i think the point being is that ethnicity, culture, religion do get a mention,
not just in the red tops either. News reporting, whatever channel. If the conflict is between Jew and Palestinian, or Catholic and Protestant, that gets reported on.

[abstibus]

... and old age pensioner, Judy Dench...!

[emmie]

hello, what's lovely Judi got to do with this..

[naomi24]

//in the newspapers it always tells when someone is muslim //

No it doesn't.

[Gromit]

During the troubles in Northern Ireland they used to refer to victims as Catholic or Protestant. But the perpetrators were IRA or Loyalists (no religion given).

The war in Syria is another peculiarity. Assad is a secularist and we oppose him. His opponents are mainly Islamists who want an Islamist Government.

Muslims are the bogeyman after 9/11. Like the Jews were in the 1930s, some elements of the press blame them for everything.

[FredPuli43]

They don't, unless the religion is of some immediate relevance,but one or two have a curious habit of saying that someone is of such and such an "origin", which may mean that their parents are from the given country or they themselves were born in that country. That they are also British is not mentioned. Their "origin" is sometimes of no relevance whatsoever . Why, therefor, it is mentioned at all, is not clear.

On relevance, it is another mystery why papers, again not all, insist upon giving readers an estimate of the value of the person's, or even the person's parents' home: "Her parents , speaking from their £600, 000 house in Esher...." etc

[hc4361]

Can you post some links to news reports that state a person's religion when it is not relevant to the crime?

I can find lots of reports where the offenders religion isn't mentioned - such as this one.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14939653

[anotheoldgit]

FredPuli43

/// They don't, unless the religion is of some immediate relevance,but one or two have a curious habit of saying that someone is of such and such an "origin", which may mean that their parents are from the given country or they themselves were born in that country. That they are also British is not mentioned. ///

You are wrong this story was headlined "British women raped by Libyan soldiers", it is only far down the report that one sees that they are British of Pakistani origin.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9962028/British-women-raped-by-Libyan-soldiers.html

[boxtops]

If a person has a name which "looks Arabic" people would assume they are Muslim, too - I agree pixi, the M word gets more press than other faiths in bad news reporting.

[FredPuli43]

aog, what is the relevance, in your link, of telling us that the victims are "of Pakistani origin" and British?

And how does one example of saying that they are of Pakistani origin and British prove that I am wrong in saying that "one or two" papers mention origin without mentioning that the person is British ?

[anotheoldgit]

FredPuli43

I was simply addressing your statement, "THAT THEY ARE ALSO BRITISH IS NOT MENTIONED".

Therefore you are clearly wrong since it states:"BRITISH WOMEN RAPED BY LIBYAN SOLDIERS"

[FredPuli43]

Next time, read the caveat or the qualifying words, aog.

[pdust]

ok so maybe i should have said almost always.... i just seem to read lots of links to news reports where it says muslim but doesnt state the chosen religion or lack of religion for others....

thanks em, i had seen that and forgotten..

canary, thats probably true but i see the word muslim a whole lot more than any other ..... i just cant see what religion has to do with any of it unless of course religion is directly involved in the news story

[pdust]

hc i follow loads of links and have no idea where ive followed them from or anything but im sure when someone is in the paper for such as shoplifting, frauding benefits etc it has no need to state the persons religion...

i agree with that too fred...no idea why someones house value is relevant to anything

[tonyav]

I think that the papers just put that type of thing religion,house value etc because they think it will add interest to that particular story.