A Forward posting by Mitzi:
Dear Friends,
the Ontario Human Rights Commission ("OHRC")
had made a public statement and issued a news
release about our Human Rights Complaints
against Macleans:
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/resources/
news/en/resources/news/statement
Although the Commission ruled that it could not
proceed with our complaints because the narrow
provision in the Ontario Code does not include
magazine articles, it then proceeded to exercise its
broader mandate to speak out against actions
"inconsistent with the spirit of the Code". In
doing so the Commission's Statement "strongly
condemns the targeting of Muslims, Arabs,
South Asians ... by the media as being inconsistent
with the values enshrined in the Code."
In particular, the Commission strongly condemns the
article published by Maclean's: "The Commission has
serious concerns about the content of a number of
articles concerning Muslims that have been published
by Maclean's Magazine and other media outlets. This
type of media coverage has been identified as contributing
to Islamophobia and promoting social intolerance towards
Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Canadians."
The Commission goes on to identify the Maclean's article
as an example of the Islamophobic attitude that prevails
after 9/11. It states: "by portraying Muslims as all
sharing the same negative characteristics, including
being a threat to 'the West', this explicit expression of
Islamophobia further perpetuates and promotes
prejudice towards Muslims and others."
We are absolutely thrilled with this result - we obtained
what we were looking for: a recognition of Islamophobia
in media and a public condemnation of Maclean's. We feel this
is a very important development for minority rights and for
the Muslim and Arab communities. Please take a moment
to review the full statement. For those of you who have
supported our work, we would like to express our profound
gratitude. We are looking forward to arguing our case before
the BC Human Rights Tribunal in June.
in solidarity,
Khurrum for
Muneeza, Naseem, and myself.
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