Hair today, not gone tomorrow

So a study initiated by Mayor Ken Livingstone shows that 91% of all media stories about Muslims were negative during a survey period in 2006. That’s not a surprise as one only has to pick up the paper or switch on the TV to realise that Muslim bashing is in vogue. However, I have to question idiots who also court attention which would otherwise have gone unnoticed had it not been for the mere fact they have a loose connection to Islam or Muslims.

Take the girl who wants to sue a hairdresser for not giving her a job because she wears a Hijab. As far as I am concerned, this is not worthy of a single column inch let alone the dozens papers have devoted to it in the past week. I can fully understand the media’s hysteria; it will sell papers for them. But what of the girl who is planning to take legal action for ‘loss of earnings’? (She didn’t even have a job!) On this occasion, I lay the blame for this episode of Muslim bashing fairly and squarely on her feeble little shoulders and her empty head. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t matter who is cutting your hair and whether they are demonstrating the trends I am looking for. However, we don’t live in an ideal world and in any case such a story would have got the same reaction as it did here if it was about a mini-skirt wearing blonde wanting a job as the cleaner of a Madrassa (Islamic school).

Whilst we cannot discriminate on such grounds, private businesses and institutions must be able to exercise some rights based on their business activities. Common sense has to prevail and people need to move away from the victim mentality and adopt a more reasonable attitude otherwise the damage to society and particularly minorities and Muslims will create an even bigger divide.