Thread by @cfmmuk

Do you remember how the British Media covered #TrojanHorseAffair?

As @nytimes latest podcast shows, there was no plot and the media failed to ask basic questions around the letter and its origins.

Lives ruined. Communities slurred. Will newspapers and broadcasters apologise?

As @OborneTweets has argued; “With few exceptions, journalists failed to examine the underlying facts while repeating what turned out to be false allegations.”

middleeasteye.net/opinion/trojan…

The investigation by @samirashackle in @gdnlongread states,“It is hard to imagine these kinds of stories garnering such levels of media attention had they not involved Muslim staff or pupils.”

theguardian.com/world/2017/sep…

Reporting of #trojanhorseaffair is a case study into how the media is prepared to assist state sanctioned Islamophobia.

See more on this by @_WaqasTufail 👇

https://twitter.com/_WaqasTufail/status/1492072875058155525

There were/are many who doubted the narrative of a “plot” or the “Islamisation” of schools under the guise of #trojanhorseaffair.

This is an example of how they were viewed by 'journalists', whilst being subject to "cancel-culture" by others.

Research @cfmmuk shows that from 2014 to 30 May 2017 there were 944 articles on "Trojan Horse and Birmingham." Since @educationgovuk case collapsed there have been 135 mentions with no substantial exploration into why evidence was "deliberately withheld."
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

The co-author of a major investigation into the #trojanhorseaffair told @cfmmuk how basic questions such as how a school could actually be “taken over”, were not asked, whilst the community of Alum Rock, #Birmingham was pathologised.

Even when @BBCRadio4 broadcast a 3 episode #corrections programme, it failed to put right “shocking falsehoods” in #trojanhorseaffair. It was enough that someone made a claim about an alleged incident for it to be taken as a fact.

middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-bbc…

Framing operates as a shorthand. As @cfmmuk report on British Media’s coverage of #Muslims showed, references to the #trojanhorseaffair function within media reports as an index for ‘extremism’ and ‘religious intolerance’.

cfmm.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

The media took the #trojanhorseaffair beyond #Birmingham. In 2018, four right-wing British newspapers, were forced to pay damages to two #Muslims who they accused of enacting a “Trojan Horse” plot in a school in #Oldham

pressgazette.co.uk/the-sun-pays-o…

So far reviews of the revelations by @BriHReed & @HamzaMSyed have mostly glossed over British Media falsehoods. A damning indictment of how narratives and tropes were perpetuated to feed a story of moral panic.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The @MuslimCouncil are right to call for an inquiry into this #trojanhoax. The role of the British media and its willingness to accept and perpetuate the aims of anti-Muslim actors and officials should also be looked into.

https://twitter.com/MuslimCouncil/status/1491752473194868740/photo