When Fox News rented a quote on ‘creeping sharia’-like issues from terrorism ‘expert’ Steven Emerson he duly provided by saying, amongst other things, that there are
actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in
Brummies, Brits and other onlookers, following the script of the Twitter-storm, kicked out against the inaccuracies in Emerson’s argument with the most visible content coalescing into the Twitter hashtag #FoxNewsFacts.
Whilst I didn’t join in it was nice to see my Twitter streams alive like this as it’s felt like a long time since my particular network had come together in play. You see I’ve felt for a long time that Twitter is different these days (that is: it’s a bit boring these days) but for a few hours last night it could have been 2009 again: Twitter could be fun again. Nobody was selling me anything or live tweeting their way through TV shows I wanted to watch later; everybody was sharing, creating, and pushing back at the folly of an auld enemy.
But then feelings of doubt came to me.
My first read of #FoxNewsFacts was that a large group of Twitter users were collectively satirising Fox & Emerson for their positions. For example when I saw a tweet that recast the BT tower as a minaret I saw the writer imagining Emerson as he tries to read the cityscape by applying Islamic symbolism to all that he surveys. Many jokes and tweets used this sort of inversion: take a Birmingham idea, apply Islamic symbolism — Joke! What started to feel problematic for me is that to construct these jokes one has to reach for a bag of shorthand symbols of Islamic faith (and symbols of Birmingham too, but those are much less sensitive to deal with). As the joke stretches and the meme adapts, as imagery is taken and jokes are “done” the available stock of symbols becomes depleted. To play a hashtag game like this writers must always reach for novelty at every turn. This can lead to purpose becoming lost: the practice becomes a rush to make new jokes about faith and place, the game’s objective becomes winning the Internet, not satirising Fox & Emerson. Furthermore as Internet memes spread, and therefore adapt, new audiences and players come into contact with them and may bring new intentions. Thus you may have players with altogether different sympathies, for whom the target is to ridicule a faith and a city rather than to satirise the inflammatory speech of the right.
Were most people angry that Fox had ignored Birmingham’s multiculturalism or were they in fact angry that their city had been categorised as non-Christian? Were people upset that Emerson had used the city to push his Islamaphobic agenda, or that he’d suggested we weren’t all white? And most of all did that hashtag game eventually fall towards racism itself, to making the symbols of one faith the butt of the joke? Did it provide an alibi for negative stereotyping?
Independent publisher Birmingham Updates scored something of a coup last night by getting Emerson to apologise for his comments. As part of this process Emerson has agreed to make a donation to the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. His apology is an interesting read: he hasn’t recanted his ways, he hasn’t apologised for Islamaphobia; he has read the tweets and apologised for what he thinks we are upset about. And it’s pretty clear to me that he thinks we’re upset at being called Muslims:
I am issuing this apology and correction for having made this comment about the beautiful city of Birmingham.
I’m pleased that Luke at Birmingham Updates got something from the guy, but it’s a shame he wasn’t pushed harder. ITV and BBC news both built a story out of the apology but added no value to it (and didn’t even give a credit to the blogger for his work). Why did those journalists not clarify what Emerson was apologising for? What, at the end of the day, does Emerson think people are upset about?
You see, Steve Emerson, I’m afraid <suis Mohammed>> on this one: I’m cross at you for everything you said. Like the bit where you talk about an Islamic police force in London: I assume you mean the young men of ‘Muslim Patrol’ who went to prison after their vigilantism was spotted and dealt with under the laws of this country? It’s not about you insulting my city, it’s about the dangerous lies you pedal. Your cheque to Birmingham Children’s Hospital cannot be big enough to excuse you while you continue to operate this way (oh, and by the way it better be a really big cheque).
And as for the rest of us. I’m still not really sure what to make of what happened last night but the more I think about it the less comfortable I am. Not in a “this is political correctness gone mad” kind of way. It’s just I can’t help thinking that a lot of people rather enjoyed making the wrong sort of jokes while the cover was in place. Maybe we should all go back in our boxes, maybe we should all just start tweeting press releases again?
Sorry Jon, but that all sounds a bit self righteous. As a white, Birmingham born Muslim I was happy to draw attention to this twaddle with some equally absurd satirical/surreal based tweets. Hopefully, like me, others will have looked up this self proclaimed expert and been appalled by his skewed Investigative Project on Terrorism website. Agreed, some ‘jokes’ did contain Islamic stereotypes but to be fair for some that is all they know and I like to think that they were employed in good faith – no pun intended.
I won’t cop for being self-righteous but I’ll take the lesser charge that I’ve used a fairly obvious bit of leftie feature writing rhetoric :)
And I’ll take the pun if you don’t mind!
:-)
As far as I remember (I should really look over my history) all the tweets I retweeted were at their essence based on being factually absurd. I don’t think any of them had religious content. I certainly read enough that did.
I just felt the urge to ridicule the man for his totally inaccuracy. I don’t know if I can comment on the religious aspect. I see it as very hurtful but being yer bog standard white British male the comment was not about me, it was about the place I live in and the people I know and love.
This shot over the bow was enough to annoy me certainly and I’m glad someone got through to the guy to point out how stupid his comments were. They’re more articulate and better positioned than me to bring him to book so I played my part in making a mockery of the whole thing. If the crap that Fox keeps peddling loses its reputation as being a worthwhile and “accurate” news source then all the better.
We’re strong people, we can cope with someone naïvely bashing us so lets parody the shit out of it and send it back to them.
Most of the criticism has been about the (non)factuality of the claim about the percentage of Muslims in Brum. However, the implicit prejudice is that Brum with more Muslims would be a bad and unwelcoming place. That seems more deeply Islamophobic.