GUEST WRITER FOR ATHENSVOICE INVOKES HARMFUL ISLAMOPHOBIC STEREOTYPES

GTTO partner Karpos submitted a complaint to the editor of the AthensVoice newspaper in relation to an article from a guest writer titled, “Women victims of rape and violence. What’s wrong?

The article in question includes stereotypical perceptions of Islam which falsely claim that the conservative practices of compulsory women’s coverage and driving bans apply to Muslims everywhere, when in reality, they are only customary for specific sects of the religion. The writer also argues that these practices serve as means of oppression in connection with the rape and murder of Muslim women in relationships. This is another harmful misconception which aims to further stigmatize the global Muslim community.

In addition to perpetuating Islamophobic narratives, the guest writer also inaccurately claims that the West somehow censors the rape and murder of Muslim women in relationships to avoid being called racist and in the name of religious freedom. In reality, the author is inventing a way to make acceptance of the Muslim community seem wrong in order to justify their own lack of religious tolerance and Islamophobic beliefs.

Karpos directly contacted the publisher of AthensVoice to express their concerns:

Good evening,

We are contacting you on behalf of Karpos, which participates in the pan-European Get the Trolls Out program run by the Media Diversity Institute in the UK. This also includes organizations from France, Belgium, Germany and Hungary. The purpose of the program is to conduct weekly media monitoring in the media of each country to detect sources of intolerance and reproduction of negative stereotypes that affect the population of each country based on its religious background.

To the Publisher of AthensVoice:

Dear Editor,

We are writing to express our dissatisfaction with a guest article on your page, entitled “Women victims of rape and violence. What's wrong?”, written by Mr. Panagiotis Oikonomou on 5/17/2020.

In his article, your guest tries to explain the context of crimes against women on the occasion of the trial of the perpetrators of the murder of Eleni Topaloudi.

We would like to focus on the author's reproduction of a general, stereotypical conception of Islam, which, at first glance, does not seem to be related to the rest of the content of the text:

“Of course, compared to Islam, the situation is better. According to the Qur'an, men are the masters of women and are entitled to beat them but lightly… Not to mention the burqa or the ban on women driving a car….”

“But we tolerate all this in the name of religious freedom. Even when these people come and live in Europe, instead of being asked to recognize human rights, such as gender equality, we turn a blind eye and do not dare to talk about whether we are considered racists.”

The above claim is common, albeit incorrect. Islam has an extreme conservative, fundamentalist side (with a significant difference from other monotheistic religions), but it does not apply to all of its followers. Compulsory women's coverage and driving bans generally do not characterize Islam worldwide, nor can they be cited as examples of oppression related to rape and murder of women in relationships. In addition, there is no censorship - as the author claims - for fear of being considered racist. We do not tolerate (in Greece, or in Europe) all this in the name of religious freedom. We must defend the religious freedom of all, but we do not think that in its name there is tolerance for heinous, criminal offenses. This claim of the “oppressed by liberalism” of the West is not only non-existent, but also degrades the spirit of the West and its historical avant-garde.

We could analyze and refute one by one the words with which the columnist you are hosting chooses to dress his text. However, our purpose is not to write articles against his arguments, but to address with you the request for greater pluralism of views on your page. By no means do we want to convey that we recommend for the mother to be inactive. We would simply expect a medium like yours to provide space for a variety of views which are more in-depth, so that the reader has access to a wider range of these elements that constitute reality.

We are always at your disposal for any discussion on the matter.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Yours sincerely,

The Karpos team