Daily Mail Uses Wrong Photo to Illustrate Islamist Luton Protest

In my previous blog entry I quoted the Daily Mail, but I didn’t scroll down to the end of the page. Consequently, I missed this:

Daily Mail Muslims

The caption says “Catalyst: Anti-war Islamists protested during an Army march in Luton earlier this year – partly sparking yesterday’s response”.

However, the “anti-war Islamists” who provoked outrage in March looked like this:

Anglian Protest

Footage of that protest shows no more than ten or so protestors, all young adults dressed in dark clothing.

Unfortunately, I do not read Arabic, so I don’t know why the marchers in the first picture have taken to the streets. However, it is clearly a completely different event from the anti-Anglian protest, and it shows none of the aggravating factors which caused such anger and offence in March. Whatever its purpose, the event in the Mail‘s photo was not the “catalyst” for yesterday’s mayhem.

20 Responses

  1. that’s a celebration of the prophet Muhammed’s birthday procession I do believe. Good skills, Daily Mail!

  2. I thought that might be it – I saw one in Walthamstow once; it was quite harmless and congenial, and one of the participants gave me a free can of coca cola.

    Can I get a definite on that?

    • Could well be a parade from Beeston or Bradford.
      “Anti war Islamists”… yeah nice one Daily Fail!

      PS Richard- imeeeen ;)

      • I am certainly pretty certain its not Luton. They did march on the Prophets birthday, but Bury Park, our main Muslim area is pretty small and I do not recognise the railings on the far right of pic.

  3. Well spotted. I had not taken notice of the picture either. I do not read Arabic either but as the ate of the Prophets birthday this year was March 9th, and the Royal Anglian march and counter demo to which they are referring was on March 10th it is think it is a case of misfiled pictures.

    However, since the events of March 10th were so well documented in the Mail for several days they sholld know better. I am not actually fully convinced the picture is even from Luton. Whatever it is a mess up that should be complained about to the Mail. I will be writing. The size of the march portrayed is inflamatory.

  4. The above photo is a celebration of the prophets birthday its not a demo of any sort at all. I don`t know why the mail has got the wrong photo since it was the mail that broke this story originally. Thats why you got people of all ages in the picture. The photo is about a birthday celebration and is a happy event. Its got nothing to do with politics. Surely the mail can`t be that stupid or ignorant.

  5. This parade happened in luton it happens every year, they hold it in the asian area bury park and its peaceful, its to celebrate the birth and death of mohammed. i have already complained to the press complaints commission. The daily mail should not be allowed to present false articles. I am not muslim but feel offended by their inaccurate reporting!

  6. Thanks, it’s shocking that the pic is still there. Somebody must have read the complaints by now, surely?

  7. I have complained to press complaints commission. Suggest some others do as well. online form at http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html .

    Its disgusting but their reporting in the week after the March 10 march was irresponsible.

    Complaints are a Breach of code section 1: Accuracy. :
    i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.
    ii) A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion once recognised must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and – where appropriate – an apology published.

  8. The picture as supplied to the Daily Mail was originally captioned “15.03.09-ISLAMIC MARCH THROUGH THE STREETS OF LUTON PASSES OFF WITHOUT ANY INCIDENTS THIS AFTERNOON.”

  9. Yeah, the 1st pic’s about a pedoscele’s b’day and the 2nd pic’s two sides of the same coin.

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  11. Some good news – the Mail have pulled the picture. I emailed the online editor to moan about the pic. I didn’t get a reply, but it had gone when I checked.

    • So had I, and put in complaint to the press complaints commission. I guess they had to play fair after taking down the article that Paul Ray and friends complained of. Lets hope the mail do an offical apology.

  12. I received a letter from the PCC today. They report that the silly paper admitted “…inadvertently included an archive photograph of a peaceful unconnected parade held in Luton some weeks earlier. We are happy to clarify that this march had in fact passed without incident and regret our error in wrongly captioning the photograph.(Cl 1)”

    The point was their deliberate intension to misrepresent Muslims and justify a violent action against Muslims. These people should be pursued relentlessly in a court of law.

    If people are arrested for spreading hate leaflets, why should it be allowed from these media outlets?

  13. Got the same letter – and was equally cross at the inadequacy of the apology.

  14. well done. The Daily Mail is an awful newspaper that all too often whips up its dumb-as-a-sack-of-spanners readers into a lathering frenzy. The more complaints are made to the PCC about it, the better. Well done.

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