Just a quick thoughts..
Can I ask all the NM'ers who work in the media to help us out here? What I'm worried about is that we will come across as too reactionary and naive and hence very easy to dismiss.
I'll paste a 2nd draft below. I don't think you're going to like it Paps, or you either PD. I haven't added any of your suggestions as I wanted to air my concerns about the direction we take this in first.
I want this to make a difference, however small. The things you both mention are not unknown to many people, and many others much more capable than us have said them before but it hasn't made a difference. I'd like us to take a step back from being so provocative. This is hopefully the beginning of a dialogue - we don't need to lay all our cards on the table at first do we.
Also, even though some informantion is reletivly easy to come by we aren't in possetion of the full facts. If we were, our plea to the media to change to current approach to enable us to make the right decisions would be invalid from the very start.
I doubt very much that event he media knows the whole story, but they are our only conduit to getting close to it and we can't afford to antagionise them, IMHO anyway. Or even politicians themselves. They strike me as a very sophisticated interface, but there's likely to be a lot more processing going on behind them too.
My original aims with this were to make a simple gesture of solidarity with our belegured Muslim communities. I am no apoligist for the way Isalm is practised in certain countries, as I am a feminist and have issues about the reality of womens lives in such countries myself. But that is a seperate issue. I try to challenge racism and discrimination where ever I find it and regardless of whos name it is perpetrated. And like I have said before the most blatent act of racism I have seen recently is when George W Bush tells people that the sacrifices we make in the 'war against terror' are worth in in the 'fight for freedom' knowing full well that the people who have paid most dearly with the lives of their loved ones are the Iraqi's who have had no choice in the matter.
I've taken out the gibe against the media re Niger for this reason. Plus, they have been reporting on the situation there since November and before the crisis reached it's current state. That doesn't let the politicians in Gleneagles off though.
Anyway, here's the 2nd draft. And bare inmind I'm trying to open a dialogue not close it. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
'We the undersigned make a symbolic gesture of soldarity with the Muslim communities of the UK, who may feel confused and belegured both by current events and their portrayal in in the media. We support you in your fight against the fundamentalist interpretation of your religion by terrorism.
We ask the media, and specifically, as a cornerstone of British identity, the BBC, to make a bold and public gesture with us. We are in no position to dictate to you what this symbol may be but some have suggested a ribbon either worn by newsreaders or imbedded onscreen. In a war that is fought with words as much as it is with military hardware, we ask you to challenge the current approach, as it only obfuscates and leaves us more ignorant of issues that affect us directly. We ask you to divise some tangible symbol of solidarity in the hope that this will help to unite all peoples in the face of terrorism and not follow the terriorsts own script when it comes to the corruption of both Islam and democracy.
In this spirit we make a stand for the people of Iraq, mothers and fathers of beloved children just like us, except they live daily in fear and in grief for those killed in our name and for our freedoms. To reiterate to them that many of us used those freedoms to march for the cause of peace, but that our voices were not heard. So the heavy price you have paid in the lives of your loved ones would seem to have been in vain.
We make a stand for the starving of Niger, whose current abject fate was known by those in power as they debated world poverty in Gleneagles.
We make a stand for all victims of terrorism and despotism.
Finally we make a stand for the millions more unknown, and ask that our leaders and institutions to help enable us to make the right choices. But to do that we need to know the whole story.'