For 19 year old student Sanum Ghafoor, the idea of becoming an overnight topic of debate was something she could not have imagined when she started the #blamethemuslims trend on the social media site Twitter. Following the Oslo attacks in Norway, Sanum started the satirical trend, to express how she felt Muslims were regularly scapegoated as all perpetrators of violence. The trend rapidly rose in popularity, soon becoming one of the most popular trends on 24th July and it remained as such until the next day. As the trend grew in popularity, heated debates started across the globe and no one could really assert what was meant by the trend, indeed some thought it was a racist concoction by a right wing extremist others, however soon cottoned on to the satirical tone in which the trend was started.

At one point even Louis Theroux was tweeting about it:

“I think #blamethemuslims refers to the Western culture of instantly blaming a Muslim if an act of terrorism is committed.(e.g. bomb in Oslo)”

I spoke to Sanum to find out what exactly she had meant with the blamethemuslims trend and why it had caused such a stir in the world of social media. Sanum explains that she started the trend as a response to attitudes over the Norway attacks and the instantaneous assumption Muslims were to blame.

As the initial reports broke, Sanum watched the story unfold on Sky News, countless terrorism experts debated which Muslims could be behind the attack: Was it Al Qaeda in response to the military action in Libya? Or was it perhaps Pakistani gangs that apparently plagued the streets of Oslo? Sanum felt that as the anti-Muslim hysteria spread throughout the news, there were desperate attempts to link the Oslo attacks with Muslims. despite the lack of any substantial evidence. She grew increasingly frustrated with news reports, even after it was discovered that the terrorist turned out to be white, blonde haired and blue eyed and clearly a Norwegian national. It was then the idea he could be a convert to Islam began being banded around, matched with rhetoric such as “Once again this is the work of Muslim Extremists”. When it was discovered that the attacker was in fact a right wing anti-Muslim extremist, Sanum began the trend.

Here are some examples of her tweets:

“Can’t whip your hair back and forth? #blamethemuslims”

“‘Wheres your homework?’ ‘I made it into a paper aeroplane and it got hijacked,’ #blamethemuslims.”

and

“Couldn’t find your keys this morning? Blame the Muslims. Tripped on your way to work? Blame the Muslims.”

I wanted to know if Sanum had started the trend with the idea of making a political statement to the world, but she told me the trend was never started with that intention in mind. Instead it was a natural response to the way she felt as a young British Muslim. Sanum went on to express how angry, frustrated and deeply insulted she felt about the media’s seemingly irresponsible automatic assumption that Muslims were behind the Oslo attacks. She was keen to emphasis the trend was started in a sarcastic tone in which she expressed any negative aspect in life can be blamed on the Muslims.

Sanum was quite suprised the trend become so popular. Although there were fellow tweeters who understood the sentiment behind the trend, expressing their own take on the ‘blame the Muslim culture‘, the majority of people were unaware that it was in fact a Muslim women who had started it. Nine out of every ten individuals who tweeted her about it, were outraged:

“On face value it was unacceptable (but I never thought it would get that big!), of course people did not automatically look at who started the trend, so its fair enough some people thought it was a racist trend started by a white guy sitting at home, wearing an EDL t-shirt”

Sanum went on to tell me

“Of course some racist people joined in, well because they thought it was real, and were literally ‘blaming the Muslims’!”

Sanum articulated that the popularity of the trend highlighted an underlying need to discuss the way in which Muslims are portrayed, as well as the rising popularity of right wing extremism throughout Europe. The reporting around the Oslo attacks, were part of a wider trend of portraying Muslims as aggressors and religious fundamentalists

“After 9/11 there was a shift in the way Muslims were referred to in the media, and how they were reported on. It became an issue about Islam, rather than deranged individuals who justify violence with religion. It’s continued ever since.”

Sanum hopes through comedy and satire she is able to show that there is more to Muslims than terrorism, by showing that Muslims can be funny too she believes people can begin to overcome misunderstandings about Islam.

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Here’s an interview with Sanum discussing the blamethemuslims trend. Al Jazeera, The Stream:

and here’s some more satire from Sanum; The Language of War

You can follow Sanum on twitter @Strange_Sanum

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