By Ethar Abdulhaq
(Zaman Al Wasl)- How can a “westernized” 21 old Syrian refugee who “enjoys weed, vodka and drugs” be a “lone wolf”?
Zaman Al-Wasl investigates the claims made by the Daily Mail against the 21 year old Syrian refugee Yahya Faroukh who escaped his war-torn country to Europe 4 years ago.
With a headline writing “For better life you need to have weed, vodka and drugs” the 125 year-old English newspaper launches a witch hunting campaign against the young refugee who was arrested by Home Office undercover cops over Parsons Green Bombing on Saturday night outside Aladdin's Fried Chicken in Hounslow where he worked.
The Daily Mail article which was widely shared on social media made up its allegations depending on few posts and photos posted by Yahya on his Facebook page and Instagram account that portrayed him as a “westernized” young man who is “addict to drugs and wears a T-shirt and jeans”!
However, the fact is that those photos and posts were widely de-contextualized and greatly misrepresented according to a thorough investigation made by Zaman Al-Wasl.
The investigation shows that Yahya has always been a serious and sensitive young man who is still faithful to his conservative upbringing in his town in Daraa. On the other side Yahiya’s posts reflect his moderate relation with religion and his strong bonds with the struggle of his own people in Syria besides his sympathy with the Palestinian cause.
The majority of Yahya’s photos present him as longing to his family and homeland which contradicts with the Daily mail story about spending most of the time drinking vodka and smoking weed.
Following Yahya’s comments on his friends’ posts also reveal the good nature of his character and how the Daily Mail widely deformed and misrepresented his words by being so selective and culturally out of touch when it decided that common jokes among Syrians about “Hashish” or weed and its addicts as signs that show Yahya as a weed addict!
On the other side of the story the Daily Mail headline which speaks about Yahya’s post about “better life with weed and vodka” was taken from Yahya’s post on his Facebook account but it turned a blind eye to the Arabic translation of it which wrote “For a better life you should be truthful, generous and have good morals.”
It looks clear through Zaman Al-Wasl investigative report that Yahya who fled his war-torn country on a boat that arrived to Europe 4 years ago didn’t have a cultural shock after reaching Britain. He didn’t put a ring on his ears, nor draw any tattoos on his body or even had a weird haircut.
However, being a serious, sensitive, hardworking young man and at the same time unwilling to be westernized in a silly way don’t mean that this young refugee who was eager to learn English to earn his living and continue his studies would turn into a “lone wolf” or a terrorist just because he is from Syria.
Yahya’s story adds to the suffering of people from the Middle East, Arabs and Muslims in general who are stereotyped by western media as main suspects when terrorist attacks happen. The strange thing about this continuous witch hunting campaign is that news outlets and media which have long history can easily change the facts and give roles or decide without any feeling of responsibility who is guilty and who is innocent.
Zaman Al Wasl
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