In the wake of recent tragedies like the Orlando nightclub shooting on June 12th and last week’s Bastille Day attack in France many turn to the media for answers. However, some religious leaders in Halifax point out that there’s a fine line between answers and stereotypes.
“That’s unfortunately the case,” says Dr. Srinivasa Swaminathan, a Hindu Priest at Vedanta Ashram Society Hindu Temple.
“Even with what’s happening in France now no one had proved or categorically stated that ISIS was at fault [before they claimed responsibility]- there was only feelings and that was all in the TV news.”
Rev. Tesshin James Smith of the Atlantic Soto Zen Centre points out it also common for people to make their own assumptions.
“There’s a tendency that there would be a little snippet of a story, often second or third hand, and people will be way too quick to jump on that and cast judgement,” said Smith.
Hate crimes and role of the media
Father Mark Cherry of St. Thomas Aquinas Canadian Martyrs Parish recalls an incident last year where graffiti was spray-painted onto the walls and door of the church.
“It was just terrible to see that on our front door,” says Cherry. “It was a very big deal to remove it. We had to buy special cleaning materials – we found what would take paint off stone. It was an awful lot of labour and hard work to remove that.”
In 2010, a total of 132 incidences of vandalism and hate crimes against religious property was reported in Canada with the most occurrences in Ontario. So far these crimes have dropped by 28% with 95 incidences reported in 2014.
Though the media doesn’t directly cause these crimes Stephen Puddicombe, a National Reporter at CBC, says some media organisations do add to the problem.
“I don’t think it’s intentional, I think it’s just based on ignorance,” says Puddicombe. “The same is true with religious stories; we paint certain religious groups as perhaps abortion hating people and make it seem like that’s all they are without mentioning the good works that they do. So I do think we aggravate the situation but not purposefully.”
Family influence and intolerance
The Reverend Pyung Choi of the Halifax Korean Church mentioned although the media influences the way people think and behave, they aren’t entirely to blame.
“I think the most important factor is the family condition,” says Choi. “Parents need to discuss with their children about others in our community. They have to teach them to have a social view and a worldview. We need to be aware of other cultures and their way of life. The more the family talks about this, the easier it is for them to be a productive part of society.”
Cherry points out that it is usually a general lack of respect that motivates these crimes against religious properties.
“When people destroy religious objects and do things like graffiti on religious buildings, I think it shows some disrespect for what that religious organization stands for and what their beliefs are… I see it as an intolerance of [their] beliefs to do that sort of thing.”
Education is key
Swaminathan says media outlets should be careful with the way they report these stories.
“They should not give importance to conflicts. When they report about conflicts, they should present the facts and keep quiet,” he says. They should not have commentary on it, they should not write editorials about it.”
Puddicombe acknowledges that those in the media need a better understanding of the communities they report on.
“I don’t think we do enough,” said Puddicombe. “We need to get to know all our communities… The different people, the ethnic backgrounds and languages. Only in that way would we really understand them and be able to report properly.”
Smith explains that regardless of crime, people lash out at things that makes them uncomfortable but compromise is the way forward.
“All living beings experience this discomfort of change,” says Smith. “People are hardwired to think ‘well, it not me who should sacrifice [something], it’s someone else’ but we all need to chip in and swallow our ‘discomfort pie’ so to say.”