One of Nigeria’s leading newspaper, Daily Trust has apologised to the Muslims and removed the offensive featured image, which had two gun-wielding men donning the Hijab in an unrelated News story.
The offensive image appeared on its website on Friday, August 28, with the headline, ‘Gunmen kill two in Kaduna community’.
Muslim News, whose objective includes the monitoring of the reportage of Islam and Muslims in the mainstream media, joined hundreds of Muslim netizens to protest what they deemed an ‘offensive, provocative, unethical, and insulting imagery that stigmatized the Hijab, Muslim women’s attire.
1/3: What's wrong with @daily_trust this night? The #headline of the referenced news story reads, 'Gunmen kill two in Kaduna community', but the newspaper's featured image showed two men clad in Hijab! What! #Hijab? Allah's ordained attire for #Muslim women?#Islamophobia #Islam pic.twitter.com/nSnGkuSMwx
— Muslim News Nigeria (@muslimnews_NG) August 28, 2020
The aggrieved Muslims demanded the withdrawal of the image from its website and other social media handles, with a statement, explaining what led to the misrepresentation.
Unlike other islamophobic media who have at different times shown their hatred to Islam and the Muslims, the management of Daily Trust has now proactively removed the offensive image and apologised to the Muslims.
In the apology letter posted on its verified social media handles on Facebook and Twitter, the newspaper said;
“We sincerely apologise for the earlier use of an inappropriate picture with the story (Gunmen Kill 2 In Kaduna Community). It was a mistake and never intended to offend any individual or group, and has since been removed”.
Gunmen Kill 2 In Kaduna Community
We sincerely apologise for the earlier use of an inappropriate picture with the story. It was a mistake and never intended to offend any individual or group, and has since been removed.https://t.co/Z1L0pNcsIZ pic.twitter.com/iq0I3laqcl
— Daily Trust (@daily_trust) August 29, 2020
It would be recalled that Muslim News has praised Daily trust over the years for not only being a northern newspaper but a reliable medium for Nigerian Muslims which upholds the ethics of the profession while discharging its duties.
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Very good of them
Alhamdulilah, may Allah overlook our mistakes.