We’ve grown used to newspapers covering up the Muslim/immigrant background of the perpetrators of crimes. Usually, the sin is one of omission, though. Judging by this story in Le Monde, we may now have moved into a new phase of “commission”.
The story relates to an incident at a French school last week in which a 13-year-old boy was murdered by a 16-year-old Muslim Chechen who attended the same school, apparently because he refused to lower his eyes when they came across one another.
The Muslim’s name was Souleymane. When reporting the story, though, Le Monde bizarrely changed the murderer’s name to Vladimir, conveniently covering up the fact that he is a Muslim. It also mis-reported the Muslims demand for submissive lowering of the eyes by saying simply that the incident blew up “when their eyes met”.