"British Muslims"

This is interesting ... NPR this morning aired its usual daily story on the London bombings on Morning Addiction. The story was mostly about how Blair was meeting with leading British Muslim leaders - a good thing but not what I found interesting. What I found interesting was that they did not say "of Pakistani descent" in the story. They instead used the term "British Muslims" to refer to the young men.

Morning Edition, July 19, 2005 · British Prime Minister Tony Blair meets with Muslim leaders in Britain, as his cabinet considers new legislation for combating terrorism. The four chief suspects in the London attacks were all British Muslims. Blair is looking for new ways to keep young Britons from what he has called the "evil ideology" of Islamist extremism.

That's progress. The story lacks the emphasis on the ethnicity of the suspects and instead points to their religion. Since these sort of bombings are religiously-motivated (as opposed to ethnically-motivated) that's relevant and appropriate. I'm still uneasy at the news media's habit of stereotyping, but at least this is better.