UK multi-culturism under spotlight, by Roger Hardy, BBC “Islamic Affairs Analyst”, but didn’t have the energy to get stuck into it at the time. Thankfully, Dumbjon has been on the case, and has done a remarkably good demolition job, Beeb Bandwagon Hits Clue Tree, Reverses, Steers Round It, in his own inimitable style. The post below it is rather funny as well.
I saw this BBC News Online story last week,
Bookmark the permalink.
http://amconmag.com/2005_07_18/print/articleprint.html
Justifying terrorism, BBC style.
The London bombs and the Iraq connection
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4693437.stm
ok. so we have established, and I don’t think anyone is disputing this, that many/some/most muslims are unhappy/upset/angry with UK foreign policy/USA/Israel etc etc etc.
and….? what? That justifies terrorism?
No, of course it doesn’t, but this is what the message of the above article send out. “if we hadn’t invaded Iraq and/or aligned ourselves to US foreign policy”, none of this would have happened. That is just plain wrong (as John Reid fisking of Naughtie this morning illustrated), so why do the BBC continue, non-stop to pedal this line of lies that could be used by terrorists as recruiting propaganda. After all, it must have an effect day after day after day after day, as Rumsfeld noted recently.
Someone needs to rip this dangerous agenda out of the BBC and return it too a news reporting organisation.
I don’t have any faith that either Grade or the DG will do that as they have now been assimilated by the ‘collective’. The Borg = the BBC. An apt metaphor.
Do we place any faith in OFCOM?
Terrorists live on the BBC.
Cleric “Moqtada Sadr” gets Newsnight slot.
Sadr: Resistance in Iraq ‘legitimate’
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20050718-08252100-bc-iraq-sadr.xml
“In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight, to be broadcast Monday night, Sadr said even U.S. President George Bush would agree fighting an occupying force was the correct course of action.”
It’s a very fine line between the BBC doing the terrorist recruiter’s job for them, and the terrorist using BBC material as propaganda for their cause.
“The interview was to be broadcast only two days after three British soldiers were killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb, prompting the main opposition Conservative Party to demand the interview not be shown.”
“Why are the BBC giving airtime to someone who at the best is on the fringes of what is acceptable?” Conservative defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A8469CBA-3815-4D7D-9B63-5677F0DE1943.htm
Personally I think the !bBC are becoming terrorists, they’ve allways been pro-criminal as long as I can remember, and now they’ve just made the “obvious” next step.
When are we going to stop whinging about the BBC and do something about it?
http://crossofstgeorge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7330
The BBC had better be careful if there is new legislation in respect of aiding and abetting terrorism.
OT: I hope you lot will roundly denounce the Associated Press for referring to terrorist Eric Rudolph as a ‘serial bomber’.
“Today comes news that will strike fear in the heart of Tony Blair”
The news is the Chatham House report.
The clownette making the statment was the female teleprompt reader on ITV News at 6.30.
I know it’s not the BBC, but I think ITV take lessons in loonyness from the BBC.
We know that AP and Reuters as well as the BBC have the T-word policy. They are all wrong and we have said so.
But AP use the T word frequently in reporting on the London mrders. The BBC did NOT.
That is how bad the BBC is. How unBRITISH.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRITAIN_BOMBINGS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-07-18-13-37-55
john b – Personally I would prefer the word terrorist in this case as the actions fit that term well. However I suspect that most of the people on this site object to the bias at the BBC because:
1) We must pay for it if we want to watch any other tv channel in the UK.
2) (less important) It has a priveleged position in UK broadcasting being two of the five terrestrial channels.
As far as I am aware I am not obliged to pay for AP output.
If I was not forced to pay for the BBC I wouldn’t be too concerned about their output.
How prevalent is this young man’s view in the uslim commnity ? Does the BBC know – or care ?
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRITAIN_BOMBINGS_YOUNG_PREY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-07-17-20-21-47
JiL – the main take-home lesson from the AP story seems to be that we should legalise drugs and stop trying to stamp out binge drinking…
Has anyone noticed the usual sanitising of the real Koran line about “whoever kills a human being…is guilty of killing all mankind” in the so-called ‘UK Muslim fatwa’? Is it just BBC online who edited out the classic rider “unless they be guilty”?
The BBC scours the world for important news, but they wouldn’t bother with this minor matter ….unless it came from the US.
An 11-year-old girl who threw a stone at a group of boys pelting her with water balloons is being prosecuted on serious assault charges in California.
And how about this for a lack of fair play in an english speaking county?
The 11-year-old was then read her rights twice in English before being detained.
Dan, it’s business as usual. She’s a poor member of a Hispanic (hence under-privileged) family who doesn’t speak English. Therefore she’s obviously being treated too harshly. Why won’t the Beeb tell us about the teenage girls who get stoned to death in Iran because they got raped?
BTW,
With all these Poles and others coming to our country who dont speak English,what is the point of Health and Safety legislation?
Bob Coates
Yes. The qualifying (or copout) phrases and clauses in specific verses of the Koran are critical to what spokesmen or fatwas are actually saying – as against what they want us to think they are saying.
I have seen nothing as bold as a fatwa. There was a suggestion there might be one — but that has receded. This is being discussed intensely in the various Muslim commnunities but the BBC does not explain it or inform us about what is happening. We are just expected to take things on trust.
Very comforting. Our TV channels re run on blandness or complacency or bias. Even on critical issue like this.
It is like me telling you that I just caught a huge fish, honest I did. You just have to believe me, I can’t send a photo.
Miam:
“so why do the BBC continue, non-stop to pedal this line of lies that could be used by terrorists as recruiting propaganda.”
Just listened to Reid giving that repulsive slug Naughtie a going over. Reid made some excellent points and no neutral observer good imagine that Naughtie was anything but completely partisan and without a trace of the integrity to work for an impartial news organisation.
Anyone who hasn’t heard it I strongly recommend you do.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/index.shtml
The fatwa is at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/469441.stm
Read out at Westminster and to be repeated at “nearly 300 mosques” on friday 22 July. The BBC, however, is vague as to the exact text…
Fatwas are the problem, not the solution.
Muslims, we dont DO fatwa in Britain.
Bob Coates
The fatwa has been given to the BBC but I can’t find it at the Times, Telegraph or Guardin yet. Or Sky.
I smell spin via a complacent/compliant BBC. What does “innocent” mean – who defines it ? Is the fatwa global eg Iraq, Israel ?
Close textual analysis is needed – but there is no full text that I can find.
Bob, the BBC link you gave above returns ‘Page not found’.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4694441.stm
BBC page on fatwa
Another disgracefully incomplete biased piece on Iraq on Newsnight – Iraq is a quagmire etc Predicting civil war !
Aggressive chairman, bt NOT aggressive to Clare Short. Who is treated as the expert as when we should withdraw. Cue attack on the US. Replay of when should we withdraw.
Now moving on to “”London bombs are due to Iraq.”
London bombs are more due to the left and the !bBC.
The left: Extortion of the demos to attack democracy via subsidised immigration.
The BBC: To claim its good news.
Mark Steyn attacks multiculti and has a swipe at the Guardian for employing an Islamic extremist:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/07/19/do1902.xml
I just heard the interview with Reid. Jesus the interviewer sounds like a spoilt child.
Absolutely pathetic. Once again a BBC journalist persues his “dinner party” agenda. Reid was excellent.
Great piece by Mark Steyn, as always. I especially enjoyed the comparison:
“…Nor, incidentally, is Miss Begum “preserving” any identity: she’s of Bangladeshi origin, and her adolescent adoption of the jilbab is a symbol of the Arabisation of South Asian (and African and European) Islam that’s at the root of so many problems. It’s no more part of her inherited identity than my five-year- old dressing up in his head-to-toe Darth Vader costume, to which at a casual glance it’s not dissimilar…”
Re: UK Muslims issue bombings fatwa
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4694441.stm
Can anybody explain to me why this obsession with fatwa’s?
This is supposed to be the proverbial green and pleasant, not some bit of goat pasture south of Peshawa. The Archbish of Canterbury is no doubt a pleasant enough geezer but on recent evidence his authority isn’t paid much attention to anywhere past Maidstone. So why are we all waiting on the pronouncements of some beardos who use dishcloths as headgear instead of for doing the drying-up like normal people? Have we become a province of Saudi Arabia and nobody told us?
The correct response to fatwa’s, whatever they’re about, is to suggest the issuer inserts it where the sun shinest not. This is not a Muslim country, not yet it isn’t, and until it is they have as much relevence here as a Greek parking ticket.
Whether Islam “says suicide bombings are “vehemently prohibited” is totally irrelevent. Under British law they’re correctly described as murder. ” The formal legal opinion (that) was issued by the British Muslim Forum at Parliament” has all the legal validity of a three pound note.
The sooner somebody explains to these people in no uncertain terms that if they want to continue living in this land they should respect it’s customs and laws, the better.
Personally, I do not ” pray for the peace, security and harmony to triumph in multicultural Great Britain.” Not if it at the expense of all the freedoms we’ve fought for for the last thousand years. This sort of thing went out with the Middle Ages. If we accept this in the spirit in which it’s offered we’re on a slippery slope to oblivion.
And it may not be the real deal anyway. I have looked further at the text and i believe the copout that Irshad Manji warned about is right there in the BBC text.
OT:
Has anyone else noticed the diligent conditioning al-BBC implants through its preposterously PC CBeebies channel?
The teenies cannot be allowed to form the evil and mistaken impression that they live in a country whch is 94% white European. So the 5 regular presenters consist of a black man, a black woman, a Chinese woman, a white woman and a rather camp white man. There is no white heterosexual among the presenters, and there certainly isn’t a Jew to be seen, but perhaps we should commend al-BBC’s restraint in not having a token exploding Palestinian Arab among them either. So that’s all right then.
Then look at the programme content itself. Let’s take ‘Balamory’, one of al-BBC’s more successful efforts, which is a sort of Archers for the under-twos, set in a Scottish village. We know it’s Scottish because three of the cast are Scottish, but as for the rest, well, you know what to expect, really, don’t you? We have — yes, again — an American black man and a Nigerian black woman, the way you do in Scottish villages. We have a disabled Asian woman – ticking two boxes right there. Do we have any Jews? No we do not, though naturally the police officer is white. What a surprise! Subjectively, the entire cast is hideously ugly, too – presumably having good-looking people would be lookist. Or something else al-BBC hates.
Then there’s ‘Storymakers’. Every night, after the children have gone home, all the toys in the library come to life and are told stories by a cast of four magical human presenters. Charming, and interestingly, all four presenters are black. Why’s that then? Hmmm? Did those four just happen to blow away the casting director, or did somebody make a race-based casting decision?
How about a programme in which the presenters are all white? OK, OK, they exist: there’s ‘Smarteenies’, for instance, but 2 thoughts occur. One, ‘Smarteenies’ is the most gruesome crap which is only on air because the BBC patronises regional programme makers. Commissions are shared out among all those hopeless bumpkins and their duff programmes get made because it’s important to spread the TV poll tax to the hicks now and then. The second thought is this: I very much doubt that all 4 Smarteenies presenters are white because someone decided they should all be white. Someone certainly decided they should all be Mancs, of course…
Asians are actually quite under-represented on al-CBeebies. They’ve tried to rectify this lately by hiring a token Asian woman of astonishingly bad singing ability to work on ‘Tikkabilla’. This is al-Cbeebies’ PC version of ‘Play School’, and the word itself is a Pakistani game similar to hopscotch. I don’t know why the show’s not simply called ‘Hopscotch’, or even ‘Play School’, frankly.
It’s not all bad. I quite like ‘Yoho Ahoy’, for example, which is about baby pirates with names like Bilge and Plunder, who only ever say ‘Yoho’ and ‘Ahoy’. Then again, it really isn’t surprising that al-BBC should come up with a well-executed programme about a group of characters who all think and say exactly the same thing. They haven’t had to look too far for inspiration there, have they?
Okay… now we’re back to racism and lack of opportunities:
“Hodge urges job help for Muslims
Muslim graduates should get more help to get them into jobs, Employment Minister Margaret Hodge is due to say.
Her call comes after a study suggested there was an 11% gap between Muslims and other graduates in finding work.
She will tell a seminar in London it is vital to discover why young Muslims with promising starts fail to get jobs.
According to independent research discrimination is one problem – but strong family ties and an unwillingness to relocate could also play a part.
Mrs Hodge will say that the situation is worrying and completely unacceptable and it is vital to discover why so many young Muslims have a promising start by getting into higher education, but then fail to find a job .
She will call on educators, trainers and employers to work together to improve matters. She will also say that it is important to find ways of encouraging young Muslims to feel integrated into British society, in the light of the terrorist attacks in London on 7 July.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4695153.stm
So they’re getting preferential treatment once again. I would call that racist.
More pro-muslim crap:
Mosque reacts to London bombings
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4689553.stm
and
Teaching tolerance amid tension
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4687417.stm
I do now believe that the BBC and Al Jazeera are the same.
We have mentioned Balamory before. Some of my grndchildren hve balamory videos tht I have seen recently – and I was very surprised to see how multiracial this small Scottish fishing village was. Including the children at the nursery school. This is NOT what I know of Scottish seaside villages. The balance is wrong even for the whole of Scotland or even for the whole of the UK. It may be nonPC to say this, but I think this is blatant mind-conditioning, a kind of subliminal message.
The other bad aspect of kids/teens programmes is the tendency for presenters to talk virtually in black rap language, appalling diction, a great accent on stupid behaviour and again an excess of non-indigenous presenters.
Bring back Magic Roundabout, the Clangers and Muffin the Mule, say I.
The GOOD NEWS – in the interview on Today with Michael Grade at about 7.50, the Chairman of the Governors says that the T-word is in full use on the London bombings. But he says he has not yet got to the bottom of why it was being censored on the day. Why not ? If he can’t, who the hell can ? Grade tried to dismiss it as a minor issue.
The BAD NEWS James Naughtie fails to press him further on whether the T-Word is allowed elsewhere, for instance Iraq or Israel, where there are suicide bombings. This is an obvious corollary that should have been probed, especially as much of this morning’s news and the Today programme itself has focussed on the Egyptian cleric who endorses terrorism in Israel.
Conclusion the policy guidelines stay, the T-word is banned – except if it hits us here in Britain. (And it was even barred for 9/11)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/
The true voice of the slice of Muslims who hate us in Britain is at 7.09 am on Today – Anjem Choudry, formerly head of Al Mahajiroun. In the subsequent interview James Naughtie blithely accepts a figure that 99.9% of Muslims disagree with him. What an outright lie. Only a leftie clown like Naughtie wold hve let tht figure through – it should have been stamped on , it is outrageously complacent.
Towards the end of the programme Naughtie giggled nervously when the word terrorism was used. Obviously he was totally on-message with the T-word censorship before, hasn’t adjusted yet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/
BBC smears those questioning climate true beleivers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4693855.stm
england
LOL. Brilliant
england: re
UK Muslims issue bombings fatwa
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4694441.stm
comments well put
At the beginning of the article it correctly describes the text as a “religious decree”. Which is a fair enough description of what the statement is.
Further down however it says “The formal legal opinion was issued by the British Muslim Forum at Parliament.”
Formal legal opinion?
I don’t know where to begin. I think ‘england’ above has covered most bases. Are the BBC saying that in the absence of this “formal legal opinion” or if the “formal legal opinion” said it was ok to be a suicide bomber, then the laws of the UK would change or be affected in any way? Are muslims subject to a different legal system than non-muslims, and dependednt on “fatwas” to determine the law? Of course not. So how has this so-called “fatwa” go anything to with UK laws? Those laws that “parliament” make, you know, those boys and girls who we, the public, democratically elect to decide laws on our behalf.
What happens when other “fatwas” are issued saying muslims can have 10 wives & stone any to death that they get fed up with or who look at another man? Are they “formal legal opinions” too?
The starry-eyed stupidity and naiveity of some bbc journalists beggars belief.
PM set to meet senior UK Muslims
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4695275.stm
Awww, lets have a nice cup of tea and sort things out. BBC world view – have a meeting, be nice to each other & discuss things, that’s the best way.
Here’s Al-Jazeera turing on the Beeb for ‘daring’ to use the T word after 7/7
BBC and British Muslims: An Uneasy Public Disconnect
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/July/17%20o/BBC%20and%20British%20Muslims%20An%20Uneasy%20Public%20Disconnect%20By%20Ghulam%20Muhammed.htm
Artice ends with
“BBC’s demonizing of Islam, as the underlying ideology that forces British Muslims and Muslims world-wide to at least sympathize with any counter moves against Bush and Blair war plans in Muslim world, deliberately and unconvincingly leaves out the immorality and inhumanity of the ‘imperialist ideology’ that is now pitted against Islam. BBC and its supporters may yet find that in Islam, they have chosen a wrong enemy.
are they threatening us?
Miam
The fatwa has importance because it is meant to stop Muslim extremists in their tracks. But the problems are deep – I believe there is a copout clause relating to 5.32 of the Koran, and there has been no specific declaration of apostasy/excommunication of the bombers or future bombers.
It is a far weaker statement than was possible or was required. Another con, I think. Swallowed whole by the BBC, of course.
Re Rob Read’s link on climate change –
The BBC have certainly found a kindred spirit in this chap –
Dr Thomas Crowley, of Duke University…warns about the direction Mr Barton’s detailed requests could lead.
“For example, requests could be made to palaeontologists and molecular biologists for all data and files supporting evolution,”
So a request from congress for data to support climate change modelling is the next thing to religious fundamentalism.
More lefty hysteria.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_ne…ics/ 4693437.stm
Miam’s claim that the article I did on a possible Iraq connection justified terrorism is complete rubbish. I ask anyone to read the offending piece. It simply looks at both sides of the issue and quotes both John Reid and Tony Blair.
The Chatham House analysis is relevant here but nobody says that it justifies terrorism.
I also laid out a hopeful new trend identifed in the Arab media — that there is the beginning of a backlash against Qaeda terrorism. Not mentioned of course by the critics.
[deleted]
Anyone else noticed how neutral/positive news stories are illustrated with our wonderful multi-cultural society, but negative stories are always accompanied with pictures of hideously white people.
eg only white van man uses his mobile whilst driving
Surely the key omission from the climate change story is what the ‘House Committee on Energy and Commerce’ actually does and what its influence is. Without this context there’s nothing to indicate exactly why the scientists shouldn’t just tell Mr Barton to go f*ck himself. It’s lazy journalism.
Very much OT:
Has anyone noticed how much space the Sports Section of the Beeb Website gives to anything Chelsea FC does? I mean, fair enough, they’re headline grabbers but that’s no surprise if you’ve got [deleted]
Paul Reynolds
Care to comment on the BBC coverage of the fatwa ? Why haven’t you posted the text ? Isn’t there room for it on that huge website ? Has the BBC properly examined the text – everyone knows it needs close contextual analysis. Or do you juyst publish the PR hndot with the odd contraction ? Don’t you realise that contractions can kill ?
It is that sort of text that is central to the dispute in Islam between extremists and moderates. Please arrange for the BBC to post a link to the full text on the fatwa story that is on the main news page.
Also – it appears that only the BBC has published this story – can the BBC explain why ? Is it some kind of exclusive ?
And where can we see the proper notice of the change of policy on the T-word that Michael Grade announced this morning ? Where is this BBC transparency we are being told about ?
Thank you.
Johninlondon is right about the fatwa but what is really required is for cultured europeans to tell the bearded ones that fatwas are not how things are done in the civiliized world and that the bearded ones are fifteen hunndred years behinnd the times and that they need to don jackets and ties and ditch the head wear and PLAY BY OUR OUR GODDAMNED RULES.
but I dont suppose anyone at al beeb will say all that.