The sanitisation and idealisation of the religion of Islam proceeds apace at the Beeb. It must- as this culture is being more and more forcefully advocated by its adherents, so it requires greater and greater efforts to retain management of the news in a way that the Beeb feels is responsible.
After writing this post originally, I heard of the terrible stampede at this year’s Hajj. I am naturally sorry for the people involved, but it only really highlights the terrible realities that the BBC is ignoring in the general course of things.
Lets look at what that means. No mention on the BBC of the appalling carnage of this incident of slaughter and sadistic chaos. Reuters filed this under ‘oddly enough’ when I think ‘sadly predictable’ would have been more accurate. Also no mention of this incident (on European soil too), where some modern day reality came into contact with medievalism. This is not any cull we’re talking about, such as fox-hunting facilitates, but sacrifice- blood for some mystical quality of blood’s sake.
Instead, from the BBC we had a picture sequence of a mass-slaughter fair which doesn’t even include any notion of during or after the slaughter. I am not sure ‘livestock fair’ was the appropriate term to use to describe it, myself. No wonder the animal rights people in the UK are naive, when their Auntie shields them from the big wide world.
As the Wall Street Journal recently observed: ‘Political correctness, for all its awfulness, is an effort to save souls through language.’ But not animals, obviously, lest the Islamic audience be offended.
Second example: the Hajj. The BBC’s coverage is, save the unavoidable reporting of the annual Islamic Hillsborough-style event which is a tradition for this time of the year, utterly nicey-nicey (this sentence written pre-stampede btw). The boy scout article I linked earlier is a good example, but the BBC are pleased to report organisational glitches, safety measures etc..
Yet what about these Iranians in Mecca? Not so nicey-nicey, eh? Somehow the BBC manage to make a sacrifice and omit the death to America, infidel-hand chopping rhetoric from their coverage.
I am not saying that what I’m outlining is not a dilemma for broadcasters, but what I am saying is that the BBC’s chosen output is not news, but cultural sensitivity, aka pandering. The fact that they have decided a priori on ideological grounds that Muslims are to be protected from criticism is their problem.
Soc is Nec
It is a pity that the best band ever, also preached the most hypocritical political messages. Another of the BBCs favorates John Lennon was also stunning in his hypocracy. Pink Floyd loved to rubbish gready capitalism and then sold the most expensive T-shirts and tickets, on the planet. John Lennon never felt shame, driving in his white Roles-Royce. The BBC love people that they have things in common with, as we all do. But at least PF and JL fans had FREEDOM to pay or not.( Roger Walters please note ). Which is why the music was good, and the BBC is crap.
O/T
I QUOTE
The difference between Republicans/conservatives and Democrates/New labour is only in the nastyness of there vested interests and there lobby groups.
also
I QUOTE
The difference between Republicans/conservatives and Democrates/New Labour is that. Socalists get into power to show that goverment WORKS, and fail. Conservatives get into power to show that goverment does NOT WORK and succeed.
Winston Churchill I think.
OT but somewhat interesting (and also funny in its own way) – I came across this piece via a No Pasaran! comment:
“Quantifying the Roe Effect
…We refer not to the issue of abortion but to the practice, and our theory is that abortion is making America more conservative than it otherwise would be.”
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004780
disillusioned_german
‘abortion is making America more conservative than it otherwise would be.’
A very interesting conclusion. The opposite case was posited in the short story ‘The Marching Morons’.
Matter at hand:
Our beloved ReichsChancellor (yeah yeah, I know about the correct meaning and spelling but please forgive me this small conceit) wishes to institute a ‘British Day’ in the interests of ‘Unity’, and take back the Union Flag from the ‘far right’.
…and cue the liberal ‘intelligencia’…
R5 had them breaking down the walls to get into studio. Moslem Human Rights Lawyers hailing from Scotland (now that is ticking all the boxes), Moslem councillors, more Scots and Billy Bragg.
!
You must undestand that such a ‘British Day’ will encompass the ‘Idea of Multiculturalism’.
In fact, Billy Bragg went so far as to say that ‘Britishness’ cannot exist without multiculturalism.
And then Billy Bragg went on to say that multiculturalism meant different things to different people……
Nice one Billy!
Of course he would never take the next logical step; If it means many things to many people then it really means nothing at all..
Oh and by the way in Eamonn Holmes’ little show (ostensibly about sporting matters), they will be inviting on a few people from Iran…
Such nice people.
Oh yeah.
paulc – as part of the BBC’s Gordon Brown Promotional Day, this morning’s Today programme sent Zubeida Malik to Slough to discuss Britishness with a suitably representative group of teenagers. Here’s how they introduced themselves (I’ve made one of them up – can you guess which?):
“I’m fifteen years old, I’m English, but have an Afro-Caribbean background.”
“I’m Attiq, I’m 18 years old and I see myself as an English Pakistani.”
“I’m Natasha, I’m 17, and I like to think of myself as a global citizen.”
“I’m Prashanth I’m 18 and I’m a British Tamil.”
“I’m James, I’m 17 and I see myself as British Welsh.”
“I’m John, I’m English with a white English background.”
Move along John, nothing to see here!………………
Socialism is Necrotizing,
Thanks for your comment. Glad I could provide a laugh!
Our beloved ReichsChancellor (yeah yeah, I know about the correct meaning and spelling but please forgive me this small conceit) wishes to institute a ‘British Day’ in the interests of ‘Unity’,
This is actually a Guardian/Fabian Society Event with 800 delegates – that so manybird-brained types could flock together must put them at risk of a raid by WHO and the H5N1 Police.
Anyway, one of the funny things is that the term “Iron Chancellor” so favoured by G Brown is not an allusion to Bismarck but to Labour’s First Chancellor Philip Snowden who called himself such – he in fact abolished the Corporation Tax which had been introduced in 1922 by the Conservative Austen Chamberlain.
Funnily enough the strongest interwar Chancellor – one who interferred in every department of government and had an iron control over matters simply because his Prime Minister was lazy and not particularly focused was Neville Chamberlain, half-brother of Austen.
Neville was Chancellor from 1931-1937. He in fact had such a focus on controlling domestic matters that he had little grasp of foreign affairs – his half-brother in contrast was a former Foreign Secretary and Nobel Prize Winner. Austen died just as Neville became Prime Minister and exercising his iron grip on Conservative Party and Departments of State proceeded to make a complete hash of foreign policy, until his predecessor as Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer (1925-1929) one W. S. Churchill succeeded him as Prime Minister in May 1940.
So Brown can wrap himself in the Union Flag as much as he wants – unlike the Captain of the battle-cruiser Graf Spee I doubt Gordon Brown will wrap himself in the flag before departing the scene.
It is pathetic to have the Loony Left try to script a national heritage for the people of this country; they are as dedicated to perfecting Soviet Man as was the USSR and have produced a similar result – debased education, surly behaviour, street violence and public drunkenness and alcoholism
as an English Pakistani.”
Strange – one nation is over a thousand years old and the other barely 60. One is a democracy and the other a military junta in a state which is founded upon religious exclusivity by Jinnah as he broke away from the secular Indian State.
No wonder this kid is confused.
But, of course, only one variety of Abrahamic monotheism. No doubt the corporation will continue sneering at Christians and Jews…
Islam claims to be abrahamic but in actual fact Allah is an old arabian moon god. Remember The Satanic Verses? An early draft of the Koran (yes, such things existed) had Mohammed praising Allah’s “daughters” (Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat) and “wife”, the sun goddess. They pray to mecca because there was – and still is – a temple to the moon god there. The Koran itself is a mishmash of Arabian paganism, Sebean, Jewish and heretical christian texts with sprinklings of Zoroastorianism and Hinduism thrown in for good measure. Without really understanding – or perhaps they do understand – the BBC has adopted the ultimate “multicultural” authoritarian religion. Since it isn’t related to the jooooos or the christians, and merely claims that in order to placate them – rather like the BBC in some ways – the BBC and the authoritarian left see it as a perfect ally. Unfortunately they’ve made the earthly equivalent of a pact with the devil…
It’s time for the rest of us to ‘reaffirm our sense of Britishness’.
The Union Flag has been hijacked by the likes of Gordon Enron and Billy Bragg. Let us take it back!
Some months ago Bragg was pontificating on what it means to be English. Now he is thrilling listeners with his version of Britishness. I wonder if he has sat at his breakfast table in his Dorset mansion and wondered if there are many English people who have long lost their sense of ‘Britishness’ because of Labour’s policy of devolution? Does he not realise that Brown and his political friends have partly caused the problem through its constitutional fiddling? It seems silly to say this (but Bragg doesn’t) but one cannot have national unity is there isn’t a nation to unite behind.
Furthermore, Bragg, a fervent ‘europhile’, cannot and will not see a correlation between the growth of English nationalism and ever-strengthening grip of the EU. Indeed, I am quite sure he would condemn ‘eurosceptics’ for their ‘xenophobia’ and ‘little Englander’ outlook because he is incapable of seeing that the EU is undermining the UK’s sovereignty and is thus a major part of the UK’s identity problem.
I am not making a gratuitously anti-EU comment here. This is a key point: many Britons do not wish to be seen to be a part of the European project and they feel that a European identity is being forced onto them by their political elites. That is why so many people want out of the European project.
Why should the BBC give Bragg’s views on nationalism such prominence? His views and politics are well-known but his diagnosis, his solutions and his agendas are all highly questionable. So where are the dissenting voices?
This story about the Haj stampede (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4608666.stm) has a link to a Haj travel agency on the right hand side:
—
RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Al-Hidaayah Hajj & Umrah Tours
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
—
Are they suggesting everyone book early for next year to avoid the, erm, stampede?
And why no link to the Foreign Office’s British Hajj Delegation? http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1101396253177 – a sink of taxpayers’ money masquerading as a font of advice:
“Health and Welfare
“A successful Hajj requires patience and thought to safeguard your and others’ safety. Some 2 million pilgrims visit the Holy sites during the Hajj. Some of the Holy places can be very crowded, particularly at the stoning of the Satans at Mina and the circumambulation of the Kaaba. The crowds can be particularly daunting for the elderly or frail.”
I just googled the BBC’s site for the word ‘dhimmi’. I got 4 hits, only one of which actually contained the word, on a page that was in Romanian.
Oddly, the BBC’s own search produced a single hit, not among google’s matches, for an opinion piece by a Lebanese Christian that did indeed contain the word.
It is odd that google should return erroneous hits. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this happen in any other context. Evidence of stealth editing, perhaps?
Archonix – nice book by Rev J L Menezes 1912 gives a good account of the derivation of the cut-and-paste substitution of polytheistic Mecca with a home-made pastiche.
It is pretty obvious the caravans brought all sorts of tales from Persia and from Jerusalem (though how he wrapped Jerusalem into his narrative beats me……must be a territorial afterthought)
Billy Bragg is just moronic. I have no interest in his views on Quantum Mechanics which are as founded on ignorance as his views on Britishness, Englishness or Confucianism
Who the hell is Billy Bragg in that he is handed the mike by the BBC to spout his moronic views? He has held no position or responsibility nor of power (bit like Sir Ming) yet he’s always in our faces.
The BBC has a little list: it comprises those who present its (the BBC’s) opinion. This is counter to its charter. Is that charter enforceable? Can an opinion-bloc take action through the courts to have the BBC declared in breach?
Billy Bragg and Shami Chakrabati (Director of the “Liberty” pressure group) are at the top of the speed dial list of the Editor of news at the BBC.
The scandal of the amount of air time given by the BBC to Boring Billy Bragg has been waiting to burst for a long time.
Bragg has never enjoyed sufficient popularity to justify even a tenth of the coverage he has received. The only possible reason for it is that he espouses the sort of politics the “Right On!” brigade at White City love to hear.
But the question is, as Allan@Aberdeen suggests, what can be done about it? It’s a perfect example of the BBC’s political and cultural bias yet there appears to be no mechanism for bringing the corporation to account.
As ever, the BBC does what it likes and forces us to pay for it.
BBC Radio 4. The Home of Intelligent Speech.
Comedy from The Now Show
23 December to 27 January Fridays 6.30-7pm
Saturdays 12.30-1pm
I have transcribed a particularly offensive passage fom the latest program and ask only this; Is anybody in charge at the BBC?
a sketch on “test” audiences for Hollywood Movies ended thus………………..”the sort of Americans who go to test screenings are the sort of Americans who only go to test screenings because in return or thier obese, worthless opinions they are promised a skip full of free all butter fat corn and free buckets of all you can drink fizzy lard” (canned laughter).
It continues…….”I ask you, what is the point of testing anything on Americans unless its a new type of cattle prod or the Ebola virus” (canned laughter)
the “comedy” ends thus…….”and with that, I hope you have a nice day! Y`All” (sarcastic delivery) (canned laughter).
What the Billy Braggs of Britain fail to understanding is that by imposing mass migration onto Britain’s population, and then pursuing a policy of anti-integration, they are effectively turning Britain into a mini Austro-Hungary of the late 19th century.
Multiethnic states can just about work, providing there is a strong common, uniting shared set of values. But the left, ever confident of their supposed superhuman abilities, think they can go one step further and have ‘multiculturalism’ where even that set of shared values no longer exists.
What’s left? Not a nation state, but just a collection of competing tribal groupings that simply occupy the same space. The Hotel of Britain, not the Nation of Britain.
Anyway isn’t multiculturalism in Britain officially dead? Didn’t it die in the rubble of 7th July 2005. That’s what the head honcho of the Commission of Racial Equality said last year. Or are they going for multiculturalism mark II?
Shami Chakrabarti
formerly of The Home Office
any relation to Reeta Chakrabarti of the BBC ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shami_Chakrabarti
or Lolita Chakrabarti
http://www.hamiltonhodell.co.uk/page.asp?partid=9
Iran on nuclear collision course
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4612068.stm
This piece by “our own correspondent Jim Muir” sounds like it’s been written by the propanda ministry in Tehran. Mind-blowing, if you ask me.
These bad, bad Americans are at it again.
That Iran article is unbelievable. So the ‘conservatives’ won the election? Theocratic Fascists might be a better description.
Also, it seems that only ‘hard-liners’ in Washington are hoping the theofascist government in Iran goes. I’m amazed the writer just didn’t sneeringly call them ‘neo-cons’ instead.
It isn’t until you get right to the bottom of the article that you understand why it is so biased – it’s a transcript of part of the “From our own adolescent”, BBC Radio Four’s left-wing anti-American activist show.
Billy Bragg says he wants to change St georges day into Shakespeares day to be inclusive>.He wants it to be like St Patricks day where everyone joins in.St georges is manipulated by xenophobes like the BNP and-UKIP.I presume that means those who voted UKIP at the EU elections are in BBs eyes,xenophobic because they want out of the EU.And the EU is-for europeans,not africans or asiatics and especially not for Americans,New Orlean black underclass excepted.
So ST george is a racist but St Patrick is an internationalist.
The BBC fellow did not question one of his assertions.
Just before 10:00 am on 14/01/06 BBC News 24 ran a story from the lawn outside of Imperial College, London. The interviewer, Nick somebody or other was interviewing Billy Bragg.
Bragg was giving his opinion on how Britain is forever changing, first it was Wales then Scotland joining the Union, then it was Ireland. Pregnant pause while Bragg’s cogs whirred, then the stunning revelation, ‘and then Ireland left’. That, he declared, is how Britain is always changing.
This was riveting stuff, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the next gem which was duly delivered in the endorsement of, presumably, unrestricted immigration. and that was why UKIP was the same as the BNP.
No I’m not making this up.
We then were treated to a ramble anout immigration about men in white vans displaying the Cross of St. George and how the drivers of all such vans must be suspect. Much like saying all Muslim taxi drivers who display symbols of Mecca are suspect terrorists.
It was of course too much to ask of Nick Somebody/or/other to question any of Bragg’s utterances or for the BBC to provide a counter balance to this guff, instead the gormless simon McCoy shuffled off to the weather report with an unfunny joke.
I emailed UKIP who are going to complain to the BBC, but they don’t hold out much hope of any redress. They had apparently complained when Reeta Chakrabati made a similar comparison between UKIP and the BNP. They are still waiting for a response from the little europeaners in the BBC.
1957
The United States and Iran sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement as part of the US Atoms for Peace program. The agreement, which provides for technical assistance and the lease of several kilograms of enriched uranium, also calls for cooperation on research on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825.html
Now compare the words enriched uranium with the BBC article quoted above……. Americans. They even gave the Iranians some highly-enriched uranium to experiment with as well.
So Jim Muir changes the words “enriched” ie 12% U235 to “highly-enriched” or 85% U235 which is used for bombs.
Now why would the US in 1957 give Iran such material before even China was capable of exploding an atom bomb ?
US Department of State, “Atoms for Peace Agreement with Iran,” Department of State Bulletin 36 (15 April 1957), p. 629
Sorry it wasn’t Reeta, it was Shami… (same difference they both work for the BBC, Reeta is a full time employee, Shami, I presume, gets appearance fees)
September 1967
The United States supplies 5.545kg of enriched uranium, of which 5.165kg contain fissile isotopes, to Iran for fuel in a research reactor. The United States also supplies 112g of plutonium, of which 104g are fissile isotopes, for use as “start-up sources for research reactor.”
—”US Supplied Nuclear material to Iran,” 29 January 1980; in Digital National Security Archive .
November 1967
The 5MWt pool-type, water-moderated research reactor supplied to Iran by GA Technologies of the United States goes critical, using 5.585kg of 93% enriched uranium supplied by the United Nuclear Corporation to the United States. [Note: The United States halted the supply of highly enriched uranium fuel loads for the reactor in 1979 due to the Islamic Revolution. See relevant entry.]
—Richard Kessler, “Argentina Offers Research Reactor Upgrade and New Unit for Iran,” Nuleonics Week, 22 January 1987, p. 4; Samini Seneviratne, “IAEA Approves Argentine Fuel for Tehran Research Reactor,” NuclearFuel, 3 October 1988, p. 13; Warren H. Donnelly and Zachary S. Davis, “Iran’s Nuclear Activities and the Congressional Response,” CRS Issue Brief, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, 20 May 1992.
1 July 1968
Iran signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on the day it is opened for signature.
June 1974
The Shah of Iran says that Iran will have nuclear weapons, “without a doubt and sooner than one would think.” The statement is denied by Iran’s embassy in France, and the Shah later backs off the statement, reaffirming that “not only Iran, but also other nations in the region should refrain from planning to gain atomic arsenals.”
Mid-1970s
Denmark supplies Iran with 10kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and 25kg of natural uranium for research reactor fuel. [Note: After Iraqi bomb attacks on Iran’s Bushehr reactors in November 1987, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran had moved a small amount of research reactor fuel to the site in hopes of heading off an attack. One source indicates the fuel was supplied by Denmark.]
February 1975
The Shah of Iran says his country has “no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons but if small states began building them, then Iran might have to reconsider its policy.”
Late 1970s
The United States obtains intelligence data indicating that the Shah has set up a clandestine nuclear weapons development program. Also, according to Akbar Etemad, director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran until October 1978, researchers at the Tehran Nuclear Research Center are involved in laboratory experiments that could have applications for reprocessing spent fuel.
Billy Bragg says he wants to change St George’s day into Shakespeare’s day to be inclusive
Billy Bragg has all the symptoms of a self loathing Englander. How long would it be before a ‘Shakespeare’s day’ is regarded by the same leftists as being exclusive and “racist”?
When you hear St. Patrick’s day, you instantly think of Ireland and of things Irish. You do not think of some warm, fuzzy make-believe internationalism. Sure it’s been mass marketed and sold around the world, but it retains its fundamental association with Ireland.
By contrast, the English are expected not to celebrate their national identity in any shape or form, essentially because Mr Bragg and his fellow travellers on the left, including the BBC, are very uncomfortable with that identity.
To justify their fashionable hostility to things English, the argument is then trotted out that anything to do with St. George has been hijacked by violent nationalists. But the same bogus argument could be applied to St. Patrick, the symbols of Ireland and the IRA.
And yet neither the BBC nor Bragg it appears has any problem with St. Patrick’s day. The only thing consistent about the left is their inconsistency.
I thought he might have chosen 20 February so “The People” could celebrate the birthday of The Great Gordon………….or maybe even 25th March for Treaty of Rome Day………………but with Billy Bragg it would have to be 22nd June the day SS Windrush docked in the uninhabited island off the coast of France and like Noah’s Ark disgorged those who would populate the deserted island of Albion
Rick,
No those dates are too modern for Cool Britannia which started in 1997.It will have to be a date for something that has not yet happened.National holiday for joining the EUro,perhaps,or when the republic is declared.
newkidontheblock – I heard some of that Bragg interview. Wasn’t he demanding new ‘tolerance laws’ so that UKIP could be proscribed? Banned for anti-EU sentiment, that’s Bragg’s Brave New Britain. And the BBC loves him.
Robin, if we had fixed-term Parliamenmts I could tell you exactly what date I would choose !
DFH
‘I heard some of that Bragg interview. Wasn’t he demanding new ‘tolerance laws’ so that UKIP could be proscribed? Banned for anti-EU sentiment, that’s Bragg’s Brave New Britain.’
I didn’t hear that bit, I was too busy shouting at the tele.
As an Irish person, I find the lack of an English St George’s Day completely baffling.
And no – i dont want it watered down so that i can feel “included” – i want the English to celebrate their Englishness. And why not? Heck, i’d be up for joining in and engaging in a massive tasting session of several pints of real English ale!