Chief Executive of BBC Broadcast from 1996 to 1999:
Double standards in dealing with Islam
Sir, I applaud the BBC’s news treatment of the Danish cartoons (report, Feb 4). On its website, however, the cultural cringe is evident and double standards obtain. In its history of Islam we read: “One night in 610 he (Muhammad) was meditating in a cave on the mountain when he was visited by the angel Jibreel who ordered him to “recite” . . . words which he came to understand were the words of God.” This is written as fact, no “it is said” or “Muhammad reported”. Whenever Muhammad’s name is mentioned the BBC adds “Peace be upon him”, as if the corporation itself were Muslim.
How different, and how much more accurate, when we turn to Christianity. Here, Jesus’ birth “is believed by Christians to be the fulfilment of prophesies in the Jewish Old Testament”; Jesus “claimed that he spoke with the authority of God”; accounts of his resurrection appearances were “put about by his believers”.
WILL WYATT
Chief Executive, BBC
Broadcast, 1996-99
Middle Barton, Oxon
– take a look at the two following letters as well. As my colleague Laban asks on his blog:
…for how long has it been mandatory in the Met and on the BBC to call Mohammed ‘the Prophet Mohammed’? [note capital ‘P’] I haven’t noticed Jesus being referred to as ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’ lately.
Indeed. I shall now return to my current B-BBC sabbatical. TTFN.
OT
Always reassuring to know that the EU Commissioner entrusted with the responsibility for Communications, the ever fragrant Margot Wallstrom (“We politicians are accountable to 450 million Europeans and you expect us to work together, to be effective, to communicate with you and to give you a voice. We can never be allowed to forget that. That is what gives me my political motivation.” as she likes to say.) is well up to speed on the cartoon controversy.
Not.
For a blog that posts every 3-4 days on such vital subjects as “Women in politics chat” and “What I did on my holidays in Salzburg” not a peep has been heard from the fragrant one for a week.
Struck dumb?
One can only hope.
For those who really must have the link: http://weblog.jrc.cec.eu.int/page/wallstrom
but move along, nothing’s happening there.
The Housing Minister in Guernsey is taking a stand against the Licence Tax and refusing to pay. No taxation without representation, eh? I seem to recall that idea started a minor disturbance in the colonies across the pond a while ago, too.
Good luck, Deputy Jones!
http://www.thisisguernsey.com/code/shownewsarticle.pl?ArticleID=000188
Watching Newsnight last night, I began to warm to that fellow Choudery: he told it like it is [remainder deleted]
Edited By Siteowner
So Captain Hook is sent down for 7 years. Given that he’s been held in prison since May 2004 and it’s policy to release cons as early as possible, he’ll be a free man by about … tomorrow morning.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4690224.stm
The BBC also informs us:
And a terror manual – an encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad – found at his west London home listed Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty as possible targets for an attack … BBC Home Editor Mark Easton said police believed the mosque, which is now under new management, was “linked to literally dozens of terrorist plots around Europe and beyond”. He pointed out that police confiscated the terror manual from Abu Hamza in 1999, before later returning it to him.
Mind how you go.
I think the fingerprints thing went over anons head.
Sounds like a fiver from Private Eye might be in order for that one.
Victoria Derbyshire said the ‘M’ word twice this morning!
5 Live news at 17.30 today refered to Hook as The radical MUSLIM preacher !
Is this the end for B-BBC?
A BBC spokesman said: “…represents the audience across all the UK.”
really?
when was the last time the BBC covered St.Patricks Day so , eh?
oh no. cant do that. have to do hajj hajj hajj hajj and more hajj.
“Victoria Derbyshire said the ‘M’ word twice this morning!”
i’ve noticed that creeping into the beeb news items recently.
the “I” word is creeping back in:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4682484.stm
unfortunately the “T” word is still missing in action and looking for a home.
Anyone hear the BBC Radio PM report from Lebanon tonight. Real gem. First they used the BBC charm to get into Shatilla Camp because they did not want Europeans (apparently they have been naughty)………….and of course a chance to “diss” the West was offered………..
Then to the “rich” American University where students said it was Syria behind it all………………and the BBC guy then sums up by saying “all blamed the West”
Why does the BBC bother with foreign correspondents if the editorial line is so heavy and at variance with the facts ?
And a terror manual – an encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad
Overdue library book ?
Are the over-the-top riots by fascist Islamists who want to return us back to the 7th century justified?
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=904&edition=2&ttl=20060207174308&#paginator
Rick -> seems to me as if the Lebanese are seriously pissed off – but NOT with the west. A minister has resigned, and there’s indications that the people who burned down the embassy were bussed in Syrian and Palestinian. it was orchestrated and highly organised.
but in the beeboid world – its all our fault.
Contrary to the DT story, interviewed on Today Sir Allan West gave a sickeningly complacent view of the state of the Royal Navy: all the usual guff “second most powerful in the world” etc etc. Very few worries there then.
Umbongo | 07.02.06 – 12:14 pm | #
I guess that’s technically true:
Japan has a ‘Coast Guard’ larger than the entire Royal Navy
Maybe the Russians, Chinese and French also have ‘Coast Guards’?
Archduke – indeed. I am constantly struck at how people are so ready to believe the US government, a democracy, is capable of all sorts of shenanigans but also believe that Arab dictatorships and police states are not and are given the benefit of the doubt.
For a government which backs and supplies terrorist organisations bussing in a bunch of thugs to burn down an embassy is childs play.
Archduke – indeed. I am constantly struck at how people are so ready to believe the US government
1960s types in Hollywood who have not much experience of the big, bad world
I just heard on BBC radio 4 a trailer for a programme on Denmark and the fake cartoons scheduled for Thursday(9th).
Yesterday I said that the BBC had decided on the line it would take in the ‘Cartoon Crisis’.
Its propaganda mills are already at maximum effort, pushing the ‘Respect’ argument (which incidentally coincides with the latest ‘party slogan’ from our glorious leaders. Nothing implied.).
This morning the BBC went out of its way to highlight the case of Omar Khayyam.
Mr ‘if only I’d worn a scarf, like the others’ Khayyam offered his apology to all and sundry, yesterday. He was repentant for the hurt (or ‘offence’) he had given to the loved ones of those lost on 7th July.
Fine. His actions are between him, his conscience and all the victims of the 7/7 attacks.
Dressing up is not illegal in this country, provided you do not breach the rules of decency or impersonate members of the Police or Armed Services.
As for me, I don’t care if he dresses like ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ or a pantomime cow.
But this matter is important to the Beeb and (because the Police don’t act in such matters without their say-so) the Government.
I don’t know if Omar ‘I shouldn’t have sampled the stock’ Khayyam has broken the terms of his parole.
Because of the various Human Rights Acts signed up to by the Labour Government, I am tempted to think that he has done nothing which would warrant a return to prison for Mr ‘I’m just a patsy’ Khayyam. He has, however, been arrested anyway.
Now he has been joined by the ‘Mad Imam’ Abu Hamza, on the front pages. That one is worth a few days of ‘Grand Guignol’ replayed in the media.
The point behind these smokescreens – sorry, stories is that they can be made to run and run (as long as it takes for the parole board to consider Khayyam’s case, possibly a month).
Meanwhile, the ‘maskirovka’, the sleight-of-hand is almost complete. Out of sight, the BBC’s new reality will slide quietly into place.
The message will be vague, a little confused at first; but we will be told ‘Don’t worry; we are all good boys and girls. We still have free speech but we don’t use it’.
However, the meaning to the BBC’s other constituency will be quite clear, ‘We’ll say nice things about you and you won’t threaten us with death’.
cartoon rage reaches new heights of idiocy:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4690338.stm
“Separately, a Danish aid group has suspended operations in war-torn Chechnya after the Russian-backed administration there banned all Danish organisations.
The Danish Refugee Council, which provides food to tens of thousands in Chechnya, said it hoped the suspension would be temporary.”
I’m sure this point has been made but I just wanted it to be made. The people who burned down the embassies were stupid. They honestly believed that the governments of Denmark and Norway were responsible for the running of the cartoon. The whole point of the thing is that in europe we have a FREE press and the government can’t prevent them reporting anything. Unlike the BBC, which helpfully censors itself…..
Henry – if they bus you in and tell you to protest you use the script supplied. It was ever thus – even the “spontaneous” outbursts in Moscow under Brezhnev or in Peking – they were always the most contrived expressions of popular fury.
Iran is more concerned with enriching U238 than cartoons – it needs a diversion and to show the West it is troubelsome. Syria needs to destabilise Lebanon – the goal of the Syrian-Iraq Axis is to surround Israel with turmoil now that Sharon is in his state of living-dead.
The froth of cartoons is obscuring Western focus on the key features of disarming Iran before we need to show Iran just how our nuclear weapons work
http://focus.msn.de/hps/fol/newsausgabe/newsausgabe.htm?id=24631
They now admit to adding 3 extra cartoons………..Akhmad Akkari, Sprecher von 21 moslemischen Organisationen in Dänemark bestätigte die Beschuldigungen: „Um einen Einblick in die hasserfüllte Stimmung gegen Moslems in Dänemark” zu geben, habe man den zwölf ursprünglichen Zeichnungen der „Jyllands Posten” einfach drei weitere hinzugefügt, sagte Akkari gegenüber dem „Brussels Journal”, einer Vereinigung europäischer Journalisten.
Interview with Brussels Journal
From my local newspaper.
****
Could someone supply a link to the Danish apology please?****
Forgiveness is needed all round
SIR • On behalf of Interfaith Writers for Peace Group we strongly condemn all sorts of disgraceful and offensive acts. We do recognise that freedom of speech is a basic right of every individual but this freedom also entails responsibility that the feelings of other people are not injured to an extent that it becomes impossible to tolerate. We believe that publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed was a provocative act and one not expected from civilised society. Such kinds of irresponsible behaviour destroy peace and harmony in society. ****We endorse the apologies of the Danish government**** and the statement of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and urge our Muslim brothers and sisters to accept these apologies with gracious heart and a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Mrs Awais Dominic Mughal, Touchstone Centre, Merton Road, Bradford
From the same letters page of my local paper today.
Notice how neither contributor mentions the London, or indeed, the worldwide violent protests, but instead just cries…’poor me’.
This is also the first time that the (peace be upon him) addition has appeared in my paper.
Respect deserved
SIR • Why are Muslims around the world so incensed about seemingly harmless caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed ( peace be upon him)? Islam is not only our religion but also our way of life. We believe the Prophet Mohammed ( peace be upon him) was the last in a chain of messengers including other great prophets such as Jesus ( peace be upon him). These great men called men to the worship of the Creator and, as such, are more deserving of respect than anyone else. I would have been equally disgusted if the Prophet Jesus ( peace be upon him) had been mocked. If anyone just put themselves in the shoes of a Muslim they would have no difficulty in understanding the offence that has arisen.
Unfortunately few people have a genuine desire to look behind the headlines.
As part of our organisation’s work we have a mobile exhibition about Islam touring the Bradford district’s libraries, currently at Ilkley Library.
I wholeheartedly invite the public to challenge their perceptions.
Masood Chowdhury, on behalf of Islam Bradford, Hall Royd, Shipley
mick in the uk – irish caller on a irish radio show this week, to a dublin muslim
*strong dublin accent*
“wud ya ever get some cop on – its just some bleedin’ cartoons”
and
“are there any islamic jokes? tell us one”
i dunno – i think the irish can really see through self righteous crap – they’ve had 70 years of self rightheous Catholic church crap after all.
lets play a game of spot the difference
read this headline:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7c89dcca-977f-11da-82b7-0000779e2340.html
now read this:
http://www.mcb.org.uk/media/presstext.php?ann_id=188
Archduke:
Dublin humour (edited by me)I would have pasted the link to his exact post but the page is entitled…
why-are-muslims-so-f*****g-touchy.html
It seems that a small drawing is enough to get students – the laziest c**ts in the world, no matter what your religion – out of their unmade beds and onto the streets burning and chanting but an innocent Irish woman having her head cut off after spending years helping the people of a particular country isn’t worth 30 seconds of their time.
http://twentymajor.blogspot.com/
Scroll down for the Muslim post.
To anyone who is offended by Twenty Majors humour…get a life, he has a go at everyone equaly as distastefully.
OT
I see Rageh Omar is leaving the BBC to join al-Jazeera.
Hard to imagine he’ll suffer from culture shock.
“but an innocent Irish woman having her head cut off after spending years helping the people of a particular country isn’t worth 30 seconds of their time.”
mick -> thats exactly the point why i’m hearing lots of Irish callers to talk radio seriously pissed off. one guy rang in and said words to the effect of
“i’ve supported the palestinians for the past f***ing 20 years – and this is the thanks i get?”
in general, the Irish are a pro-palestinian lot ( similar kind of story to Northern Ireland – you know the deal), but this cartoon-rage thing has really changed a lot of peoples minds.
the other thing to consider is that i think most people wouldnt care if it were the Americans that published the cartoons first – but its the harmless Danes, the liberal, easy going Danes – probably the nicest bunch of folks in the world that are getting all the rage.
thats an important factor in the sea change in attitude towards Islam that i’m hearing and reading about.
amazing how 9/11 , 7/7 and many others didnt really change peoples minds fundementally – but rather, a bunch of danish cartoons did the job.
amazing isnt it?
“I see Rageh Omar is leaving the BBC to join al-Jazeera.”
and in other news, the sun will rise tommorow, and Donald Rumsfeld has announced that he is an American…
Way O/T (and a bit of hardcore BBBC comments cult)
Remember Bilal Patel, the mysterious frequent BBC commenter who got in so easily through the tough old (d)HYS PC filtering regime?
Well, look what we’ve here.
mcb get it dead wrong and play the divert-people-away-from-the-real-problem card:
http://www.mcb.org.uk/article_detail.php?article=announcement-535
yeah – i’m really “xenophobic” about Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Come to think of it, it’s not off topic at all.
To the schoolma’army, lecturey Mrs Awais Dominic Mughal who says: “We do recognise that freedom of speech is a basic right of every individual but this freedom also entails responsibility that the feelings of other people are not injured to an extent that it becomes impossible to tolerate.”
No. Freedom of speech means freedom of speech in a democracy. Everyone’s offended by something. They have to live with it as the price for living in a free country. Your religion is no exception.
“We believe that publishing cartoons … was a provocative act.”
No, it wasn’t. It was done for a Danish audience, to make a point. Nothing to do with you people, so why not butt out?
“We endorse the apologies of the Danish government.”
That’s odd, because the Danish government hasn’t apologised. Even if it wanted to, which it definitely does not, it could not apologise on behalf of a private business, which the Jyllands-Posten is. Where you come from, the strongman “president” or “prime minister” can control the press, but not where we come from. Live with it. The Danish government said it was sorry anyone was offended. In other words, they placed the onus on you, not the paper.
“We accept the statement of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw…” Why? He has nothing to do with either the government or press of Denmark and he shouldn’t have had the impertinence to try to get involved in this. As the Danish government didn’t “apologise” and as Jack Straw can’t apologise for foreign companies operating in foreign countries under foreign laws, I have a secret to share with you: No one apologised to you.
So you didn’t get anything. Meaning your statement: “with gracious heart and a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation” is a piece of florid idiocy. Get over it.
HRC: Excellent, pithy & to the point
This is quite funny.
Contrast this ‘History of Christianity:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/history1.shtml
(In describing Jesus and his work, the BBC uses its favourite qualifiers: “Jesus claimed that”, “it is believed by Christians”, “he was seen by” and “accounts” were “put about by his believers”.)
With this “History of Islam”:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/muhammad.shtml
Far less equivocation, of course. Everything is factual.
The latter includes such gems as: “Within ten years Muhammad (pbuh) had gained so many followers that he was able to return to Mecca and conquer it. From this time on he was generally accepted as the true final Prophet of God (pbuh).”
they do the same with Mormonism
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/mormon/history/history2.shtml
“Smith had received a revelation from God, first through an angel, and then through a book inscribed on golden plates.”
The BBC, contrary to its mandate, is a for-prophet organisation.
mick in the uk
http://www.cityforpeace.org.uk/directory.htm
TAoL | 07.02.06 – 10:03 pm | #
With BBC employment practices I bet that site is edited by a Muslim.
Let’s just say the (pbuh) part suggests that the whole piece was written by a member of the “religion of peace”. Fair and balanced, of course – as we’ve come to expect from the IBC.
Peace be upon you, oh brothers of muslim faith. Please stop throwing stones and refrain from burning down our embassies.
Rick,
Thanks for the link.
I am well aware of my City of peace, and the list makes interesting reading.
No sign of the Anti-Nazi League, who , on the first day of the 2001 Bradford riots were whipping Muslim youths at their demonstration into a frenzy for hours in Centenary Square, and in my opinion were the instigators of the ‘Race Riot’ ( youths of Pakistani and Bangladeshiorigin V The Police) which ensued.
disillustioned_German – Have they burned down a German embassy? Anyway, you shouldn’t use their terms because every time you do, it accords them a tiny victory and an infinitesimal step forward. And for the record, the Muslims are not only not my brothers, they’re not even distant relations.
HRC: You probably haven’t read my other comments… the above ones were very much ironic. I didn’t expect to be misunderstood. Anyway, it’s not about German embassies – I’m not patriotic. If I’d write what I actually think I’d get booted out here. Hence the irony.
A thousand fol-de-rols of apology to our dear Hanoverian cousin!
No apologies required but still accepted. One’s always walking a fine line when using irony in written form. 😉
The “Religious” department of the BBC was, naturally, the first bastion to fall to the barbarians. In those far off days “religious” of course meant “Christian” (this was before we had a “multicultural” society).
the natural result of “religious programming” falling into the hands of Marxists is, of course, any output dealing with Christianity is handled like a rat-catcher picking up a corpse, while any output aimed at any religion which may undermine Western (UK) society, short or long term, is treated as the gospel truth.
By the way, I am an aethiest. I just happen to have an open mind and I have observed the BBC’s ‘even’ attitude to religion for the past 20 years.
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When I hear the phrase “Interfaith Writers for Peace Group” I think of two things:
i) Cynically, I misquote Stalin and think “how many divisions has the Interfaith Writers for Peace Group?”
ii) Then I come to my senses and realise that in modern Britain, in terms of media access and influence with police chief constables, etc, they automatically have several tank armies. I merely have the vote, my wits and a decadent, decaying culture. Who’s going to win?