on the “United against Incitement and Islamophobia” rally planned for Trafalgar Square today.
“The rally … has been organised by the Muslim Council of Britain, the Muslim Association of Britain and a number of Christian organisations.”
Well, yes. Two minor inaccuracies and a curious omission. According to main organisers the Muslim Association of Britain and the Islamic Forum of Europe, the MCB are ‘supporters’, not organisers.
Secondly the ‘number of Christian organisations’ appears to be one – Pax Christi, a ‘peace group’ wholly focused on Palestine and the Middle East.
(UPDATE – I’m sure their presence is nothing to do with the fact that a trustee of their educational arm, Norman Kember, is currently an enforced guest of the Swords of Truth Brigade in Iraq. Hat-tip to Rick in the comments).
The curious omission? The appearance of the Socialist Workers Party front the Stop the War Coalition, or the state-funded Operation Black Vote is not unexpected. But surely the fact that the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament considers the suppression of cartoons of Mohammmed a part of its campaigning work is newsworthy? I’d have asked them for an interview.
UPDATE – just a thought. Has the BBC website not realised yet that the cartoons were published in Egypt last October? I can’t see the story anywhere.
Newkidontheblock – they first peddled the line of 100,000 expected to turn up. Ha ha ha ha ha!
“why is the BBC encouraging such muddled thinking?”
muddled? it positively foggy, muddled and upside down.
theres a news report they carried where they interviewed 2 muslim girls who are going on the March.
it portrayed them as “moderate”.
Trouble is , both of them wore the hijab, which gives the game away. One of the girls called for a banning of drawing the “prophet” Mo throughout Europe. Moderate?
the bbc report them as “representing the views of young muslims”
hmmm..
the video report is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4700000/newsid_4703500/nb_rm_4703536.stm
“This is the heart of our faith – we believe it is wrong to talk badly about the prophet.”
Well can she explain the “satanic verses”
http://www.muhammadanism.org/Quran/SatanicVerses.htm
Thus, today Islam considers Sura an-Najm (Star) 53:19-22 are related to the time when Muhammad spoke the the Satanic Verses. Salman Rushdie did not invent the Satanic verses.4
In Sura Hajj (Pilgrimage) 22:52-53, Muhammad confessed his mistake, alleging that all prophets were tempted by Satan who inspire them with demonic verses, as if they were actually revealed by God. But later on Allah abrogated those Satanic Verses with new revelations and instructs his prophets with new verses. According to Islam, Allah permits such demonic inspiration to test weak believers and to cut off those with hardened hearts.
Never did We send a messenger or a prophet before thee, but, when he framed a desire, Satan threw some (vanity) into his desire: but Allah will cancel anything (vain) that Satan throws in, and Allah will confirm (and establish) His Signs: for Allah is full of Knowledge and Wisdom:
That He may make the suggestions thrown in by Satan, but a trial for those in whose hearts is a disease and who are hardened of heart: verily the wrong-doers are in a schism far (from the Truth): Hajj (Pilgrimage) 22:52-53. Yusuf ‘Ali’s translation
The true, vital issue about the Satanic verses is this. If Muhammad were unable to distinguish Satan’s voice from God’s voice, then could there be verses in the Qur’an that Muhammad assumed were from God but were really from Satan? Maybe much of the Qur’an is Satanic in origin, in spite of Muhammad’s conviction that it was entirely from Allah
Sorry….wrong blog
I see Jeremy Corbyn was there as well, making a speech. That guy is in Trafalgar Square so often I’m amazed he’s not charged ground rent.
What idiots the BBC are….
The ship was scuttled in December 1939 to stop it falling into enemy hands.
Why can’t they say “British hands” ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4702832.stm
Archduke
CENTCOM have contacted hundreds of blogs and many of us now carry a badge and link to their daily newsletter. We also have it on the regimental website so the lads and their families can get updates. Thye get it – why can’t the BBC?
Jeremy Corbyn..
“We demand that people show respect for each other’s community, each other’s faith and each other’s religion.”
DEMAND?
Call me old fashioned, but I was always taught that you had to EARN respect.
personally I find the BBC quite fair the majority of the time.
A commenter on “have your say” hits the nail on the head:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&edition=1&ttl=20060211172901&messageID=408700񣱼
“The only difference between this rally and the one eight days ago will be the writing on the placards. The object of both rallies is the same – that free speech is not acceptable to them.
The genuinely moderate muslims are the ones that are still at home or at work, leading normal lives and despairing that their religion is being shown as violent and intolerant by activists.”
indeed.
which is why the BBCs portrayal of the crowd of religous fanatics today as “moderate” is utterly ridiculous.
Another curious omission: Sarah Rainsford manages to write a 750-word analysis of the popular new Turkish film, Valley of Wolves, Iraq, without once mentioning its explicit anti-semitism.
Maybe neglecting to note that Gary Busey plays an American Jewish doctor was an oversight, but the BBC seems to overlook cases of Muslim bigotry quite a bit!
mick -> thanks for pointing that “demand” quote out.
Plumbers?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4700492.stm
Rob. yes. more plumbers over here as well..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4199146.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4700482.stm
So there we have it. From 100,000 then to tens of thousands to thousands.
Strictly speaking 4001 is thousands.
Of course the headline should read “Less than 5000 turn out for ‘moderate’ muslim march”
Remember the sneering and denigration from the BBC vermin when over half a million people turned out for the Countryside Alliance march.
“Less than 5000 turn out for ‘moderate’ muslim march”
No FEWER than 5000
Sarah Rainsford manages to write a 750-word analysis of the popular new Turkish film, Valley of Wolves, Iraq, without once mentioning its explicit anti-semitism.
How do you notice what you’ve become inured to ?
“Was this because he has not seen these fake cartoons?”
he’s obviously not seen them.
mr dimblebey is usually extremely quick to prevent litigation against the BBC when callers make libellous statements and such like.
Yes, Archduke, if he had seen the fake cartoon no doubt he would have mentioned how it violated the new Animal Welfare Bill, and Margaret Beckett’s codes of conduct for pet owners. The Bill increases the time in which a prosecutor can bring a case from six months to three years.
personally I find the BBC quite fair the majority of the time.
jamal | Homepage | 11.02.06 – 5:39 pm | #
Restrict your viewing to the Weather Forecast do you ?
The BBC’s web coverage of the pro-censorship march has been okay and the demo seemed dignified and good-natured. But the turn-out suggests that the ‘outrage’ in the Muslim community is not as intense or as far-reaching as their leaders would have us know. I find that deeply reassuring.
TAoL,
Or the “leaders” the BBC gives publicity to don’t have much of a following?
i find the BBC portrayal of them as “moderates” and “mainstream” galling. they’re extremists. whereas the lot that turned up last week were just even more extreme lunatic cultists.
Jeremy Corbyn MP turned up today – ex-militant Labour. says it all really.
Moral Maze – last week the cartoons, tonight (R4) , its the Iranian nuke crisis.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/moralmaze.shtml
I’m getting the feeling the Mr Buerk “gets it”.
should be interesting though – Melanie Philips and Portillo are two of the panellists.
Or that, Rob.
The BBC should print this picture…EU Refurendum blog did.
Not suitable for Muslim readers.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4640/388/1600/Muslim%20humour%207.jpg
thats taking eureferendum out of context.
the blogpost also has the hitler/ann frank cartoon, and sometime to do with the virgin mary and urinals, and baby moses cartoon.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/02/lighten-up.html
Sorry Archduke, I should have said, not suitable for fundamentalist religious readers of any faith (peace be upon them all).
Watching the hiz-but-tahir footage of (Muslim convert)Yvonne Ridleys speech today at the demonstration has made me feel quite ill.
“It’s difficult to explain but….(it’s everyone elses fault basically).”
The woman is a traitor.
I’ve just got to the end of the video where she says.
“If you really want a war with Islam Mr Blair…bring it on!”
Cries of allah akbar in response.
“I have another warning to Mr Blair…drag us into another illegal war, and we won’t march…we’ll riot.”
Cries of allah akbar in response.
The ship was scuttled in December 1939 to stop it falling into enemy hands.
Why can’t they say “British hands” ?
I saw that too. Absolutely no mention of the British other than some vague remark about ‘diplomatic pressure’ – morons.
I notice that the BBC ‘Timeline’ for the cartoon war still has no mention of the Danish imams mission abroad, or the fake cartoons.
OT: well, it had to happen sooner or later:
http://www.mohammeddance.com/
The ship was scuttled in December 1939 to stop it falling into enemy hands.
Why can’t they say “British hands” ?
Maybe the BBC meant exactly what they said. :0/
Just spent 40 mins on 08700 100 222 trying to explain to a beeboid the significance of the fact that the cartoons were printed in Egypt in Oct 2005 (as mentioned on their webxite) and caused no fuss at that time.
He steadfastly refused to believe that that episode means that the recent demos were acts of hypocrisy and that the News Reports should allude to this.
Asked him to get someone to write a letter explaining why I am wrong but apparently, for this topic only, the beeb will only respond to letters and not to calls.
He promised to book my comments on the daily log.
I suggested that the beeb researchers make a point of keeping in touch with blogs so that they will know the facts in future.
They should make Paul Reynolds personal blogwatching official beeb policy.
Finally, I am annoyed that I am trying to be helpful (yes, really) to the beeb and they are charging me a premium rate for the call.
gordon-bennett,
Start a blog, put up a tip-jar, and solicit for donations to fund your phone-calls.
I donate the TV-tax I’m supposed to be paying to good causes.
Everyone else should too.
Check it out, at Laban’s place, the smiler who forgot to look solemn for the “protest” remarking the death of the 100th British soldier killed in Iraq:
http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2006/02/for-gods-sake-dont-forget-to-look-as.html
So true.
Rob:
I have been contemplating setting up a blog for sometime now. I think I have a good idea for the theme and I certainly need a safety valve for the genuine anger the beeb generates in me.
For example, part of the reason why they defended not mentioning the publication in Egypt was that it wasn’t current news.
What do they think is current and should be reported?
Main item tonight is Gordon Brown to make a speech on Monday – 2 days into the future.
I realise that it’s all part of cancelling out the (rather mild) rebuke they had been forced to hand out because of the by-election.
Never was the term Brown nosing more appropriate.
Hey, folks! It’s Compare and Contrast Time again!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4705342.stm
with
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4654110.stm
(“calling themselves committed Christians”)
Note that in the second piece, the artist is given column-space to defend his creation.
No such space is given to any dissenting voices in the first piece, of course.
“Main item tonight is Gordon Brown to make a speech on Monday – 2 days into the future.”
That was the main item on the News webpage last night too.
It must be a tremendously important speech. I hope the BBC hasn’t been spooked by Thursday’s by-election result and is trying to big up the quisling-to-be.
I see the BBC is pushing the latest story of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi .
What I find intriguing is that this story is from the News of the World and as of 22.24 hours on Sat night. The NOW site hasn’t got it up.
So while it’s Ok for the BBC to hide the real idiots in any story.
Calling them moderate, thugs even plumbers.
The BBC has no problem pushing out a story condemning the people who are defending them even before the world exclusive from the N.O.W
The story is 2 years old and no doubt some squaddie will get hurt from an attack because some idiot feels he has to get his own back.
While I have no problem with the BBC reporting any ill doing by a British squaddie.
(Hey as I’ve said before 22 years service under my belt)
I’d appreciate if they would expose the idiots who we can’t name.
http://www.freecopts.blogspot.com/
Check it out, the kind of “literature” that is on display at the Cairo book fair.
Will the Beeb report on this?
Does a chicken have lips?
“For example, part of the reason why they defended not mentioning the publication in Egypt was that it wasn’t current news.”
how about
“its been revealed to bbc that the cartoons were published way back in october, in an Egyptian newspaper..
our correspondent in Cairo… blah blah”
but that’ll never happen , because
a) people will ask – why the hell do have bbc arabic so, if you arent keeping track of this stuff?
b) no.10 doesnt want to embarass the egyptians. war on terror. contact to hamas. they keep a lid on their islamists…yadda yadda yadda.
“independent” bbc? ha ha…
Q&A: The Muhammad cartoons row
Cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in several European newspapers have caused outrage among some Muslims. The BBC News web site looks at the key questions behind the row.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4677976.stm
3 Questions not asked or answered:
1) Why did the BBC not publish them?
2) If Islam prohibits pictures of Mohammed then why were the most offensive cartoons created and distributed by Muslim Clerics.
3) Why aren’t the Muslims who actually created these cartoons getting any of the blame?
Here we go again with a headline from BBC’s News Online: “Prayer and Protest – Dignified Muslims make their anger felt in the heart of London”
Why the ‘dignified’? Why the need to editorialise in what should have been a quite straightforward, factual, news headline? Why do we need some BBC news hack’s opinion on the nature of the demonstration?
You can almost smell the cultural cringe.
in the beeboid world, they are “dignified” because they didnt ask for anyones heads to be cut off nor did they run around in suicide bomber outfits.
my , arent we grateful for that.
still doesnt get away from the fact that they want to impose an aspect of fundementalist sharia law on the UK.
The ship was scuttled in December 1939 to stop it falling into enemy hands.
Why can’t they say “British hands
It’s worse than you think. The Graf Spee was scuttled, at least in part, because of BBC reports that the battleship Renown and the Ark Royal were waiting to pounce on them once they left port. Who could imagine this hapening today ?
O/T
Instead of commenting on the present state of the “4th World War” I thought it was time for a joke. This was told to Margaret Thatcher by Ronald Reagan. Its subtext is obvious.
A man arrives at an isolated farmhouse following the breakdown of his car further down the road. The farmer was very kind and understanding, so invited the man inside to share a meal with his wife and family.
Just before the meal began the man looked up and noticed an old one legged pig, sporting two gold stars around its neck, sitting opposite him. The man turned to the farmer and asked.”why do you have this old one legged pig dining at your table?”
The farmer replies saying.
” Well just about 2 year ago our little boy Jack fell into the lake and this here magnificent animal, draged him out all by himself. Then last year the farm house was set alight and this highly inteligent wonderfull creature ran all the way to the fire station and summoned the fire Brigade,and saved the whole farm.”
The man was very impressed and said.
“Well that is a truly amazing story, and explanes why you have him at the table and the two Gold stars. But Why does he now,only have 3 legs?”
The farmer smiles and said.
“With a pig as usefull as that you dont want to be eating him all at once.”
On the subject of the 4th World War.
Much to the loss of the BBCs inflated ego,it does not matter an expired TV licence, what the BBC says or does anymore.
The enemy hate and distrust them as much as we do. If the revolution comes they will all be the first to lose their heads.
Appeasement has never ultimately worked, anytime during the whole of human history. However it would be nice for my blood presure if the BBC could work this out before I have to start learning Arabic and praying 5 times a day.
Is the BBC still of the opinion that this will all just “blow over” if they just order it to? Are their egos still that inflated? This is the “savage dog” story that still has lotts of bite.
On the subject of “tales wagging dogs”. The fat heads at the BBC believe that they are running the country, not Tony Blair or the Labour Party. Now I think it is clear why they hate the prospect of a Conservative goverment so much. I think also that it is good for all of us, that this situation does not now ever change.
gordon-bennett
So the BBC defends its decision not to publish details of the appearance of the cartoons in Egypt because it was ‘yesterdays news’
Well they’re very quick off the mark with this story, printed in one of today’s Sunday papers of allegations of assault by British troops in Iraq.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4705482.stm
Of course this is alleged to have happened two years ago (very much yesteryear’s news).
Funny though that they haven’t captured this one from today’s Sunday Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2036533,00.html
YouGov Poll shows Brits pretty pissed off with Muslim antics in the UK.
Biased BBC?
here’a real howler about Valley of the Wolves.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4700154.stm
“And for the first time, the real-life abuses by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison are played out on the big screen.”
and
“Even the doctor – played by Gary Busey – is evil, removing human organs from Iraqi prisoners to send to patients in the US, Israel and Britain”
Is he not portrayed as a JEW in the film?
if so mention of it in BBC adulations.