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“Any Questions and Any Answers seems to inhabit a parallel universe, full of cringing amd fawning Guardianistas and Stop the War members, with the incredibly naive liberalista Jonathan Dimbleby running the show.”
it was indeed staggering listening to it. absolutely NOBODY raised the point that wearing a veil implies a kind of [deleted] i love Osama bin Laden” statement.
its as bad as walking down the street in an S.S. uniform.
in fact – *I* am highly offended anytime i see a burqa clad IslamoNazi.
I think back to my relatives who fought in WW1 and WW2 for freedom and liberty, only for the same old Jew-hating fascist crap to turn up in Britain in 2006.
Edited By Siteowner
has the bbc gone mad
i posted come on england on the five live message board. and they deleted my post.
do the bbc hate football or england
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbfivelive/F2148564?thread=3548887
Mark is right. The Blogosphere is the only hope for the victims of barbaric killing and torture in countries like Iran. The MSM and especially teh BBc has done its utmost NOT to report this and other stories that may offend teh practioners of Shria Law.
Above Mark writes:
Several women are set to be stoned to death in Iran shortly. Details on the latest cases are here:
“Once again, another Iranian woman has been sentenced to death by the barbaric practice of public stoning. On June 28, 2006, a court in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmia sentenced Malak Ghorbany to death for committing “adultery.”
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/005970.htm
Here is a confirmation by Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadii – that stoning continues
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1395803.htm
I agree with Mark we need to see the blogsphere do a blogswarm to highlight this Muslim torture.
SO ASK YOURSELF Why is the story of the stoning to death of women in Iran and other Islamic countries governed by Sharia law … many times in front of their own children NEVER been highlighted by the BBC?
The BBC occasionally touches on this issue but usually it does so to DEFEND the goverment of the Islamic dictatorship of Iran and elsewhere as it has
HERE
Iran denies execution by stoning – 11 January,2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4166137.stm
HERE
Iran stops stoning of women adulterers – 27 December, 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2609597.stm
In a report being blatantly and knowingly WHITEWASHED IRAN MULLAHS (look at the date it was written – many have been stoned since) by Jim Muir – he most recently remembered as the Hezbollah media front man in Sidon.
HERE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/ihavearightto/four_b/casestudy_art07.shtml
This is a propaganda piece written by the BBC in SUPPORT of SHARIA LAW.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/621126.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/ihavearightto/four_b/casestudy_art07.shtml
Why is the BBC being allowed to get away with not reporting this story? Especially at a time when Khatami is going to be making a State visit to Britain???
Khatami the man the BBc passes off as the acceptable face of Islamic Iran has never rejected stoning and in fact supports it
http://www.iran-e-azad.org/stoning/khatami.html
Natalie Solent – where are you?
Racist murder of 15-year-old Kriss Donald covered in detail by The Scotsman:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1478452006
Al-Beeb?
I should have also included this link for those who want to verify that the BBC rarely reports the practice of stoning in Iran.
There are few references some 222 (many repeated) in relation to stoning in Iran. Where it is reported the bulk of the stories are are either efforts by the BBC to Whitewash the Iranian government OR references to Stoning of the Pillars in Mecca and other unconnected stories. In fact I could not find ONE clear cut story or editorial on the BBC condemning this practice by teh Iranian government.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=stoning+Iran+site:bbc.co.uk&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&as_qdr=all&start=10&sa=N
Now contrast this with a search on Death Penalty USA which yields 1100 articles most highly condemnatory of the US government. I stopped counting at 50 …
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=%22death+penalty%22+USA++site%3Abbc.co.uk&meta=
THE BBC SUPPORTING DEATH BY SHARIA LAW. ITS WHAT WE DO
George: I do not know about England, but their coverage of the World Cup this year was so bad that I ended up watching most of the Italy matches with the sound off. The contempt shown for the Italians, who eventually won the Cup, amounted to racism, and made all the commentators – who include several former players – say genuine enormities. Someone implied that Italy routinely purchased referees in international tourneaments (look what happened to Italy, and to Spain as well, in 2002, and see who really does the purchasing) to the following comment, after Italy had attacked without rest for a whole half during Ukraine-Italy: “They are very good, the Italians, at sitting back in their own half and drawing the opposition in.” Then, after Italy continued with the attacks and crushed the Ukraine, they pretended that the second half had seen a major improvement in the Italian performance – which was nonsense. Then there was the match in which they sneered at Ronaldo’s physical condition and laughed at Felipe Scolari’s comment that “even if he is only sixty per cent, you have to play Ronaldo, because he is the kind of player who can resolve a whole game for you.” They only stopped sneering when Ronaldo had hammered a second goal home, winning that particular game for Brazil and earning himself the title of highest scoring Brazilian player in the world cup. In short, the comment was repeatedly abysmal. If this is the level of understanding of soccer in the country where it was invented, God help England.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5415252.stm
A report on the UKIP party conference. They include a link to a Have Your Say, and quote one Gordon saying that he thinks more people will vote BNP. Gordon’s full comment is even more hostile and has racked up a full 6 recommendations. Meanwhile, the 17 most recommended comments, attracting from 15 to over 40 recommendations are all sympathetic to UKIP.
George,
I’m not surprised, but I find it weird that they would go to the trouble of posting the following message in place of your comment:
This posting has been temporarily hidden, because a member of our Moderation Team has referred it to the Hosts for a decision as to whether it contravenes the House rules in some way. We will do everything we can to ensure that a decision is made as quickly as possible.
I mean, the deletion of one comment is not a life and death issue. They probably had a radical Muslim on duty in the studio with his finger hovering over the “delete” key and someone who hasn’t been dhimmified saw him delete your comment and complained about him. Now the Muslim is threatening to blow up the studio if your comment makes it back on the board.
They recently described the performance of a batsman for Pakistan as “sublime.” And during the Soccer World Cup they were far more interested in teams like Trinidad and Tobago and Ghana than in the England team.
If BBC sports journalists insist on being all multiculti and going out of their way to prove that they show no favouritism towards the England side I suppose people just have to grin and bear it. But when they put their own country down in favour of others that’s a different matter altogether.
The BBC’s subversive nature even infects its sports reporting.
In a piece entitled “Bomber attacks “model” Iraqi City” Al-BBC barely suppress their gloating over another terrorist attack in Iraq. The following lines show the spin with which al-bbc are determined to portray the war in Iraq as nothing but an unmitigated disaster..
“A suicide attacker using a bomb-laden lorry has killed 14 people at an Iraqi army checkpoint in the city of Tal Afar, a medical source told the BBC.
Four soldiers and 10 civilians died in the blast in the northern city which US President George W Bush held up as a model in a speech in March.
The renewed violence comes as it appears the US may be considering a major change in policy on Iraq.
Reports of a change came after a visit to Iraq by a senior Republican senator.
Tal Afar, to the west of Mosul, was supposed to be a showcase for American-led efforts to pacify Iraq, the BBC’s Jim Muir reports from Baghdad ”
The sneering at President Bush drips from every line and is ttypical of Muir’s leftist drone. Surprisingly I don’t recall Al-Beeb refering to the London suicide bombings as “Bombers Attack Livingstone’s Multicultural “Model” City” or that “Londonistan was supposed to be a showcase for the Left’s efforts to create a “multicultural paradise”.
One is left with the distinct feeling that Al-beeb’s leftist/islamist hacks are actually wishing for Iraq to sink into more misery just so they can file more bigotted reports like this one. They really are disgusting.
Eamonn/Archduke – the only good news about the ‘parallel universe’ that Radio 4 Any Questions & Any Answers inhabit is that less and less people are bothering to tune in to commentary that is so out of touch:
“BBC Radio 4 has 9.19 million listeners – slightly down on the quarter (9.29m) and down on the year (9.59m).
The station’s share, at 10.7%, is also down on the year (11.2%) and the quarter (11.7%).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/08_august/03/rajar.shtml
Radio 4 has transformed itself from a mainstream voice of ‘middle England’ broadcaster, to a niche station catering for a variety of minority left wing campaign groups.
I know that we have pointed this out before but its worth point out that teh article that Terry Johnson referes to was written by HEZBOLLAH MUIR
“So what about Hezbollah? Were they any better able to control what reporters can and cannot see? Jim Muir – our correspondent who has just spent the last month based in Southern Lebanon – says…
“There have basically been no restrictions on reporting as such – there’s been no pressure in any direction with regard to anything we actually say, indeed very little interaction of any sort. There was however an issue at the beginning of the conflict over the live broadcast of pictures of rockets going out from locations visible from our live camera position. We were visited by Hezbollah representatives and told that by showing the exact location of firing we were endangering civilian lives, and that our equipment would be confiscated.”
Editors in London discussed both how we should handle both this request, and the Israel rules, in terms of what we said on air.
We agreed that rather than begin each broadcast with a ‘health warning’ to audiences, we would only refer to it if it was relevant. If rockets started to go off while were live on air, we would not show the exact location but would tell the audience that we had been asked by Hezbollah not to; on the grounds they claimed it endangered civilian lives.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/lilianelandor.html
Fabio,
Yes, from the few games I watched the standard of BBC commentary was really pathetic. I was amazed when England scored once and the commentator (with a broad English accent) didn’t even miss a beat and expressed no excitement at the goal.
I’ve got no doubt he was backing the other side. But he didn’t have to make it so bloody obvious.
Unveiling Somalia’s Islamists
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5381826.stm
Shouldn’t that be ‘Unmasking Somalia’s Islamists’?
Whoops, I forgot that only those with sinister intent are ‘unmasked’, like the jew Kissinger. Islamic fascists, the RoP are peaceful and are (somewhat ironically) ‘unveiled’. Go figure.
Robin Hood:
bad guy: ‘We’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Pope Gregory’
– in his holy war
They just can’t leave it alone can they?
Jules.
“Hold on a minute. First, I never said anything about people who live abroad not having the right to comment on or criticise the BBC.”
I hope that this applies to all the people participating in this blog.
This is not about the licence fee but the overall BBC output including BBC World TV and BBC world service radio.
Besides, all Europeans pay for BBC in one way or another.
However, for my part I would like to say that I pay licence fee for my public broadcaster because the fate of local culture is important and the commercial broadcasters would not care about local culture.
Yes,
One unmasks a shadowy burglar or an evil intention but one unveils a new statue or a plan for a new project. The former is sinister while the latter is neutral with positive overtones.
Reith and company would scoff at the suggestion that there is any conscious bias here but the BBC excels at exactly this type of subtle and not-so-subtle insinuation.
What happened to the “so-called war on terror”
“Gordon Brown has said long-term success in the war on terror will require victory in the “battle of ideas”. ”
Notice also that “battle of ideas” is in quotes but “war on terror” is not.
And what was all this about.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/10/why_the_socalled_war_on_terror.html
Sorry forgot to give the link to the Gorden Brown piece.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5416268.stm
All down the Pub are we ??
Alternatively, I’ll bet your all glued to ‘Strictly Come Dancing’? Naah, didn’t think so, your all too smart for this Beeb prime time ‘mind chewing gum’.
BTW, all the commentators on the NEEEW PC BBC Robin Hood series were right on the button, it is absolute drivel. It should be a career ‘ender’ for those involved given the money (yours & mine) and resources expended (wasted) but they’ll probably get promoted.
It’s not bias any more, its called ‘taking the piss!!’
Mr Akbar Ali, said, “He’s (Jack Straw) a responsible member of the government and is in a constituency with a large number of Muslims – he should have known better than make such a statement.”
Jack Straw is not known for speaking spontaneously. Both must/should have given considerable thought to how the most indirect, weak, obscure comment against Islam is taken as a full-frontal attack.
So why did he make it? Why did he say it in the way he did? Is there more to this story than we think?
Ritter:
Unveiling? Shouldn’t that be ‘Unmasking Somalia’s Islamists’?
A subtle tie-in with the Jack Straw thread? 🙂
Its revealing “unmasking” that the BBC is very concerned about defending homosexuals when they are HERE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5416220.stm
But doesnt give a DAMN about their rights when they are HERE
http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2005/07/report_gay_yout.html
Lets see what explanation Reith, Gareth and the rest of the Al Beeb have for this. Another case of “unmasking” Al Beeb
Lets see what explanation Reith, Gareth and the rest of the Al Beeb have for this.
they won’t have one ,so you won’t get one.
The BBC gleefully shows all of the destruction in Iraq caused by whoever is doing it – many disparate groups perhaps, but unquestionably all muslim. But surely all of this terror demonstrates that islam is savage and totally incompatible with the west? So the BBC undermines its message at home (islam is peace) with what it shows from Iraq.
For many, the penny is dropping, thanks inadvertently to the BBC.
How the BBC reports on a racist Murder in the UK;
Kriss accused ‘not the culprits’
A man convicted of the murder of Glasgow teen Kriss Donald has refused to give evidence at the trial of three other men accused of the killing. Former shopkeeper Daanish Zahid, 22, said his life would be in danger if he talked about the events of March 2004.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/5413510.stm
Here’s how the BBC sees that awful disgusting crime;
“Imran Shahid, 29, his brother Zeeshan Shahid, 28, and Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, deny the murder, which, it is alleged, was racially motivated.
Did you see that descriptive piece from the BBC? Here let me repeat it;
“deny the murder, which, it is alleged, was racially motivated.”
A white child is kidnapped in broad daylight by four coloured adult men; he is beaten, thrown in the boot of a stolen car. (What does that say BBC) He is beaten again, he is stabbed numerous times and then he has petrol poured over him and then he is set alight while still alive. And the BBC says it may have been racially motivated.
Yet a Muslim women says she had her Hijab ripped off her face in Liverpool (I still think it was a set up in which to pressure Jack Straw to resign and thus claim another scalp and thus silence free speech in the Uk) and the BBC has no problem stating it was an racist hate crime.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/5415478.stm
Tell me again somebody that the BBC isn’t biased.
“They may be low in the polls, but this lot certainly know how to enjoy themselves.”
“this lot” is that anyway to talk about a political party?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5416848.stm
Oh I see “this lot” don’t like Europe do they?
pounce,
If John Reith pops in here he’ll point out that the BBC is justified in using the word “alleged” because the trial is not over.
He would also be correct in pointing out that the BBC was simply reporting what the police have said.
But these, of course, will be half-truths since the BBC develops a strange eagerness to give us all the facts when a Muslim is the “victim”, even pointing out that the “attacker” is “described as white.”
The police have become paralysed by political correctness. And the BBC is only too happy to play along.
Pounce,
I’d not even heard about this disgusting murder until today. Why not? A young lad was brutally murdered in Liverpool and the item ran for weeks and weeks.
This lad was burned alive in a racist attack and it doesn’t even get a mention.
Did Al-BBC mention this yet ?
From the Sun…..”MUSLIM yobs who wrecked a house to stop four brave soldiers moving in after returning from Afghanistan sparked outrage last night.
The house in a village near riot-torn Windsor had BRICKS thrown through windows and was DAUBED with messages of hate.
Four young Household Cavalry officers who had planned to rent it were also the target of phone THREATS.
They were yesterday forced to look elsewhere to live — after top brass warned them against inflaming racial violence near the Queen’s Windsor Castle home….
Louts struck two days after the four arrived in uniform in an Army Land Rover to view it.
The source said: “A gang of local Muslims set about keeping them away. They hurled bricks through the windows and then wrote offensive graffiti across the front of the house.” The vile messages included one in 4ft letters on the drive — warning: “F*** off”.
Sources inside Windsor’s Combermere Barracks — where the officers are based — confirmed Muslims had made calls threatening the men.”
Heaven and Earth BBC 10:00am; another Biased debate on Islam, faith schools and the hijab from the BBC. Three guests; one the minister for race and faith; supports Jack Straw; one memember of MCB (against Jack Straw) and one die hard commie (against Jack Staw) but wants to make all schools state schools.
Oh yeah and the same program, “Heaven and Earth” ended the report on the Amish community mentioning an America which “which has suffered alot from school shootings” and which “can learn a alot more from the Amish way of life”
Just imagine them ending this report with some contrast with Islam and the jihad apologists. Would it be too much to dream that the BBC would exhort that islamists “can learn a alot more from the Amish way of life”???
terry johnson mentioned this story earlier:
In a piece entitled “Bomber attacks “model” Iraqi City” Al-BBC barely suppress their gloating over another terrorist attack in Iraq.
Just the headline alone is offensive. It sounds like the journalist was rubbing his hands together in glee as he included the word ‘model’. Never mind the 14 dead Iraqi’s, can’t let them get in the way of a good anti US headline.
When you consider that this is the first bombing in Tal Afar for 8 months I think most Iraqi’s would still consider it to be a “model” city.
More pathetic reporting from you know who!
Grimer,
I’m not sure of this, but I believe that murder was discussed on BBC TV. It could have been the one that was explained away as not receiving the attention it warranted because “it happened over the weekend.”
Pathetic and disgusting excuse from the BBC.
Maybe John Reith would like to explain the partisan attitude of the BBC towards these horrific crimes.
But I recall that when he finally got around to answering one of your queries, the only comment he had was “Interesting.”
Oh hell, I’ve just realised what the time is. Now I have to rush to work to pay for this internet time.
Re: The Beeb’s “reporting” on the Kriss Donald murder.
The Beeb is so disgusting– when are they going to formally change their name to the “Islamic Broadcast Company?”
I don’t understand why the indigenous British people aren’t rioting in the street to get rid of this disgusting Fifth Columnist propaganda outlet.
Another classic performance from the DHYS team. There’s a DHYS on the Lord Chief Justice proposing to solve the prison overcrowding problem by sentencing fewer people to prison.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=4154&edition=1&ttl=20061008122233&#paginat
At present there are 45 comments, 1 of which supports the Lord Chief Justice and 43 of which support building more prisons (or clearing space by executing a few people.) There is also a second comment which doesn’t call for more prison, which says :
Let’s face it, prison is an easy option for criminals anyway. I’d like to know how harsh the alternative to prison will be because at the moment what the message seems to be is that crime pays.
Jenny, Herts Uk
In context this is a demand for harsher punishment – ie it questions the current use of prison on the grounds of prison being too soft. But if you truncate the comment to just its first sentence, you can just about wedge it into the liberal meme of community sentences being no walk in the park, and jolly tough. And that’s what the Beeboids have selected as the tickertape headline on the main DHYS page :
“Let’s face it prison’s an easy option for criminals anyway” – Jen, Herts
Rather than any of the other 43 comments saying build more prisons.
(I bet Jenny would strangle anyone who called her Jen, too.)
In an excess of impartiality the BBC brings on to “Broadcasting House” this morning Richard Bacon, the Tory MP, to comment on the Jack Straw kerfuffle. (The BH discussion was marked by extraordinary sensitivity – mentions of PC Basha and Muslim (non)taxi drivers must have lasted all of 5 seconds.) Where is Bacon’s constituency? Norfolk South which, when I last looked, was not a major centre of Muslim settlement in England. Nevertheless, in the 2001 Census it was discovered that as many as 0.2% of the population of Norfolk South was Muslim – wow! http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/33UH-A.asp Bacon tells us that his constituents are not concerned about this (veils and Muslim separateness) at all. The man’s an idiot: of course they don’t bring this up in his constituency surgeries for the same reason I don’t speak to my MP about stubble burning in Norfolk: it’s not a local issue and he can’t do anything about it! Why was the MP for Windsor – Adam Afriyie – not invited to contribute? Bacon had little to say beyond “none of my constituents is concerned”. Do you suppose that the BBC suspected he might say just that?
The BBC and how it hides it pro Islamic stance;
South Asia quake victims honoured
People in South Asia have been marking the first anniversary of a devastating earthquake which killed 75,000 people.
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf led a wreath-laying ceremony at the time the 7.6-magnitude tremor struck, followed by a minute’s silence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4801513.stm
South Asia BBC?
The whole article as does this;
In pictures: South Asia quake memorial
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4802013.stm
South Asia earthquake: One year on
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5392908.stm
Are if read are articles about Pakistan?
So why does the BBC push these stories as South Asian. When nothing at all is mentioned about Afghanistan, India etc…
Way back in this thread I asked for responses to why Jack Straw spoke as he did. No one responded. However, Melanie Phillips does deal with the question on her site A man of straw no more?
I’d still like to read some responses from the b-bbc crowd.
Deegee at first I wondered if Straw was giving up politics at the next election so at last found the b*lls to say what he thought. However to me it now appears to me more planned than that. My guess is that the Labour party polling machinery has picked up the anger that exists in the country on this subject and decided to do something. However in true Nu-Lab style they aren’t doing anything as such but just talking about it and hoping that will do the job.
While on this subject did anyone listen to the “News Quiz” on Radio 4 last Friday ? There was a question about Jack Straw and veils giving Jeremy Hardy the opportunity to launch into a strange and very unfunny routine about Jack Straw does this because he thinks he is a ladies man etc etc. However Hardy said all of this with hardly any enthusiasm and I got the feeling he was simply pumping out the current RESPECT party line on this which even he was having trouble squaring in his own mind. The other odd thing was that after Hardy had finnished the show was edited very crudely. So either Hardy carried on or someone else said something that didn’t match the party line.
BBC so-called ‘entertainment news’. Something huge has happened to knock this story off the top spot
BBC defends Norton drug comments
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5416220.stm
Can you guess what? It’s this story:
Robin Hood debut watched by 8.2m
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4801879.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/default.stm
Can BBC so-called ‘journalists’ differentiate between ‘news’ and ‘advertisements’? Evidently not.
1327 “My guess is that the Labour party polling machinery has picked up the anger that exists in the country on this subject and decided to do something.”
Allied to that, it was noticable that in his first interview after the last general election, Blair stated the need to address immigration. That was obviously the topic that had been the most raised on the doorsteps of Labour constituencies.
As 1327 rightly notes, that doesn’t mean any action actually occurs.
Will – Exactly but sometimes these little nu-lab all noise and no action campaigns can have unplanned consequences. I’m sure everyone remembers the various rip-off Britain campaigns from the early days of Blair rule. Usually an industry or service would be selected (always one that wasn’t paying into the Labour party coffers) and we would get Ministers shouting about how what they did to the British public was a rip-off with the BBC lapping it all up and adding further encouragement. Of course nothing was actually done but it all backfired when the British public realised that fuel prices were a rip-off leading to the fuel crisis. This I always thought was the closest we ever got to getting rid of Blair but oddly seems to have been erased from the BBC’s collective memory.
Finally it has happened. Exactly what I’ve been waiting for…
Al Beeb provides us with a guide to the different styles of muslim veils and headscarves:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5411954.stm
More specifically: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/europe_muslim_veils_and_headscarves/html/1.stm
Can you spell “rubbish”, Beeboids?
P.S.: Any news who’s winning the local elections in Belgium? Couldn’t find anything on the Al Beeb website.
deegee
I smelled a rat as soon as I heard Jack Straw’s comments. About a third of his constituents are muslims and he previously went out of his way to defend the government’s then propsals to outlaw poking a stick at religions (thankfully dropped since). He’s a man who’ll do anything for a vote, he’ll dhimmify himself, turn up at events draped in ethnic clothing and discard left wing sensibilities too.
His original statement (IIRC) about requesting that female muslims show their faces in his surgeries appeared out of the blue in a newspaper article of his. He then followed it up by saying he opposed the shrouding of women in islam. These comments of his sparked the issue off, he wasn’t jumping into an ongoing debate. So why?
I can only imagine that Labour has figured out which way the wind is blowing and is trimming the sails accordingly. We know that Labour under Blair are slaves to opinion polls and (even if they have no intention of implementing policy) always want to appear with public opinion. Over time I’ve detected a change in people’s attitudes too. At first I wondered if I was imagining it but the damn is about to blow in my opinion. Where islam is concerned, fewer and fewer are giving a damn about appearing racist anymore. What convinced me of the change was seeing friends of mine, London liberals, begin to criticise islam and muslims (and what a joy to see the looks on their faces as they did so!)
Anyway, I was in a pub in London last night with a bunch of peopple, mainly liberals. The conversation flowed as it does and at a certain point I jumped in with: “For 20 years I’ve been islamophobic. For 20 years I’ve been called a racist for it. Now even Jack Straw and others are saying those same things, am I still a racist? Come on you liberal swine, are my views still verboten?”
Talk about lighting the touchpaper. Whilst no-one answered me directly, I sat back for the next 30 minutes to listen to a bunch of Guardianistas tear isalm to pieces. What an absolute hoot! If The BNP were in attendace the comments wouldn’t have been any more damning. These are died in the wool liberals, feminists, anti-US, pro-immigration liberalistas and they sat in a pub declaring utter hostility not to certain, individual muslims but to to whole belief system.
If anyone had pointed a smugometer in my direction the needle would have shot off the scale.
The Church of England says that drive for multi faith Britain deepens rifts:
Original Sunday Telegraph article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/08/nfaith08.xml
BBC version:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4801605.stm
Pete_London,
I had an argument a couple of years ago in the pub in which I stated that I found the Burka offensive. I raised the issue of whether they should be allowed in banks, etc (seeing as crash helmets aren’t).
My friends turned on me and informed me I was a ‘racist’ and espousing ‘BNP views’.
How times have changed.
I brought it up again yesterday and people’s opinions have changed somewhat. But my friend did say she thought that Jack Straw was stupid for raising the issue ‘now’. I asked what she meant, and she clarrified that ‘with people blowing themselves up on the tube, this isn’t going to help’.
If people are going to blow themselves up, just because Jack Straw suggests that the Burka might be a barrier to integration, what does that say about our Muslim friends (and the views of ‘liberals’ towards Islam)?
Look! No Quotation Marks!
Prescott backs right to wear veil!
Of course Straw didn’t actually say they don’t have a right to wear a veil…