Last week, BBC Views Online, reporting on the case of Molly Campbell/Misbah Rana, told us Misbah’s mother in custody offer, including the following quotes from Misbah at a press conference in Pakistan:
However, Misbah said she wishes to have nothing to do with her mother.
The girl said: “They say I have been abducted.
“This is not true. I am living with my father and I don’t want to go to Britain.”
Asked whether she would meet with her mother if she came to Pakistan, the girl said: “I don’t want to see her.”
She added: “I have my rights where I want to live and rights who I want to live with.”
BBC Views Online also has a video clip of the press conference on the same page, where they invite us to Watch Misbah’s comments, uploaded here to YouTube, since their video player is much preferable to the BBC’s kludgey player):
Here’s a transcript of what she said, from the BBC’s clip:
Misbah: “No, No, I, I don’t want to live, I don’t want to meet my mother, I don’t want to see her, she made me do things which I didn’t want to do. I have my rights, my rights to where I want to live, I have my rights to who I want to live with, so I want to live in Pakistan. She can come and visit me, and my Dad can come and visit, anybody can come and visit me, but I’m not gonna go to Scotland and visit my Mum. My name is Misbah Irma Ahmed Rana. No, my Mum changed it, so my family couldn’t find me. She was the one that abducted me. People say that I got abducted. If I got abducted I wouldn’t be here right now.”
Yet, turning to the Daily Telegraph, we learn that Molly’s mother drops fight to bring her home, which quotes Misbah, at the same press conference, as follows:
The schoolgirl, known in Pakistan as Misbah Rana, was not in court for the hearing yesterday and later insisted that she would not visit her mother in Britain. “She made me do things which I didn’t want to do,”* she said.
“I have my rights where I want to live. I want to live in Pakistan. She can come and visit me, everybody can come and visit me, but I’m not going to go to Scotland to meet my mum. My mother is non-Muslim, a non-believer.“ (emphasis added).
Search though I have, I haven’t been able to find that last sentence in any of the BBC’s coverage. Now why would that be? They were at the same press conference weren’t they? It is relevant to the story, isn’t it?
Turning to The Times for their coverage of this story we learn that In public, Molly wore purple… but two hours later The Times found her in a black burka in a madrassa linked to the Taleban:
Molly Campbell, the 12-year-old girl at the centre of an international custody battle, is wearing a burka and living in a religious seminary suspected of harbouring Islamic militants, The Times has learnt.
Barely four months after fleeing her mother’s home in the Outer Hebrides to live with her father in Pakistan, Molly, who wants to be known by her Islamic name Misbah Rana, has enrolled at the Jamia Hafsa madrassa in Islamabad, known for its pro-Taleban views and suspected links to al-Qaeda.
Just two hours after facing the press yesterday dressed in a traditional purple headscarf and shalwar kameez, she spoke to The Times at an office at the madrassa, with her face only partially visible behind a black burka. Surrounded by officials at the madrassa and appearing slightly overwhelmed by her surroundings, she spoke briefly about the latest twist in the custody battle between her parents.
Molly did not talk about her new education, but Sajad Rana, her father, confirmed that his daughter had moved out of his home in Lahore to study at the seminary. Admitting that he did not know when she would be back, he said: “She is a grown person, she is an adult. I would have liked her to be near me, but she wants to study Islam and she has joined this group for her education.”
He added: “The last time we were in Islamabad she spent a day at the madrassa, but now she’s made up her mind and she’s going to join it.”
Surprisingly, nothing from The Times report from Thursday was picked up or mentioned at all on the BBC, in spite of its clear relevance to the story. At least, that is, until Saturday, three days later, when BBC Views Online came out with Misbah’s father denies school bid, forgetting that they hadn’t, apparently, noticed the reports in the first place.
So, why is it that the BBC completely ignored the details in The Times report, until they were able to report a denial of the story three days later? A denial which of course begs the question, did The Times make it all up? I very much doubt it, but the BBC make no effort to tell us how such different versions of the story arose or explain the disparity in Sajad Rana’s reported quoted comments. No surprise there then.
* My mother was like that too – in the words of the famous Terry Scott song, My Brother, “every night when we’re wide awake, she make us go to bed. And then in the morning when we’re fast asleep, she makes us get up”.
This is nothing but a sham – the BBC have guidelines on how they treat children – but they seem to be going out of their way to legitimise the brainwashing of an innocent child. The BBc with their twisted view of the ROP are acting like a recruitment agency for young children. I find it abhorrent. What I don’t know is why the mother gave up on gaining custody when she had actually won. Could it be she had listened to the BBC when they said that if the father appealed the case could drag on for years? Or is she scared to pursue it?
Have you ever seen this treatment on any other “abduction” case? This stinks to high heaven.
“Children & consent
We should normally seek the consent of parents or legal guardians, or other person of eighteen or over in loco parentis before interviewing children or young people, or otherwise involving them in our output, and the younger and more vulnerable the child, and the more sensitive the subject matter, the more likely it is that consent is essential. In particular children should not be asked for views on matters likely to be beyond their capacity to answer properly without consent.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/edguide/children/childrenandcons.shtml
I’m not sure on this but does the legal guardian have preference over someone in loco parentis. If this is the case was Mollys mother asked her views on this?
Maybe Al Beeb are looking to utilise her as a future correspondent? I would not at all be surprised.
This is not about custody and it is not about consent and it is not about the rights of children.
This is about the BBC once again obscuring the MUSLIM/ISLAMIC element of an important story.
Exactly as they did last week with the “hammer attack” boy and as they have been over the years refering to practitioners of Extreme Islam by thier professions or trades.
Sometimes they say only “British Men” when there is an Islamic issue at the core of the story.
The archives of this blog are full of examples but here is the classic
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4500968.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4499480.stm
the bbc treatment of islamist terror is rather similar, i think, to dealing with the atlantic slave trade with no reference to races or racism: sure, most of the slaves were black, and most of the (american) slave owners were white. so white? being white is neither necessary nor sufficient to make a person a slave-owner. therefore (bbc might argue), from beginning to end, race had nothing to do with it (root causes, anyone?).
likewise, sure, most of today’s terrorists are muslim. so what? being muslim is neither necessary nor sufficient to make one a terrorist. Therefore, islam has nothing to do with it! (more root causes, anyone – exclusive of islam, of course).
after all, may i remind, they did publish a report of the holocaust with no mention of jews. See? Easy!
If only everyone in Pakistan would follow Molly’s example and promise never to come to Scotland or, better still, anywhere in the UK.
But,I have a niggly little feeling that when Molly reaches 17 or 18 she will show up at Heathrow waving her British passport saying “Let me in, I’m British.”
I agree, Sparky, with a couple of kids in tow, too, I think…
Check out the BBC website today on the 300th anniversary of the act of union between England and Scotland, hardly a squeak. The story is shoved into the Scotland Section near the bottom of the page, but of course nice and prominent is a video story about new bikini burquas for swimming. The BBC make me want to scream.
If i was web editor of the site i would have a banner at the top celebrating the anniversary, with many stories about the act of union, the highs the lows of the united kingdom etc etc.
Burquas and Big Brother, the indigenous kids of this country are being neglected of their history and culture. Im so fed up im even more likely to take the plunge and move to Oz.
TheCuckoo:
‘I agree, Sparky, with a couple of kids in tow, too, I think…’
And the husband and his two other wives.
…….and a bottle of 90 proof tequila for her poor mother.
pp the anniversary was the top story on the breakfast news this morning
We all knew this was always about the clash of cultures. This little Judas has abrogated all rights in this country as far as I’m concerned. She’s made her bed, she’ll have to lie in it now. I’m sure she can look forward to a forced marriage to a first cousin, a house full of kids, a high proportion of whom will have genetic abnormalities and a life of domestic servitude and the odd smack if she gets a bit lippy with her illiterate husband. Oh, and early onset osteoporosis from vitamin D deficiency from wearing a burqa.
Hope she’s happy. I just hope the authorities here block any attempt by her to come over here as a threat to national security. I assume she is now a Pakistani citizen and therefore no longer a subject of the Crown – they’re welcome to her.
Her old man should avoid coming here. This scofflaw should face prosecution for abduction.
“I have my rights.” ‘Misbah’ says. Not as a woman in Islam you don’t, honey. All the rights belong to your father and future husband. The child must be into bondage…
Bit harsh, Apoplectic, she’s only 12. I was pretty stupid when I was 12 too. Ideally, when she does turn up aged 18 with 2 kids, we’d find a way of billing Pakistan for their upkeep.
the_camp_commandant – yes, in retrospect I guess it is.
Still, most of us have parents who guard us from the vicissitudes of life when we are twelve. She has a jihadi bigot who will ensure she understands actions and consequences much younger than her peers in Stornaway.
Well, her father says she’s an adult, aged 12, and capable of making her own decisions. He’s even let her go off to some madrassa by herself. Aged 12, in a foreign country! That’s because Mohammad “married” little Ayesha when she was six and “consumated the marriage” when she was nine. So this Misba, by islamic standards, is approaching middle age.
Ref; Her turning up at Heathrow with a husband and a couple of kids when she is 18.
This has been going on for years. The Sunday Times reported several years ago that many Muslim girls in Sheffield disappeared from school at the age of 12. The source was HS teachers who “Did not wish to be quoted”.
There is the added advantage that British residence is so sought after that the usual dowary is not required. It also works both ways, in one case a family had no trouble getting a bride for a mentally and physically handicapped son.
Some kids just are changelings, and this certainly is one.
I like the fact that BBC chose to not report what the Daily Telegraph reported (If it is a conscious effort on their part, that is)
What is the significance of mentioning that Molly Campbell ‘thinks’ that her mother is a non-Muslim?
I do understand that since 9/11 and the London bombing the world’s attention has been consciously draw to the Middle East and Islam in general. Anything to do with Islam or Muslim is reported as if it is significant to the story.
Just because Misbah/ Molly thinks her mother is a non-believer, just because she chooses to study Islam or just because she chooses to follow a sect, doesn’t make her a terrorist, as the Times story seemed to suggest.
Why are ‘we’ creating racism by drawing attention to Islam?
Why are we creating stereotypes?
Let her be. We are deciding her life, before she even learns a few harsh things about life. Is that fair?
No, it doesn’t make her a terrorist, but the fact that she sees her mother as “a non-believer, a non-Muslim” is not only significant but central to the whole issue.
The BBC is involved in an extraordinary, conscious programme of self-censorship when it comes to mentioning anything negative about Islam.
A few weeks ago I sent a comment to HYS on the “Hajj” topic pointing out that Jews are not allowed into Saudia Arabia and describing it as an “Apartheid state” – which, of course, it is. The BBC edited out the words “Apartheid state”, while ignoring my complaint about a comment on another topic which labelled Israel, the US and the UK as “dogs”. That comment was allowed to stand unedited.
As it tiptoes on eggshells around Islam but pumps out bias against its pet hates like the US and Israel the BBC is beginning to resemble repressed state media in a third world Muslim dictatorship.