, the BBC’s long-running children’s programme Blue Peter showed graphic footage last Thursday of the Halal slaughter of a goat in Oman, to “show the celebrations that mark the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha”.
Biased BBC commenter Chuffer writes:
Astonishing bit on Blue Peter this evening, about 17:05, 18JAN07 – a long feature on the joys and general loveliness of the Religion of Plumbers in Oman, especially for the youngsters. Bless. At the end of Ramadan, a goat is killed. And as two men hold it down, and one slashes its throat, the Blue Peter muppet turns to camera and says “At least it’s done humanely….”
It would have been bad enough to show the humane stunning and killing of animals in a UK abbatoir, let alone the Halal slaughter of an animal having its carotid arteries cut and then being hung up to slowly bleed to death.
Fun for children on today’s multi-culti Blue Peter
Whatever happened to the Blue Peter that we knew and loved when we were children? The worst I remember was the sensitive coverage of those being helped by each year’s Blue Peter Annual Appeal and the occasional vandalism of the blessed Blue Peter Garden – which presumably nowadays wouldn’t be greeted with shock, but rather as an opportunity to explore the needs of frustrated inner-city yobs.
According to The Sun:
BBC bosses were forced to apologise last night after Blue Peter screened footage of a goat being slaughtered for a Muslim sacrifice.
Young viewers of the kids’ favourite — famed for its pet cats and dogs — watched in horror as the animal was held down and its throat slit. The bloody footage then showed the goat hanging dead from a tree.
About 140 shocked viewers phoned the Beeb to complain about the programme, shown on Thursday afternoon. Furious parents accused the BBC of damaging the family-friendly reputation of Blue Peter, whose catchphrase “And Here’s One I Made Earlier” is known to generations.
Michael Alligham, 50, of Herts, who watched with his four-year-old daughter, said: “She sat there goggle-eyed. I tried to make light of it, but she knew. “One man was kneeling on the goat’s head, one holding its leg down, then they slit its throat.”
Blue Peter screened the footage, filmed in the Middle Eastern country of Oman, to show the celebrations that mark the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha. Last night editor Richard Marson apologised to viewers.
But he insisted: “We felt it was important to show the link between the food people eat and where it actually comes from.”
Strangely though, having searched through BBC Views Online’s search engine, the Blue Peter Homepage and the BBC’s Press Office, I can find no references to this apology from the editor of Blue Peter – has it passed you by Beeboids? There’s still time to get an article up on BBC Views Online’s Entertainment page, the place where you normally need no excuse to toot the BBC’s horn!
Hat tip to commenters Chuffer and will.
To be fair, Jamie Oliver slit the throat of a lamb in the corner of a field – dead in seconds on Channel 4. One minute gamboling in the Tuscan sunshine, next minute brown bread.
The difference – Jamie was on after the watershed and I don’t see Channel 4 extolling the virtues of rural life in Catholic Tuscany – lovely looking Corpus Christi processions and the like – to kiddies.
it seems to me the bbc will stop at nothing in their glorification and romanticization of all things islamic. the rationale given, about showing people where their food comes from, was glib and trite, possibly even something akin to shill.
it would also seem to me that if the 92% of britons who are non-muslim, and likely not concerned about halal, are to be shown by the bbc where “their” food comes from, well, let the bbc show them where THEIR food comes from, and not someone else’s.
this is about as relevant in that sense as showing vegetarians where their hamburgers come from; or perhaps – and yes, i know, i am getting close to the line – about as relevant as showing muslims where “their” porkchops come from.
or is the bbc saying that a majority of britain’s non-muslims nevertheless are careful to eat “a la halal”?
someone sort me out, please.
correction: i believe the non-muslim population of britain is 97%, right?
If I wanted to turn children off Islam, showing the slaughter of a ‘cute’ animal on an ‘educational’ show for children in the 7~12 age group would be a good way to go about it. After all, at the heart of Blue Peter is a set of ideals that remain focused on empowering children to make a positive difference.
Now if we could only bring this concept to Teletubbies …? “Eh-Oh” 😉
Oops, my bad. They already have!
http://thumbsnap.com/v/zdWMj1Z8.jpg
I’m speechless. Maybe this is the BBC’s way of preparing the next generation to view videos of the beheading of infidels as a prelude to becoming good Muslims.
I put the BBC’s submission to Islam at least at 90%.
Here’s Hesbo-Laa-Laa and the other Terrortubbies….
http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=806
I think the reason behind halal and kosher was the very laudable one of stopping people from keeping meat for too long in arid, desert conditions.
The religious angle comes in because if you tell people not to eat bad meat they wont take any notice. However, if you tell them that god sees everything and you wont get into heaven/paradise if he sees you eating bad meat then people (gullible as they are) comply.
In these modern days when freezers are readily available I think there could be a campaign to de-deify these meat rules and stop all the animal suffering that they entail.
The BBC does seem to have a weird kind of fetish for islam and muslims.
“In these modern days when freezers are readily available I think there could be a campaign to de-deify these meat rules and stop all the animal suffering that they entail.”
The words of the koran are immutable, impeccable and timeless because they are, to a muslim, the absolute word of (the moon-) god. The campaign won’t happen.
Yet when Gordon Ramsey showed the two pigs being killed on his [post watershed, pre warned] F Word the BBC was leading the chanting for this kind of this to be removed from TV.
Fair enough, every person should know how meat comes to be on their plate and if Halal is a little brutal then Muslims should know this (in the same way we all know about pigs now). But doing it on BP at that time is a little much.
The nulab gov is putting the rights of gays ahead of the rights of religious believers and denying the Catholic Church the ability to run their (non-monopoly) adoption service the way they want.
There is a hierarchy of rights and it is clearly not the case that religion trumps everything.
Therefore, why cant the nulab gov put the rights of animals not to suffer ahead of the rights of religious believers to kill animals a certain way?
Chuffer:
I think you mean Tali-tubbies
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/bltalitubby.htm
Personally I think this shows the BBC being remarkably level headed. Slaughtering sheep for food is a fact of life around the world so why not show it? Pretending it does not happen and that all animals are just cute and fluffy pets is deceptive. Also, given the relative number in the developed and developing world, I would estimate that most children in the world have already seen animals slaughtered for real. I think it is good for British children to see a bit of real life.
Actually, I’m rather pleased that the BBC have shown Islam in all its “glory” for its young audience.
Michael Alligham’s daughter cannot have been the only youngster who was, er, surprised to have seen such a thing.
How many nightmares amongst the nation’s children have been caused by this I wonder?
I’m sure there will be plenty who will associate Islam with backwardness and primitive behaviour as a result of the Blue Peter piece.
So, nice one Beeb!
Let’s have people (especially kids) knowing exactly about the prophet’s doings, especially the massacre of the Banu Qurayza tribe, the torture of Kinana ibn al-Rabi and the marriage of the prophet to his widow Safiyya bint Huyayy.
I wonder if the Great Unwashed’s views of Islam will be more or less favourable as a result of this?
I’ve mentioned this before, but perhaps it got missed so I’d like to point it out again; there’s a difference between halal and kosher methods in terms of animal welfare. Carried out under proper supervision, kosher slaughter is actually less painful for the animal than other, more modern methods. The caveat is that it has to be carried out properly, which means the animal has to be well secured and the knife well maintained, amongst other things, and prior to the slaughter the animal has to be healthy and treated with care in order to avoid bruising. Death is moderately faster than with a stun gun. The important part is supervision. Scandals have emerged in the past because certain rabbis weren’t doing their job and letting animals be slaughtered without proper care and attention.
Halal slaughter is, as the picture shows, very uncaring about the animal. No care is taken to make sure the animal is looked after and they’re often allowed to thrash around and run away while bleeding to death. The focus of halal is on a blessing by an imam and the “sanity” of the butcher rather than on the care for the animal.
In both cases a knife is used, but kashrut has a list of decrees about the quality of the blade, which has to be extremely sharp and fine in order to cause as little pain as possible. All that halal requires is something that can cut.
Of course none of this should be taken as a criticism of those who want to argue against both types of slaughter; your personal choices are up to you. I just think it’s necessary to get a bit of perspective on the issue; the two methods, despite superficial appearances, have very different emphasis. It’s arguable that kashrut is actually more humane than modern slaughter methods. Possibly. OR possible not. It’s certaibly more humane than halal slaughter.
Last night editor Richard Marson apologised to viewers.
But he insisted: “We felt it was important to show the link between the food people eat and where it actually comes from.”
Right, and I suppose the next BBC children’s programme will show graphic detail of the link between the food people eat and where it actually goes to after they’ve eaten it. That would describe the BBC quite well.
What a shabby excuse of an “apology” from Marson. What’s really happening here is an example of the fact that the BBC feels it’s important to seize every opportunity to shove Islam down everyone’s throats – perhaps especially if the unforewarned audience consists of little children.
Eh, they didnt apologise and how is that biased again?
Ah Alexsei, commenting from the BBC I see – aren’t you supposed to be working for us tellytaxpayers just now?
The point is that showing the cutting of a goat’s neck and its subsequent bleeding to death as part of the lovely multi-culti celebration of Eid isn’t the sort of children’s fare that one would reasonably expect to find on Blue Peter.
Stupid? yes, insensitive, yes, biased, possibly – but you are making the mistake of confusing the name of this blog with being its sole purpose. We aim to expose, document, cajole and where possible improve all aspects of the BBC.
Think of it another way, the first ‘B’ in BBC stands for British, yes, but does that mean that the BBC represents or reflects the values of the British people? Far from it. Something for you to ponder while you surf the web at our expense! 🙂
“We felt it was important to show the link between the food people eat and where it actually comes from.”
But, and I quote the BBC, “the footage, [was] filmed in the Middle Eastern country of Oman, to show the celebrations that mark the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha.”
The programme wasn’t supposed to be about showing kids “where food comes from”. it was all about exposing them to Islam.
i suggest Blue Peter considers telling kids how Mohamed, the alleged prophet, married a 6 year old girl and consumated his marriage to her on her 9th birthday. Much more educational and fitting for childrens’ hour viewing dontcha think?
“We felt it was important to show the link between the food people eat and where it actually comes from.” would seem to be somewhat of an own goal for the promotion of Islam industry.
Bearing in mind the recent furore over school caterers serving Halal meat to all comers one would imagine that animal loving children throughout the country were intrigued to see the link between the food they’ve been given and where it actually comes from.
I’m glad they showed this. There are far too many children ignorant about food and how it is sourced. i’m not going to quote any statistics about it, since i don’t trust them, but killing and eating animals isn’t bad or nasty and children should be comfortable with this idea. i appreciate some might get a little upset, but i thnk it far better they understand and are comfortable with the idea that when you eat meat you are eating an animal that has been raised and then killed.
“Alexsei”,
Allow me to point out again that the BBC’s excuse that it felt it “was important to show the link between the food people eat and where it actually comes from” is absolute bull sh*t and you seem to be asking us to swallow it whole.
The BBC’s stated aim in the programme had nothing to do with food or where it came from – that was just something they dreamed up after the fact.
Once more, and I quote the BBC, “the footage, [was] filmed in the Middle Eastern country of Oman, to show the celebrations that mark the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha.”
The “food and where it comes from” line is a straw man, or in this case a straw goat 😆
At least the goat wasn’t chased by foxes because that would be cruel.
If fox hunting is cruel, then isn’t halal also cruel?