The BBC’s Razia Iqbal visits Katar, the official cultural village of Doha, and talks to members of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, many of whom have been imported from Europe.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gng58
The BBC’s reverse cultural imperialism is slapped down in this programme about the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra.
Razia Iqbal has been in the country two days but she has made up her mind about the evils of ‘Westernisation’ being imposed upon Qatar. She meets some young, educated Qataris and suggests ‘importing’ Western culture such as orchestras will dilute what it is to be Qatari……they tell her ‘no, we have opportunities now beyond our wildest dreams in education and business and in daily life.’
Iqbal gives up on them and asks the Emir of Qatar’s daughter, Sheikha Mayassa Al-Thani, if she is just buying a culture. Mayassa replies that Iqbal should back up her questions with some facts.
Iqbal again suggests that Qatar is importing Western values and there is a danger of diluting Qatari culture….and she has concerns about the future ‘informed by the potential for problems created by importing another culture….and does Qatar not need Democracy?’
Mayassa stamps on her hard saying ‘you are too negative, you are looking for problems, you are scared of change…..and isn’t it odd that you oppose the importing of culture but suggest the import of western political systems like democracy?’
Yes, odd all right. Clearly the Qataris should all be living in tents, herding camels or whatever their ancestral lives used to be before oil was discovered…by Western Imperial cultures.
Curious how the BBC thinks it is terrible for Qatari culture to be ‘polluted’ and diluted by Western culture…and indeed Iqbal admits to concerns about the problems of such change…. but in Britain we are force fed multiculturalism and are duty bound to celebrate diversity.
The BBC land in Qatar for two days and are horrified that the locals are celebrating Coca Cola, cars and consumerism. I’m not sure but I think any Qatari would rather have a Coca Cola salesman riding into town than a miserable preacher carrying a BBC microphone.
What Sheikha Mayassa Al-Thani doesn’t realise that the democracy that the Beboid wants for Qatar is not the Western style democracy which is votes for all men and women above a certain age, but the “Democracy” of the Arab Spring – that is one man, one vote, once – then religious tyranny to follow.
Why does INBBC censor this further example of imported Islamic culture?-
“UK: Muslim leader misunderstands Islam, advocates female genital mutilation”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/04/uk-muslim-leader-misunderstands-islam-advocates-female-genital-mutilation.html
The Gulf’s first orchestra? The BBC did a report in 2005 about the Oman Royal Symphony Orchestra, saying that it was set up two decades before that.
The orchestra website says it was founded in 1985, with a debut concert in 1987. The Qatar Symphony was founded in 2007.
I have this box set of oud and orchestral music featuring them.
Oh, silly me. It’s the Gulf of Oman, and Qatar is in the Persian Gulf. 400 miles may as well be 400 lightyears when it comes to storytelling, eh? Other than a minor geographical label, is there a significant difference between them when we’re talking about importing a western cultural institution into a Mohammedan oil state?
Are Beeboids interested in supporting the rights of e.g.
the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to play in London?
“British luvvies’ anti-Israel stance achieves nothing”
by Brendan O’Neill
http://www.icjs-online.org/index.php?article=3676
Just listened to it all. Wow, that was pretty offensive. Good for the princess or whatever for calling Iqbal on her utter BS. Talk about going in with an agenda and not letting anything stop you.
“Iqbal again suggests that Qatar is importing Western values and there is a danger of diluting Qatari culture….”
Does anybody remember a BBC reporter ever suggesting that importing millions of people to this country would “dilute our culture”?
No, because, as Jeff Randall was told by BBC executives:
“The BBC is not neutral in multiculturalism: it believes in it and it promotes it”.
Double standards galore.
And we all know that multiculturalism=anti-English.
I wish we had arrived at a point where people just refused to be interviewed by anyone from the bbc. Maybe that day will come.
I’m sure it happens all the time. Try proving a negative.
INBBC supports the entry of 80 million Muslim Turks into the E.U (as does the political elite of all three main UK parties).
This is the sort of Islamisation to be expected:
“Turkish delight in epic film Fetih 1453 ”
http://stopturkey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/turkish-delight-in-epic-film-fetih-1453.html
Is INBBC so pro-Qatar because that Islamic oil emirate supports Hamas via INBBC’s like-minded political chums at Qatar’s Al Jazeera*?:-
(* Al Jazeera, home of many ex-Beeboid, Islam-serving ‘useful idiots’ at Al Jazeera studios on South Bank, London, overlooking Westminster.)
Video clip:
“Hamas PM Ismail Haniya Salutes Al-Jazeera Network for ‘Fighting on the Foreign Front'”
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3340.htm
Pro Qatar? This seemed like the opposite. I had a good laugh, though, at Iqbal’s presumption that the Arab Spring type deal meant an automatic, immediate transition to freedom and happiness and equality. What’s the weather like on her planet?
Interesting name that Razzi Iqbal.
Maybe Pakistani….so why is she not adding to the authentic Muslim womans experience in the land of her ancestors-as opposed to flying to sisters in the Umma with a microphone and a return ticket to Holland Park.
No-one exports hypocrisy quite like the BBC, as the pistachio nuts and dates run low in the canteen…yet we`ll be getting more of Iqbal to tell the natives how best to get onto a postcard for Helen Boaden…hypocrites!
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