BBC seems outraged this morning that HSBC have chosen to close some Muslim groups and other individual and organisations accounts. Given that the radical pro-Jihad Finsbury Park mosque is amongst these, this seems a prudent banking decision but the BBC are in their sniffing around to see if they can detect the Islamophobia that so deeply concerns them.
HALF THE STORY, ALL THE TIME
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Given that HSBC are widely regarded by investment managers as the most conservatively-managed bank with the most sensible attitude to avoiding undue risk, this seems an eminently sensible business decision. Nothing to see here, move on.
Yes, I noticed this, too. The BBC seems completely ignorant (or wilfully so) that despite the sneering and accusatory tone of its story, HSBC operates very happily in many, many muslim countries, has millions of muslim customers across the globe, and has made significant efforts to accommodate muslim customers’ needs through shariah-compliant accounts and investments. But all this counts for nothing when the ‘islamophobic!’ charge is raised by two or three rather questionable account-holders when they are asked to take their business elsewhere. The BBC, of course, always wants to believe everything that is said by the ‘wronged’ muslims, and always wants to believe the worst thing possible about any bank. It’s all par for the course; totally predictable BBC ‘coverage’. It’s very sad to see what has become of a formerly trusted news provider. Just can’t be trusted any more to be anything approaching impartial or evenhanded.
HSBC closed my account down without warning due to my constantly being overdrawn. No BBC reports contact me or came round to see me. But then again I am white anglo-saxon male
“I am white anglo-saxon male” – you should do something about that Rob, I’m sure that there’s a kit available – it could work wonders!
And to say the least, HSBC’s record on such finance is not good:-
-from ‘Money Jihad’-
http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/?s=hsbc
BBC rushing in with this one. No explanation as to why the HSBC has taken this action. Roll out BBC Casting Central’s “a hardworking Muslim and family” complaining about “Islamaphobia” tonight on the BBC news.
By the way Peter Hitchins was right when he said that criticizing Islam is not being “Islamaphobic.”
However the BBC likes this term as its a shutdown word of immediate accusation and nails the disagreeing person as someone having a problem.
It was/is the same with “Xenophobe” “Racist” “Little Englander” (add any others you can think of) when someone disagrees with immigration, the EU, the Euro etc from the “correct” course of thought.
I was right about the “Roll(ing) out (of) BBC Casting Central’s “a hardworking Muslim and family”
BBC website…
“Mr Al Tikriti says his children are “confused” by HSBC’s decision”
Mmmm…? Hitchens….read his piece in the Mail, and had to double take……he was advocating Israel doing nothing in respect of Hamas firing missiles into Israel, just nothing. Well, Mr Hitchens, you fool, if i followed you down the street, and every few minutes, pushed and tripped you up…..would you just carry on and not do something about it?…..yes, thought not….twit.
I don’t remember many accusations from the usual suspects of “BNPphobia” when this happened a few years ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3761190.stm
HSBC are a business and can deal with whoever they choose as far as I am concerned. If their customers don’t like it they are free to go elsewhere.
‘ If their customers don’t like it they are free to go elsewhere.’
There’s a notion.
And, presumably, with no obligation or compulsion to continue funding HSBC once moved?
Can’t imagine why the BBC would have reservations.
Maybe it has something to do with this headline – also off the Biased BBC – “HSBC has confirmed it is to pay US authorities $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in a settlement over money laundering, the largest paid in such a case.”
A US Senate investigation said the UK-based bank had been a conduit for “drug kingpins and rogue nations”. So I guess HSBC is a little sensitive to the charges above, and decided to show financial prudence?
This is absolutely what it is about, and where the real story is. Ever since this massive fine was imposed, HSBC has undergone a huge exercise in deciding which business sectors they wish to be involved with and which ones they don’t.
They have exited some sectors altogether, and as a part of this they have engaged in a large “Get to know and understand your business customer much better” exercise.
In those cases where they either do not understand the customer’s business sufficiently well, or do not wish to service that business sector they have closed the account. Simple as that and to be fair, their action is understandable.
But you won’t hear any of this from the envy of the broadcasting world. It doesn’t fit the narrative, you see.
For Islam Not BBC (INBBC):-
‘Breitbart’ has:-
“HSBC BANK TO CLOSE MUSLIM CHARITY ACCOUNTS AS GAZA PROTESTS ESCALATE.”
By Raheem Kassam.
[Excerpt]:-
“HSBC bank is to follow its competitors Barclays in closing the bank accounts of the Ummah Welfare Trust (UWT), a Muslim-run charity which has previously been accused, though cleared, of having links to terrorism. The non-profit, which describes itself as an ‘international relief and development charity’, has peviously given money to Interpal – an organisation designated by the US Treasury in 2003 as one of several groups providing ‘support’ to Gaza-based terrorist outfit Hamas.”
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/25/HSBC-Bank-to-Close-Muslim-Charity-Bank-Accounts-as-Gaza-Protests-Escalate
Ummah Welfare Trust? Now where have I heard that name recently? Ah yes, I remember . . .
Strange.
Usually any entity with ‘Trust’ heading it up is totally committed to sensible oversight, surely?
But have to concede ‘twadl’ is defo framing how their output should be viewed, so kudos for the acronym.
Hey, you know the rules: the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and reject terrorism, but whenever anyone takes action against those who aren’t and don’t, then they’re Islamophobic.
See? It makes perfect sense.
“BBC seems outraged this morning that HSBC………………”
Which sections, sentences or even words in the article cited evidence this “outrage”.
Do those on here who post in support of the two main commentators ever read the articles used to support claims of “bias” and “outrage”.
Do you?
‘…ever read the articles used to support claims of “bias” and “outrage”.’
Fair question. Can happen.
Care to share the outcome of those you pose to the BBC when they board the outrage bus using rather selectively informed guests or one degree of separation PR on various febrile topics?
This is the BBC, let’s not forget, that ended up forking out hundreds of thousands of licence fee payers’ money because they liked the sound of one of their fellow travellers’ less than comprehensive ‘investigations’ into an mutual ideological foe.
Interestingly, while the headline is:
“HSBC closes some Muslim groups’ accounts”
here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28553921
On the home page that links to it the headline is:
LOCAL NEWS LONDON
HSBC closes some Muslims’ accounts
Why do you think that rather crucial difference exists?
No room for accuracy?
The difference between an entire faith and certain ‘groups’ using it as an operating brand seems pretty key in this context.
The BBC of course would not seek to wind up individuals with sloppy subbing for twitter or mobile, would they?
Well of course it depends on the volume that it is read aloud I suppose … but seriously, whilst the article is generally neutral in tone it does beg the question; how did the BBC find out about this story Who let them know that three Islamic organisations had been ditched by the Chinese bank HSBC?
Because this article reads like many of its Labour press hand outs – it’s one sided, in that most of the article is the offended being offended rather than the offender defending, and there is no critical analysis included.
Are the BBC outraged? Probably not but they do hope that someone will be, otherwise why push this non-story?
So, a bank can pick and choose its customers, but poor, innocent Christian B&B or bakery proprieters can not.
….Should, of course, have been “proprietors”, but it had gone, and the possibility of editing exists not.
When all Beeba thinks it can portray Muslims as victims it puts ‘Muslim’ in the headline and litters it throughout the article. Contrast that with all the reports on Book Haram and ISIS ‘militants’ where there is an oblique reference to Islamists around about paragraph 9.
Good to see John Humphrys wandering round Canary Wharf with his Occupy minders this morning on Radio 4-8.15 or so.
He went up to KMPGs fifth floor to “challenge” the Remunerations bloke there.
When is SOMEBODY going to take on the likes of Humphrys-as a BBC stiffie, his income will far exceed most of the poor sods that work in the Square Mile or such!
Yet no-one asks HIM about his public bail out, golden shower of a pension and his right to question others who actually Do risk things to make money.
The Banks are twats?…yes, but the BBC hypocrites are far worse.
Payment by results?…are Newsnight or Today shedding staff or reducing gross pay deals seeing as nobody bothers listening to them any more?
Or is that just for the Tory chavs at Canary Wharf….”Loadsamoney” in clipped and concerned tones is still a bish bosh merchant…and Rolf Harris still lingers around the BBC as far as I can see.
Outraged how?
Never mind eh DV, its enough for your fans just to state it.
And a new friend joins the fray with a drive by quickie and snipe.
Hyperbole, as with allusion (Mr. Al Tikriti & Mr. Ahmad being skilled practitioners, it seems), is mostly in the eye of the beholder. The BBC and its staff and talent would struggle without it.
The heft put behind the story by the BBC and the choice of those ‘astonished’ and ‘led to believe that the only reason this has happened is because of an Islamophobic campaign targeting Muslim charities in the UK’, does not suggest all concerned, including the reporting staff, seem pretty chilled by essentially legitimate, legal business practice.
So you, also, appear to be pinning your demand on the lack of the actual word ‘outrage’.
This sets interesting precedent on BBC reporting, especially where they editorialise or quote in a less than straightforward manner.
Now to repeat a question earlier for you, on the BBC home page that links to the story the headline is:
LOCAL NEWS LONDON
HSBC closes some Muslims’ accounts
Why do you think that short, and inaccurate headline was used on the page most viewed by those relying on BBC summaries to get them nicely wound up?
There seems serious disquiet about unilateral corporate closing action without explanation or appeal.
This seems pretty much BBC SOP on anything from an expediting to a FOI blow off ‘for the purposes of’.
HSBS is private. The BBC is public.
One might think the latter has more questions to answer if this is the core concern.
Wrong.
OP states the ‘BBC seems outraged…that HSBC have chosen to close some Muslim groups and other individual and organisations accounts’. I’m just asking what gives him that impression.
Fair question, no?
That’s all I got from you, the rest is white noise.
And all I can see from you is using a word that you think turns opinion into fact simply because you use it.
A career with BBC Editorial or Complaints beckons.
As to questions, speaking of white noise, you appear to be using it to avoid answering the one that is not about blogger impressions but actual BBC subbing, which is fair and on topic.
You’ll be going for an expediting or FOI exclusion next.
King – you think the BBC article is impartial? Have you read it? What’s HSBC’s action got to do with the thought crime of ‘Islam phobia’? Why of all the mosques with HSBC should Finsbury Park be singled out in 2014? Can’t imagine.
King…where are your big brown eyes?
Heal…and pacify!
Thank DV for allowing us a forum to grump along to.
Or else maybe we too would be urging our kids to be rockets-as opposed to rocket scientists!
Like the lovely Hamas do.
It is obvious that the political bias of the INBBC ‘report’ on HSBC is pro-Muslim.
Spot the difference: From the Daily Mail, the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister “pleaded (with) people to rediscover the Koran”.
From the BBC: “Arinc was simply trying to uphold “moral values” that form “part of Turkish culture”
So you see it’s nothing to do with Islam
It’s time the Turks re-discovered the legacy of Ataturk and set their country back on the secular and democratic road.
Yes, and of course BBC-NUJ’s political agenda is that it campaigns to get Islamising Turkey’s 80 million Muslims into the European Union, so as to speed up the Islamisation of Europe
Islamophobia + nasty bankers = juicy story for the BBC.
i notice they are screaming racism and islamaphobia at hsbc now,since when has muslims and islam become a race,if this was christians who had there banks accounts closed down would christians be screaming racism and christianaphobia,no, because no religion is a race but just a fable and fairy tales implanted in people minds at the concept of birth in these third world countrys,this is just another case of muslims who dont get there own way causing trouble and stirring up ill feeling,then again,islam is the religion of peace and harmony as we can see in the uk and all over the world everynight on are tvs
Nice coy description of Mr Al Tikriti by the BBC, who “runs the Cordoba Foundation, a think tank on Islamic issues set up in 2005 in order to address, he says, the relationship between Europe and the Middle East”. Which is possibly akin to saying the Ku Klux Klan “exists to address the relationship between Black people and White people”. According to this article, he is one of the leading lights of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK; his father headed the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq; he was president of the Muslim Association of Britain; was involved in the Stop the War Coalition in Iraq but supports the rebels in Syria. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordoba_Foundation.
Even more illuminating is the name of his lobby:
the Cordoba Foundation
Cordoba was the capital of Spain when the Muslims ran it. The mosques there were turned into churches and the main cathedral is thorn for liberals and Muslims as they demand that it be turned into a mosque so as to compensate muslims for the pain of getting kicked out of Spain.
ISIS and Hamas have lead the charge in which to reconquer Spain for allah. Which is funny as both are offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood. Not only is the found of this lobby group pro MB, but his father was head of the Muslim Brotherhood Party in Iraq.
Maybe the Catholics and Orthodox might set aside their differences and set up the Constantinople Fountation to re-convert Haga Sophia into a cathedral again, for the pain of being driven out of their land by the Ottomans.
It should be a condition of Turkey even being considered for EU membership that they do so…
Oh look here’s something the bBC made earlier on the very subject:
Spain cathedral shuns Muslim plea
The Roman Catholic bishop of Cordoba in southern Spain has rejected an appeal from Muslims for the right to pray in the city’s cathedral, a former mosque. Juan Jose Asenjo rejected the request made by Spain’s Islamic Board in a letter to the Pope. It had asked that the cathedral become an ecumenical temple where believers from all faiths could worship…………….Spain’s Islamic Board, which represents a community of some 800,000 in a traditional Catholic country of 44 million, argued in its plea to the Pope that such a move in Cordoba could serve to “awake the conscience” of followers of both faiths and help bury past confrontations.
It appear Muslims are still pissed at getting kicked out of Spain
Muslims can bury past confrontations by ending anti-Christian discrimination in over 50 countries, and allowing a cathedral to be built in Saudi Arabia.
They can also do with eliminating Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Islamic State, Al-Shabaab, the Taliban …..
al-Tikriti ?
Is he from the same home town (Tikrit, Iraq) as Saddam Hussein then ?
School children in Gaza have books about recovering the “lost daughter of Al-Andalus” (i.e. Spain), thoughtfully paid for with EU money.
More evidence of the toxic “education” of Hamas.
A quick read of the websites of some of the affected charities reveals that they appear to exclusively donate funds to their fellow Muslims.
I thought charity was based on need, not religion. Western Christian based charities assist people all over the world irrespective of religion. Should these Muslim charities even be allowed charitable status if they discriminate in such a way?
A quick read of the charity commission website implies they are breaking the rules for charities.
Maybe the BBC could investigate? (haha)
Meanwhile, at a New York bank (unreported by INBBC):-
“Israeli Discount Bank on NY’s 5th Ave Vandalized, Defaced with Fake Blood by Pro-Hamas Jew Haters”
– See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2014/08/israeli-discount-bank-nys-5th-ave-vandalized-defaced-fake-blood-pro-hamas-jew-haters.html/#sthash.T1fel3oW.dpuf
While INBBC reports with political sympathy on Muslim criticism of HSBC’s closure of some Muslim bank accounts, there is no such INBBC political sympathy shown to Jewish criticism of Tesco’s boycott of Israeli goods.
“UK’s largest supermarket chain banning Israeli products”
[Excerpt]:-
“As the Brits rush to appease and accommodate Muslims in every way it can, including banning non-Muslims from movie theaters, it’s only natural that they would also descend into the most vile Jew-hatred, reminiscent of the Nazis they fought against so fiercely in World War II.
‘Tesco shelves banning Israeli products, Jerusalem Post, –
http://pamelageller.com/2014/08/uks-largest-supermarket-chain-banning-israeli-products.html/