Birds of a feather……Jon Donnison thinks this is superb journalism from the great James O’Brien, the man who ‘masterminded’ the kangaroo court for Nigel Farage…..
Superb MT @AudreyCarville A masterclass in how to deal with people demanding Muslims apologise for #Charliehebdo http://t.co/ujJzB3csF8”
— Jon Donnison (@jondonnisonbbc) January 10, 2015
If that’s what Donnison calls a masterclass in journalism…well compared to his I guess it might be.
O’Brien is his usual smug, intolerant, incoherent and illogical self….very amusing to hear him as he preens and puffs himself up as the intellectual giant in the conversation. Sure the other guy is lost for words but then he’s an amateur not a ‘master’ of the medium as O’Brien is, well practised in dissembling and aggressive obfuscation.
Supposedly a journalist would be trying to encourage a caller to articulate what they mean, helping them make their point. O’Brien in contrast thinks it is his job, if you have views he doesn’t like, to belittle you and say things of such monumental stupidity that they stun you into a confused silence as you try to work out if O’Brien is really that stupid or is just acting the prat.
The caller suggested that perhaps Muslims as a ‘community’ should apologise for the terrorism in France done in the name of their religion.
O’Brien thinks not.
O’Brien makes a bizarre comparison and asks if all Geordies should apologise for something done by a Geordie, or, as the caller is called Richard, all ‘Richards’ should apologise for the shoebomber Richard Reid.
The caller seemed flummoxed…but that didn’t make him wrong of course, just startled and tongue-tied by O’Brien’s outlandish kookiness. O’Brien does what the BBC does all the time, ignore the ideology that the people follow and assume being a Muslim is just the same as being White for instance…..purely a feature of your physical identity with no ideology behind it, Islam being a ‘race’. Such a progressive intellect as O’Brien would surely recognise that skin colour cannot be used as an identifier of a person’s thoughts, actions or beliefs…such profiling is racist…but an ideology might, just might, indicate your beliefs and thereby your actions.
Being a Muslim is of course somewhat more meaningful than having a particular skin colour…there are rules. Don’t follow them and you’re not a Muslim. Follow them and you are.
Which brings us to the point…should Muslims apologise?
They choose to be Muslim, they choose to follow a religion that has some very obvious and unpleasant beliefs that fly in the face of a secular, democratic, liberal, progressive society.
Do they do anything to change that religion?
If not then perhaps they should apologise for what is done in their religion’s name using commands that come from the Koran itself.
They should perhaps acknowledge the problems inherent in their religion and spell out exactly what they are doing to change it.
When so many Mosques are known to be the source of so much ‘radicalisation’, otherwise known as following the fundamentals of your religion, and do so by quoting from the Koran and Hadith, the touchstones of Islam, then there is a problem.
If everytime someone criticises Islam and Muslims set up a hue and cry declaiming about Islamophia they are defending that status quo…and so should not complain when people say hang on, you’re defending the very verses and beliefs that are being used to give divine sanction to those who terrorise us….any wonder people might argue that Muslims should feel embarrassed by their religion and might consider apologising for acts done in order to further its interests…..especially when so many of those Muslims would be happy to take advantage of the benefits that come their way as a result of the terrorism as the politicians crumble and start making concessions to their religion… politically, socially and legally?
Happy to take the benefits reaped from terror but not the responsibility for the wrongs.
Some might say.
Interesting as well that O’Brien, for the purposes of his argument, has decided that there is no such thing as an overarching ‘Muslim community’. Funny how, when it suits, ‘Muslims’ are offended and insulted by cartoons…and ‘Muslims’ must be protected from Islamophobic attacks.
So ‘Muslims’ have no need to apologise, but ‘Muslims’ can be offended as a group?
The Metropolitan Police were labelled ‘institutionally racist’….why then is it not conceivable that Islam can be labelled ‘Institutionally’ a system of beliefs that creates the necessary mindsets that encourage acts of terror, or anti-Semitism or homophobia or misogyny? Not all police officers, hardly any in fact, will be racist, and yet they were so labelled. Hardly any Muslims are terrorists and yet……O’Brien would be outraged by the suggestion that Islam is institutionally terrorist, I suspect not so outraged about the police being labelled racist.
Guess this was just another ‘job interview’ for the BBC…I think he will have passed….sure to be appearing on Newsnight once again very soon.
Apologise? Who knows, but you could make a case for it, a better case than for not apologising….not responsible for the terrorist’s actions but responsible for upholding the teachings and beliefs that give sanction to their terrorism? But you have the problem of the lip-service Muslims, the cultural Muslims, the semi-practising Muslims. Just how Muslim would you have to be?
Best let sleeping dogs lie…however I profusely apologise for slavery (only practised by whitey), Christian sex abuse scandals, the potato famine, colonialism and One Direction….oh and not forgetting global warming!