After the recent C4 Dispatches programme that showcased the unpleasant side of the Islamic Forum of Europe, appeasing Muslims might have seemed a good move by the BBC, what with their desire to promote social cohesion.
The fact that Ken Livingstone was one of the panellists and Mehdi Hasan was another, guaranteed that the programme would be on message.
Predictably, halfway through came the question ‘Does the press demonise Muslims?’
Mehdi Hasan’s outburst was as astonishing as it was hypocritical.
He said the MSM erroneously represent the outpourings of Anjem Choudary as though they were the views of all Muslims. They do this merely because they seek sensational stories. He insisted that the majority of Muslims, including the Islamic Forum of Europe, are moderate and peaceful. He said Andrew Gilligan was a disgrace.
He thought the press has created Islamophobia, which has turned people against Mosques being built in their area because they believe all Muslims are terrorists making bombs.
These ideas might have resonance from an Islamic perspective. But from a UK perspective things look different. Many people who don’t want Mosques do not have a phobia. Their objection to Mosques is likely because they associate them with non-assimilated communities whose cultural practises are at odds with the UK, quite a rational fear one might say. Many people who are perfectly sane don’t wish to be subjected to calls to prayer over loudspeakers several times a day - heaven knows some people find church bells intrusive - and many people, completely right in the head, just don’t want people walking round their neighbourhoods wearing shrouds. Certainly some ordinary English people still hang on to traditional English customs, like monogamous marriage, free speech, as well as new-fangled concepts such as equality for women and tolerance of homosexuality, agnosticism, sex drugs and rock’n’ roll; some of them like keeping dogs, listening to music and looking at cartoons of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.
Back at the BBC noticing that radicalised Muslims predominantly perpetrate terrorism is considered Islamophobic, as is expressing concerns about such things as the increasing demands from Muslims that we conform to their idiosyncrasies.
All the panellists on Any Questions played it by those unspoken rules, tiptoeing round the subject dutifully, to boldly taboo where no man has tabooed before.
If anyone does want a prime example of demonisation by the press, the New Statesman is it. But Mehdi Hasan’s New Statesman target is Israel, so in that case demonisation is fine.
Any demonisation of Muslims by the media pales into insignificance beside the demonisation of Israel that has been the norm in the MSM for decades.
Even examining areas where Islamic ideology is incompatible with UK ideals is unacceptable in BBC world, whereas decades of the BBC’s treatment of Israel has resulted in hostile hordes, ready willing and able to express their passionately misinformed, phobic opinions in the press.
Exhibit ‘a,’ is the Guardian, closely followed by the Financial Times.
Future generations are affected too. Postcards that were sent to the Israeli Embassy by Spanish children declare: “Jews kill for money,” “Leave the country to the Palestinians” and “Go somewhere where they will accept you.”
They probably didn’t get this directly from the BBC, but it’s indicative of the European malaise that the BBC at once reflects and creates.
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