Fearful BBC Walks on Eggshells Around Muslims
As for Muslims being a minority — well, they’re a considerably larger minority in the UK than Jews, but the BBC’s hostility to both Israel and the Jewish settler movement is legendary. And Roman Catholics comprise a minority of Christians in the UK; yet, after George Bush, the Pope is one of the favorite targets of the lefty comedians that populate the BBC’s late-night schedules.
(Thompson himself is keen to point out that he’s a practicing Roman Catholic, as if this fact should somehow reassure us that the BBC couldn’t possibly be hostile to Christianity. The archbishop of Canterbury, the increasingly unhinged Rowan Williams, is ostensibly a devout Anglican, but that hasn’t stopped him parroting bogus Muslim grievances and calling for elements of Sharia to be recognized in the UK.)
The fact is that the BBC’s deference to Islam has very little to do with its “minority” status in the UK or the lack of integration on the part of its followers. The real reasons are fear and political correctness.
BBC executives don’t want their heads cut off or their homes burnt down any more than the rest of us do. Program-makers don’t have a problem with offending Christians because they know they’re unlikely to wind up in a video on the internet, wearing a hood and surrounded by a pack of sword-wielding nuns. Christians are exhorted to turn the other cheek; extremist Muslim leaders, on the other hand, encourage their followers to both get mad and, where possible, get even.
The reluctance of BBC types to do anything that might invite violence from Muslims is, if not admirable, at least understandable. Their continued enthusiasm for the discredited doctrines of political correctness and multiculturalism is arguably more troubling, given the corrosive effects of those ideas on free speech and on the “social cohesion” our elites profess to be so concerned with.
The BBC has become the standard-bearer for the cult of post-colonial, white, middle-class guilt (middle-class in the English rather than the American sense). This is the British strain of what Mark Steyn and others call Western civilization’s self-loathing: the belief that white Westerners and the Judeo-Christian tradition are to blame for much of the world’s ills. One manifestation of this belief is the assumption that people with dark skin are inherently “nobler” than people with white skin — one particularly apologetic former head of the BBC memorably referred to the organization as “hideously white” — and that any religion practiced by such people is consequently more deserving of our respect than Christianity.
Of course the BBC’s worldview encompasses much more than an uncritical disposition towards Islam. A couple of years back Charles Moore, a former editor of Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, summed it up thus:
The BBC’s mental assumptions are those of the fairly soft left. They are that American power is a bad thing whereas the UN is good, that the Palestinians are in the right and Israel isn’t, that the war in Iraq was wrong, that the European Union is a good thing and that people who criticize it are “xenophobic,” that racism is the worst of all sins, that abortion is good and capital punishment is bad, that too many people are in prison, that a preference for heterosexual marriage over other arrangements is “judgmental,” that environmentalists are public-spirited and “big business” is not, . . . that government should spend more on social programs, that the pope is out of touch except when he criticizes the West, that gun control is the answer to gun crime.
Everyone’s entitled to their worldview, of course. What the BBC is not entitled to do is abuse its position as a respected broadcaster to ram its views down the throats of those who look to it for information and entertainment — and to demand hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to do so. Neither is it entitled to give encouragement to extremists by reassuring them that contrived grievances are legitimate, and that intimidation and violence are understandable responses.
Ironically, Thompson, in his eagerness to demonstrate his Christian bona fides, likes to tell interviewers that he’s never seen Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Despite the controversy that film generated, it’s not especially disdainful of Christianity, and can be read as a satire on both unquestioning religious belief and secular cults. Islam is sorely in need of a similar lampooning right now, but the attitude of Thompson and others like him means we’re unlikely to ever see a Life of Mohammed.
Europe is in serious trouble and with few exceptions, has buried their collective head in the sand. Those who do speak out are hunted down and murdered by Muslims.
Below is a link to the short film made by Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, (also under death sentence by fatwa), depicting event in Europe during the past 5 years.
Warning; this film contains graphic scenes.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=216_1207467783
The quote from Charles Moore describes the views of my German stepson-in-law. He forwarded to me someone’s lame attempt at humor involving the Queen of England reasserting authority over the USA. I’d rather be ruled by Mexico than a nation which will soon be a colony of Iran.
BTW Sarah Palin is denounced for her scrambled syntax, but it is surely no worse than Thompson’s
“What Christian identity feels like it is about to the broad population is a little bit different to people for whom their religion is also associated with an ethnic identity which has not been fully integrated.” I’ll bet he was educated at Oxford!
Actually, left intellectuals are basically pagan in outlook and see Christianity as alien. After all, in the year six hundred A.D. (Common Era) there were far more brown and black Christians than there were white. And that is true today, as well.
It is the Christian notion of equality based on a personal relationship with God that grates. For a thousand years the Bishops and the nobles kept it bottled up but ultimately failed. Now they fight the idea with the Socialist concept of equality, in which some are more equal than others — the apparatchiks.
The Beeb, along with the rest of the PC/multiculti crowd in Europe, believes that the problem will go away if it is ignored. They also believe that the alligator won’t eat them when it is hungry because the Beeb has been its’ “Friend.” Nonsense, but fervently believed.
It’s so hard to believe that the word “great” is in front of the word “Britain.” How did this country ever produce Cromwell, Nelson, and Churchill, not to mention America? You can only hope that a younger generation will wake up.
The BBC is very biased towards Islam and treats Muslims with kid gloves. There have been a few exceptions, for example some Panorama documentaries, Hardtalk and a Radio 4 interview with Geert Wilders, but these are not part of the mainstream news, and most people wouldn’t see them. The Danish cartoons were shown on the BBC too, but again, in a late-night “graveyard slot” when they could safely assume nobody was listening.
It’s got to the stage now where I carefully listen out to see what euphemism for Muslims is coming next. I wrote an article about this farcical M-word avoidance: Don’t Mention the Muslims.
As you say, the BBC is colluding in Muslims’ failure to integrate. Becoming one of us means that your opinions must fight their way in the marketplace of ideas rather than being treated with kid gloves.
But I think the problems of Muslim integration lie in Islam itself. It is simply not compatible with British or any Western society.
our civilized world is being destroyed & those who could stop it are caving in to the muslims. HELP!!!!!!!!!
Language Control, the final chapter in Orwell’s 1984, where the ‘thought police’ place barriers on what can and cannot be said. The BBC in an effort to “make excuses” for Islamic terror places a disproportional amount of weight on western foreign policy. Helping to reinforce the manufactured illusion that individuals are ‘never’ responsible for their own actions shows the carelessness of their disingenuous reporting.
hdgreene how awesome! I have never been able to state as well you have, what is so obvious…oooh that’s akward anyway thank you. I was visiting a convent here in France with US friends and everyone was so amazed (myself included) at the fact that I avoided calling God, God. The Humanists (atheistic ones especially) have taken over and have made it very difficult to speak openly about your beliefs here…
Mary Jackson wrote:
“But I think the problems of Muslim integration lie in Islam itself. It is simply not compatible with British or any Western society.”
What’s amazing that it’s taking Britain so long to become aware of this! I don’t understand why the Queen doesn’t address this. One word from her, just one mention, and everything would change overnight.
the queen can do nothing. The queen is subjected to be politically correct as anybody else.
the head of the church of england, archibishop of canterbury is a leftist moonbat, dhimmi himself.
@hdgreene:
It is the Christian notion of equality based on a personal relationship with God that grates. For a thousand years the Bishops and the nobles kept it bottled up but ultimately failed. Now they fight the idea with the Socialist concept of equality, in which some are more equal than others — the apparatchiks.
When the State wants to be God, it has to crush competition. A 2000 year old tale.
There are numerous ways to make policy makers and implementers embarassed and uncomfortable without resorting to Islamic-like violence. Real Brits need to get creative! Make the stunts so obviously funny, attempts to call it a “hate crime” will fall flat.
For instance send bags of chicken feed to BBC officials and reporters. Attach a note saying, “You live like a chicken, eat like one too.” Delivering live chickens to them would work well too. Attach a note to the chicken saying, “I’m qualified BBC. Hire me.” Or release a few dozen in some BBC lobby.
Someone really bold might rent a dump truck, fill it to the brim with chicken sh–t, and dump it at the entrance to the London offices of the BBC. I’d suggest some hot, muggy day in August for best effect. It’d be interesting to see if the BBC would cover the story.
Come to think of it, that wouldn’t be a bad idea for the press in this country.
I, for one, wonder how long it will be before life in the UK starts to imitate V for Vendetta (the graphic novel or the movie, take your pick). Substitute a multiculturalist pseudo-theocracy for the Christian one posited in both versions of the story, and the parallels to today’s real-world Britain are striking.
What has “discredited” multiculturalism?
What has “discredited” multiculturalism?
Why was it ever credited in the first place?
Multiculturalism is no longer as fashionable as it was. Even Trevor Phillips, who,as head of the Commission for Racial Equality, made a steady living out of it, has now spoken against it.
But it is not enough to see the evils of multiculturalism in general. The specific danger of Islam needs to be seen.
It’s herd mentality. Sheeple.
What most people don’t know is that the American Revolution was carried out with the involvement of less than 2% of the population, but they paid a heavy price. Of the 65 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 8 were caught and hanged, and 42 were bankrupted. The country did not make up the signers’ losses. It was more like, “Hey, thanks for the freedom. Have a nice day!”
What I’m saying is that it requires a minority of people willing to fall on their swords for the greater good. Most people are too chicken to do that. America wsa very, very lucky to have so many brave individuals. Now, not so many… and even less so in the rest of the world.
I find it interesting that the BBC is paid for with taxpayer money, yet it’s the BBC’s fault… not the taxpayers. Same goes here with our Congress, they suck, everyone loves to blame them… but who is really responsible for letting them get away with it?
What a bunch of idiots.Are we going to follow in their sissy footsteps?
His assumption that Christianity is the majority belief is false. Most Britons do not go to church. Even if one would include nominal Christians as Christians, devout church-going Christians would still be a minority entitled to special treatment by the BBC.
No, they respect Islam because it seeks to destroy the western culture they abhor. I hope they are contemplating the choice this policy will eventually brong upon them – namely, convert or flee.
Z-lo, This has discredited multiculturalism: “WE hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
I once asked the “great” Indian author, Vine Deloria, “What do you really believe in?” He answered, “I’ll tell you what I believe! If there is an argument between an Indian and a whiteman, the Indian is right. If there’s an argument between a Sioux Indian and a non-Sioux Indian, the Sioux is right. If there is an argument between a Standing Rock Sioux Indinan and a Cheyenne River Sioux Indian, the Standing Rock Sioux Indian is right.”
Multiculturalism is just another name for tribalism and was discredited in 1776. already!
Given the BBC’s extremely virulent and inecndiary coverage of Israel, I suspect their sympathy to Muslims is based on a common desire to rid the world of Jews.
The BBC was actually kicked off Israeli cable for a while for overt anti-Semitism in 2002. Nothing has changed. Elsewhere on this page Michael Malone writes of CNN Int. coverage of the Lebanon War. “The reporting was so utterly and shamelessly biased that I sat there for hours watching, assuming that eventually CNNi would get around to telling the rest of the story . . .but it never happened.” Next to the BBC, CNN Int. looked like it came out of Israeli government press releases.
we’ll be paying for their healthcare here and everything else as well with the new spread the wealth ideology. this is not about taking care of our fellow americans, regardless of how much we may disagree politically or socially, this is about looking after the well being of islamic fascists who want to see western democracy, and its people (that’s us) dead. pretend you are brain dead for the next four years, it will be the only way to survive until we kick out bo and his muslim black separatist pals. winfrey, that dumb hog, hopefully, will go out the window, too.
What’s wrong with the truth? Why not just haul off and call a spade a spade? The truth always remains when the chaff blows off. Tact is sometimes misused and even abused. I think the truth is better, hurt feelings notwhitstanding. When the habibs act up, say so. That’s it. They’ll just have to learn to deal with it.
I don’t think the BBC is fearful. I think they’re sympathetic to the cause du jour (“Islam is a peaceful Religion”). Stupid Libs. They’ll be the first enslaved. “But… we have always supported your cause!” – “Yes, and now you can really support it by converting or dying!”
Once the lamb is enticed into the fold, he is sacrificed and eated. BBC turning into BBQ?
Thanks for the comments. A couple of people have asked why we put up with having to pay for the BBC. If we don’t pay the licence fee we get fined, and can be sent to prison. I’m currently holding out on paying my licence fee, but at some point I’ll either have to pay up or take a stand. If people do take a stand, it’s hard to see where they’re going to get support from. The Conservative party used to make noises about scrapping the licence fee, but these days they’re as much a part of the cultural establishment as Labour (witness David Cameron sticking windmills on his house because he wants to appear ‘caring’, instead of telling the country that global warming alarmism is a scam perpetrated by an unholy alliance of leftists and big business) and they’ve toned down their hostility to the BBC.
i’ll made that observation myself a few years ago and i dont watch bbc now. its too palpable.
Bill in NY wrote:” I find it interesting that the BBC is paid for with taxpayer money, yet it’s the BBC’s fault… not the taxpayers. ”
You Americans really don’t understand the “Jizyah” tax the bbc use to keep themselves in existence do you ? They threaten the British people with a $2000 fine & intimate a prison sentence if you don’t fund their services,it doesn’t matter to them weather you want to use them or not .
You have the right to bear arms we do not ! If we did there is no way the bbc & the thugs they employ would act the way they do
..aparently, Britain is safer from the scenario posed in “V..is for vendetta” than they realised.
Islam is not “just another religion” any more than Jack the Ripper was “just another neighbor”.
Islam is, in reality, an oddball totalitarian death cult, wrapped in the patina of religious legitimacy. Islam is powered by an anonymous, unseen army of deeply religious thugs, who believe they have a God given right to commit violence in the name of Allah. Islam’s success in lasting 1,400 years is not due to its appeal. Islam’s success is due to the power of fear created by these unseen religious thugs.
Yes, there may be 20, 30 or even as high as 40 percent of the Muslim population who, at times, go along with some of the “religious” parts of Islam. But the majority of Muslims are Muslim only because they have no choice. They are simply afraid of this unseen army of devout religious thugs, and unwilling to buck the system.
No different here. Our MSM coddles muslims too and takes extreme efforts to negatively label “Christians” whenever possible. (This is the same thing they do with the “Dem” and “Repub” labels…e.g., you wouldn’t know that Detroit’s felonious mayor was Democrat from the newspapers, but I digress…).
While I think that orgs like the BBC are in support of jihadists, I think more importantly, they are AFRAID of muslims. AFRAID. COWARDS. Salman Rushdie was the warning shot.
We all need to man up against these oppressors and terrorist freaks.
Let’s roll.
Britain, my heart goes out to you. You’ve been corrupted by a bunch of cowardly pc douchebags. We’re having the same problem here in America, too. Do the American thing; tell the Islamists to go to hell.
In the last couple of days I was listening to a BBC news report about terrorism in Pakistan and the spokesman in Pakistan kept calling the terrorists ‘TERRORISTS’. But the BBC man kept calling the terrorists ‘insurgents’.
After the Pakistan spokesman used the word ‘terrorist’a good dozen times in the space of two minutes the BBC man was in despair and terminated the interview early.
Of course the BBC are totally in the ‘tank’ with Osama, both of them!
The biggest factor in the BBC’s deferrence to I-Slam is: they are physical cowards at the BBC, and they knuckle under to the bullies. You see, Muslims KILL people that disagree with them and the Brits in general are scarred to death of the muslims. We’re speaking here of primitive, brutal force to control people and the Brits are soon going to reap the product of their ass kissing cowardice. Their nation will not survive such base appeasement this time, the Yanks don’t care to rescue them again for the 3rd time in a century. They’ll get what they damn well deserve.
They’ll get what they damn well deserve.
Love you too. And by the way, you didn’t “rescue us”. You went into WW2 (eventually) when you were attacked and to boost your flagging economy.
US appeasement of Muslims is just as great, and you’ve nothing at all to feel smug about.
MAry, spare us your comments. Britain is by far the most kneejerked nation towards islam because you are scared to death of the ones living there already.
Maybe France shares your top spot but the decisions taken by your government (with no difference between labour and conservatives) are entirely pro-muslims.
At least USA people are armed.
The only reason islam has been such a success in the west is because it is funded with saudi money. The saudis owns a lot of land and estate in the west. They have infiltrated the UN and EU. They have a lot of politicians and msm people in the pocket. Many on top level are simply bought off and many on middle level are also bought or simply just scared of the muslims. If they make threats, they WILL carry them out, no doubt of that. We need to remove the traitors in our midst, then reclaim everything those saudi bastards own here. Then we start take care of the muslims on our soil. We seriously needs to take care of the saudis of all muslims. Wanna send a serious message to them? May I suggest Ground Zero Mecca and Medina? Don’t think for a minute you in the US are immune to this virus. First Europe, then you’re next! And this might get much faster in US than in Europe with the closet muslim Obama bin Laden at the helm! Wake up, sheeple!
the decisions taken by your government (with no difference between labour and conservatives) are entirely pro-muslims.
What exactly does this mean? Nothing whatsoever.
At least USA people are armed.
Fat lot of good that will do you if you have no brains.
Islam cannot be fully integrated into a culturally Christian society. See what is happening in the Muslim created state of Pakistan
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=16554&t=Pakistani+Christians+told+to+convert+or+die
The sooner we discuss the texts of the Bible next to the much later Qur’an the better, a GCSE level compare and contrast is enough, I think
If we had had the Media we have today in America and Britain then during World War Two they would have been ‘in the tank’ with Hitler and his cronies 100 percent.
There is a very similar attitude in Australia,they have a tax-payer funded Marxist TV station that pours out endless hatred of America through so-called Docu’s and other programs. If you have made an anti-US or anti-Western values programme or want to denigrate anyone even slightly right of centre, SBS-TV will snap up the tape quick smart.They are totally in the tank for the ‘messiah’ and even edit John McCain or Gov Sarah Palin out of the foreign newscasts they are allowed to re-transmit.
If thats not bad enough,the main taxpayer funded ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp)is almost as bad as SBS.In the tank too for ‘beloved leader’.They have both TV and Radio stations by the hundred. At least in America you can hear ‘right of centre opinions’ on radio. Radio in Australia is swamped by the left and far left prattling on their merry Leninist/Marxist way 24 hours a day.Its hard to believe you are actually in a ‘free country’.
One confusion in Australia is that the ‘Liberal’ party is actually the conservative side of politics. They ran the Australia perfectly well for 12 years until November 2007. Then, the Far-Left Unionist Labor Party using the same methods as Blimblam their ‘leader’ conned his way through TV and Radio as a mini pri-madonna,totally in your face for two years or more and just won the Election.The media would never allow any ‘anti’ Krudd comments in their papers before and for awhile afterwards, but by January 2008 had realised they had helped elect the most incomptent bunch of pre-schoolers Australia will ever endure.
At Krudd’s first overseas trip to Europe no-one knew who he was and at receptions presumed he was one of the waiters and kept asking him to bring around more drinks.
Americans used to say that ‘God was on our side’. Lets hope it rings true in November.
mary jackson, if you have reading comprehension seek for an adult that can help you.
Bending over backwards for muslims reduced the level of blood to your brain.
Mary Jackson wrote:
“And by the way, you didn’t “rescue us”. You went into WW2 (eventually) when you were attacked and to boost your flagging economy.”
Actually, Mary, yes we did rescue you. France too. Our motive for getting into the European war is not especially relevant. What is relevant is that we did choose to get into it and had we not done so, England would almost certainly have been starved into submission by 1942 and would had to have negotiated a separate peace with the Nazis.
However, I agree with you that we Americans have little about which to be smug. We are allowing ourselves to be dragged down the same road as Europe.