BBC’s Terrorists in Need
How did cash from the network's telethons for children end up in the hands of the 7/7 London bombers?
Those familiar with the BBC’s bias towards and promotion of the Islamic faith and its regular apologias on behalf of Islamic extremism will have barely raised an eyebrow at the news that £20,000 from one of the corporation’s charity appeals ended up in the hands of the Muslim terrorists who murdered 52 people in London in 2005.
The money, raised by the BBC’s Children in Need telethons, was given to a “community school” in the northern English city of Leeds — a hotbed of Islamic extremism — between 1999 and 2002. The school passed the money to an Islamic bookshop run by two of the men who bombed London on July 7, 2005, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. Khan and Tanweer used the money to produce propaganda videos and other materials that were used to radicalize other young Muslim men.
It should be said that neither the BBC nor the charity’s trustees knew the money was going to promote jihad. It’s also worth noting that the scandal was uncovered by the BBC’s own Newsnight program — although the program, which stands out among the corporation’s news operations in its willingness to tackle stories about Islamic extremism, airs on the BBC’s second channel in a late-night slot, and it was left to newspapers to give the story wider coverage. (You can watch the Newsnight report here.)
However, this isn’t the first time the BBC has found itself in the embarrassing position of trying to explain away links, however indirect, to Muslim terrorists. Last year it emerged that the corporation paid for two men who were later convicted of terror offenses to go on a paintballing trip as part of a documentary, and failed to notify police when one of the men admitted to a researcher that he knew members of the cell that tried unsuccessfully to bomb the Tube network two weeks after the July 7 attacks.
For an organization like the BBC to find itself associated with Islamic terrorists once could be considered unfortunate; for it to happen twice smacks of carelessness. But then the political and cultural mindset of the BBC, rooted as it is in the twin shibboleths of political correctness and multiculturalism, makes incidents such as these inevitable.
With regard to Islam, the mindset dictates that any religion which challenges the Judeo-Christian hegemony so despised by the Left must necessarily be a good thing — particularly if the majority of its adherents happen to have dark skin — and so under no circumstances must anything be broadcast that might possibly offend Muslims. (Don’t take it from me — take it from the leading BBC figures who admitted as much during an “impartiality summit.”)
It follows that when violence is done in the name of Islam, the only possible explanations are that the religion has been “hijacked” or that those who perpetrated the violence must have suffered some unbearable provocation. Thus, a person who blows innocent civilians to pieces on a Tube train can be seen as effecting an extreme but understandable response to some wicked act of Western imperialism.
And when, intermittently, some terror attack or court case forces the BBC to report on the radicalization of British Muslims, the resulting stories inevitably include the words “British and American foreign policy” within the first few paragraphs. As concern over Islamic extremism has grown in recent years, the BBC’s efforts to downplay the problem have intensified. And so we get endless stories about the “challenges” facing British Muslims trying to integrate into society and light-hearted reports about burqa fashion shows and other “quirky” aspects of Islamic life. Meanwhile, the BBC has effectively banned the use of the word “terrorist” in reference to atrocities carried out by Islamists, while just this weekend BBC reporter Lyse Doucet told a broadcasting conference that the Western media was failing to convey the “humanity” of the Taliban to viewers.
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Mike McNally blogs at Monkey Tennis Centre.
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8 Comments
1. 49erDweet:Generally Brits are doomed by their centuries of upbringing in a class-based society to a lifetime of never comprehending or appreciating the difference between assimilating and segreating their immigrants. They believe with their “rational” minds that as long as they honor and recognize [whatever that means] the others who are not like them it will be “enough” for those to live their lives separately but sort of equally. Almost. Though Brits are also unclear on just what “enough” really is, too.
Most Yanks, otoh, believe immigrants should assimilate and not ghettoize themselves, though a significant number of liberals might argue against this. [Query. Why are socialistic liberals so intent on re-establishing a class-based society? Never mind, answered my own question.] America understands the overwhelming value of assimilation, and insists on it.
The BBC folk merely reflect the UK class to which they aspire to belong. Few Brits will admit the Beebs are off base on this, though. Ah, the advantages of controlling a government sanction monopoly. The hoi polloi don’t even understand there is a problem.
Aug 27, 2008 - 2:14 pm 2. Tyler1984:49erDweet: Your belief that America demands assimilation is a nice sentiment – I only wish it were true. African-Americans and Hispanics (whether they be citizens or illegal immigrants) do have the tendency to “ghettoize” themselves and expect a liberal government ot take care of them – read: Nanny State / socialism
Aug 27, 2008 - 3:36 pm 3. richard flohill:“BBC reporter Lyse Doucet”
Canadian readers may correct me, but that name sounds familiar. I believe she is a graduate of our own loony left CBC.
Aug 28, 2008 - 7:04 am 4. boazhorribilis:I have to say that the facts do not surprise me. The BBC has been at the front of the efforts to turn British society in to this multi-culti witch’s brew. For sure, the Government was in it up to their eyeballs and still are.
Recently, a young British couple on their honeymoon in Antigua were brutally murdered during a robbery at the hotel they were staying, on the last day of their vacation. Whitehall (read Gov’t here) delayed by a few days sending much needed help to the Antiguan police because: if they found the perpetrators, under Antiguan law they might get the death penalty. Help eventually arrived after much hand wringing by the imbeciles in charge and there are a couple of suspects in custody. Such are the dilemmas of the British government agents when it comes to protecting their citizens. Disgusting and eventually self defeating.
All I can say is that unfortunately, more hideous things are yet to come for the Brits at the hands of their government. Do not forget that the BBC is fully funded by the overtaxed British tax payer! Within a couple of generations, Britain will be a shell of what it used to be unless some new, sane direction is found politically and socially to preserve its identity and security.
Aug 28, 2008 - 11:03 am 5. john from cinncinati:tyler1984: nice try on the ghetto issue, which Hispanics do you mean? Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Central Americans. maybe its the governor of New Mexico, you were talking about. why, just the other day i was told, i was very Americanized. which is funny in itself cuz i’ve never thought of myself as anything else.
Aug 28, 2008 - 11:39 am 6. Bugs:so what do you think the final solution is to the British problem?
Seems to me black people were forcibly ghettoized and are still working on getting un-ghettoized. But that has nothing to do with the BBC kissing up to terrorists.
Aug 28, 2008 - 12:45 pm 7. Rob:The BBC, when it does actually specify the race of terrorist suspects (not often), now uses the term “British Asian” instead of “Muslim”. For one thing, are they British or Asian? The other thing, is that in order not to give offence to perhaps 1bn Muslims worldwide (which as we know is a demographic hypersensitive to taking offence), they are now offending 2.5bn Chinese and Hindus by lumping them all together as “Asians” and exposing them to suspicion of terrorist offences!
In other news reports about arrests of terrorists and searches of property, the BBC does not identify that the suspects were even Asian, let alone Islamic. It was left to the reader to interpret the article to find out – and the signs were there, of course. When the police said that the searches would be carried out “with sensitivity”, only one demographic group in the UK is blessed with such treatment, and the puzzle was solved.
What is strange is that the BBC seems to think that if they don’t report the motivations of Islamic terrorists, people will not think for themselves and fill in the obvious gaps. They will, of course, and all that happens is that you now have a majority population which resents a certain demographic for the extremism in their midst and which also distrusts the national broadcaster, the self-styled “national treasure” and Voice of the Nation (TM).
Aug 29, 2008 - 6:25 am 8. Shocked!:It reminds me of an incident back when Canada (under the Liberal party) needed to replace the two dollar bill & one dollar bill with coins. Titles for these two new coins had to be invented. During a meeting of Canadian politicians at the House of Commons with the presence of CBC, (the equivalency of BBC), the speaker asked all members of Parliament grab a pen, piece of paper & write down a possible title. They were given 5 minutes, in which afterwards a vote will take place on the two titles. The politicians sat in deep thought looking for the answer. Suddenly their focus turned to one another & the members of the liberal media (CBC). As they carefully scanned each other, after some thorough examination, all spontaneously wrote something down. We now have the LOONIE’s & TOONIE’s.
Aug 31, 2008 - 8:56 pm