Wintons week If The BBC Won’t Defend Free Speech, What Is It For? Kilroy-Silk Affair Underlines BBC’s Cowardice A Story Idea For The BBC; How Does Islam Treat Its People? BBC Must Be Broken Up; And How About A Red Card For The CRE It is entirely in keeping with the corrupt and Britain-hating bureaucracy that is the modern BBC that it caved in to the useless Campaign for Racial Equality, and Muslim organisations, and decided to try and bully Robert Kilroy-Silk and the Sunday Express into submission. The BBC should believe in free speech above all else. Here’s one valuable thing that the BBC could do as our monopoly public broadcaster. Instead of surrendering to hysterical and groundless charges of racism, it should try taking a serious look at Arab states, and how their people are served by their adherence to Islam. Kilroy-Silk’s article, knocking Arabs in particular and Muslims by implication, only said what the majority of the country believes. It is a matter of fact that Islamists were responsible for the killing of 3,000 innocents in the World Trade Center, and many other acts of terror. Everybody knows that deranged Muslims kill themselves and innocent women and children with indiscriminate bombs in Israel. We are told that mainstream Muslims don’t support these kinds of actions, but the majority seems rather quiet on the subject, in my judgement. But the BBC, adding more evidence by the day to the cause for breaking up its broadcasting monopoly, said it “strongly disassociates itself” from the former Labour MP’s comments. Inconsistent The Sunday Telegraph points out that this BBC action is inconsistent, to say the least, with its treatment of Tom Paulin, an Oxford tutor, who said in a newspaper article that Jews living in Israeli occupied territories were Nazis and should be killed. Paulin continued to pontificate on Newsnight Review after these outrageous remarks. The BBC doesn’t understand what its role is. It exists to allow freedom of speech. One of its more downmarket and ignorant programmes is fronted by Kilroy-Silk. It doesn’t follow that everything Kilroy-Silk says or thinks has to be filtered through some BBC rulebook. He has opinions and in a free country should be allowed to express them. “We stress that these comments do not reflect the views of the BBC. The BBC is taking Kilroy off air (sic) immediately while we investigate this matter fully.” BBC - Keep Your Views Out Of Our News Listen to me, BBC. Nobody thought that his views did reflect the BBC’s. The BBC by definition can’t possible have views. We only want you to report news and opinion, without fear or favour. That’s the BBC’s only job, and what a hash it is making of it. Whoever was responsible for BBC’s statement to the media should be fired. What pomposity. What self-righteousness. What wrong-headedness. The BBC is a conduit for free speech. If certain sections of the population don’t like it, so what. Nick Hyams, the BBC’s media correspondent, also seems to be confused about the corporation’s role. In a news bulletin on Saturday he said that the BBC was caught in the middle of the controversy and didn’t want to take sides. On the contrary, the BBC had a clear role, which it has abused. It should stand by the right in a free society for free expression. Far from being caught in the middle, the BBC has funked its job and made the problem worse. Absurd Philips/CRE Every time the absurd bully Trevor Philips of the Campaign for Racial Equality feels aggrieved about some racial insult, which exists only in his warped mind, he dials 999 and demands action. The shame of it is that in this country today his calls to the police are returned and taken seriously. A mature and serious democracy would laugh at the idiotic Philips, and close down his tax funded organisation forthwith. Various Muslim organisations have been equally egregious in their bleatings about Kilroy-Silk. The more they demand action against the former Labour MP, the more they show a complete lack of understanding of what Britain stands for. Unfortunately and shamefully the BBC is giving these anti-free speech factions its backing. Not Above Criticism Let me remind the BBC why Arab governments and the Muslim religion are not perfect and should be liable for their fair share of criticism. “With all their oil wealth, why are there no Muslim countries among the top 30 of the world’s richest nations. Why is it that two-thirds of the world’s poorest people live in Muslim countries? Why, in the last 20 years, have over 2 million people died in conflicts involving Muslim communities? Why are democracy and the rule of law nonexistent in most Muslim states? Why do Muslims carry out many of the worst actions of terrorism?” said former U.S. Ambassador James Bissett, in the foreword to Serge Trifkovic’s book “The Sword of the Prophet – Islam history, theology, impact on the world”. Arabs and Muslims surely can be subject to critical examination. Kept In Poverty Muslims are kept in poverty by the absurdity of some of their religious beliefs. For instance, they are not allowed to pay interest on loans, surely not a great help towards economic development and the relief of need. Arab states often condemn women to a slave-like existence. Muslims use outdated beliefs to torture animals to death because of a contradictory section in the Koran which starts off by urging vegetarianism, and ends up saying that if needs must its ok to eat meat. Trifkovic, in his book, says Islam is a totalitarian ideology, and engenders a closing of the mind in its adherents. “To understand the reality of Islam’s record, one should not compare it to Judaism or Christianity but match it against modern totalitarian ideologies, notably Bolshevism and National Socialism.” “Islam and Communism differ from Nazism only in their inability to create a viable economy,” Trifkovic said. Enslaved, Brutalised, Dehumanised Trikfovic said Muslims are enslaved, brutalized and dehumanised by Islam. “The all-pervasive lack of freedom is the hallmark of the Muslim world. Discrimination against non-coreligionists and women of all creeds, racism, slavery, virulent anti-Semitism and cultural imperialism can be found – individually or in various combinations – in different cultures and eras. Islam alone has them all at once, all the time, and divinely sanctioned at that,” says Trikfovic. Inayat Bunglawala, secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain’s Media Committee, in an article in the Sunday Express entitled “Why Kilroy-Silk was so wrong”, attempts to undermine Kilroy-Silk’s assertions about the corruption and uselessness of various Arab states. But his list of achievements comes to a shuddering halt about 500 years ago. What Went Wrong? Nobody can doubt that Arab nations were the leading culture many centuries ago, but this suddenly ended, prompting Professor Bernard Lewis’ book “What Went Wrong?” Lewis, called the world’s foremost Islamic scholar by the Wall Street Journal, said many Muslim states' combination of tyranny at home and terrorism abroad failed by every measure of governmental achievement except survival. Many aspects of Islam had not moved on with the times and were a bar to progress towards a thriving middle class, which has propelled economic development in the West. Contempt, Uselessness The idea that Arab states are above criticism is patronising and not likely to lead to any improvement in their peoples’ condition. The Church of England is not above mockery. Just thinking about the laughable new Archbishop of Canterbury kick-starts thoughts of contempt and uselessness, so why can’t we mock corrupt Arab states or Islam without the BBC having a fit of the vapours? Instead of caving in to politically correct pressure the BBC should remember its mission to promote truth and understanding. If it can’t make a brave stand to back freedom and openness, it truly has come to the end of its useful life. Neil Winton – January 11, 2004 Top