BBC 'CENSORED CHRISTIAN PARTY BROADCAST' 29/4/2008- The BBC is facing a
High Court challenge over its decision to censor a party political
broadcast in the run-up to Thursday's local elections. A Christian
party has begun legal action after the corporation insisted on changes
to a short film in which the party voiced opposition to the building of
Europe's biggest mosque next to the site of the 2012 Olympics. Tablighi
Jamaat, the Islamic missionary group behind the £75 million Abbey Mills
mosque, opposes inter-faith dialogue and preaches that non-Muslims are
an evil and corrupting influence. One of its British advocates has said
that it aims to rescue Muslims from the culture and civilisation of
Jews and Christians by creating "such hatred for their ways as human
beings have for urine and excreta". The Christian Choice election
broadcast would have described Tablighi Jamaat as "a separatist Islamic
group" before welcoming that some "moderate Muslims" were opposed to
the mosque complex. Alan Craig, the party's candidate in the London
mayoral election, also on Thursday, said that he was forced to change
the wording at the insistence of lawyers at the BBC and ITV, which will
also feature in the court action. The BBC refused to accept
"separatist" - the corporation asked for "controversial" instead - and
barred the use of "moderate Muslims" because the phrase implied that
Tablighi Jamaat was less than moderate. ITV went a step farther,
demanding that the adjective "controversial" be used merely to describe
the planned mosque and not the group itself. Mr Craig, a councillor in
Newham, East London, the site of the proposed development, said that
his party reluctantly agreed to a watered-down version that was
acceptable to the BBC and ITV. The amended five-minute film was aired
in the London area on Wednesday last week, but papers will be lodged in
the High Court today to seek a judicial review of the broadcasters'
actions. If the action succeeds, Mr Craig hopes that the televison
companies will be forced to screen his original film before voters go
to the polls. "This was a politically correct attempt to close down
reasoned discussion and debate. It's a matter of freedom of speech and
democracy," he said. "People rub along fairly well together in the East
End of London, all different communities, faiths, colours and
nationalities, but Tablighi Jamaat have been antagonistic separatists
since they were founded."
Tablighi Jamaat was founded in India in 1926. It is closely linked to
the ultra-conservative Deobandi school of thought, which gave birth to
the Taleban in Afghanistan and is becoming increasingly powerful in
Britain. Its leaders claim millions of adherents worldwide and insist
that the secretive Sunni group - which has traditionally shunned all
publicity - is peaceful and apolitical. A spokesman for the Abbey Mills
project said last night that Tablighi Jamaat was an open organisation
that preached neither separatism nor extremism. International
intelligence agencies, however, say that the revivalist movement has
acted, in some instances, as a gateway to terrorism. Adherents have
been linked to atrocities, including the 7/7 suicide attack on London.
More than 2,500 Muslims have signed a petition against the project and
its opponents include Irfan alAlawi, the international director of the
Centre for Islamic Pluralism, and Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, who
co-founded the Muslim Parliament of Britain. Taj Hargey, chairman of
the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, said that the proposed mosque
would become "the headquarters for radical . . . sectarianism in the
UK". He accused Tablighi Jamaat of preaching "a virulent, intolerant
version of Islam". Neither the BBC nor ITV would discuss its specific
concerns. Faisal Iqbal, 25, a member of Tablighi Jamaat who is also an
IT consultant and part of the Abbey Mills project team, said last night
that it was wrong to suggest that the movement had a separatist agenda.
"When comments by some Tablighi Jamaat supporters are read out of
context they may seem to be separatist, but what we're trying to
discuss is distancing ourselves from beliefs which move us away from
belief in God and which take us into things we consider to be a sin,"
he said. "Stopping all interaction with people who are non-Muslims has
never been a doctrine of Islam. Our religion says we must treat our
neighbours with the highest regard, regardless of their religion."
© The Times Online http://www.timesonl
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