Lee Rigby Murder trial

[dance2drop]

Has anybody noticed the played down coverage of the Trial of the two men who are charged with murdering Lee Rigby ?

I didn't know until yesterday that the trial was ongoing at the moment.
If it had been a person murdered in the same way perpetrated by another religion we would have had it rammed down our throats at every opportunity.

[Teddy Bear]

I felt this topic better belonged here Dance.

Though there are articles available on the BBC website concerning this trial, I would agree that if it was a different mindset other than radical Muslims involved the articles would probably be far more numerous.

As it is, while we are informed that this murder was committed 'as revenge because of Muslim deaths due to our forces actions, the articles don't tell the reader that the perpetrators are Muslims, or explore the mentality that their actions display.

[charmbrights]

Nov 30, 2013 16:10:20 GMT dance2drop said:

Has anybody noticed the played down coverage of the Trial of the two men who are charged with murdering Lee Rigby? ...

Yes <wearily> but it's only what I expected - minimal coverage of the practical application of Sharia law (unofficially and illegally) in the UK.

[dance2drop]

I might have said this before, so apologies.

After the guilty verdict was given out on the news on the trial of the two scumbags who murdered him, we heard that some of the Muslim community were given the chance to say what they thought ? On a positive note, whoever they interviewed did condemn the act of some of their ilk.

Typical BBC, why didn't they interview white British people ?

If they bend over backwards any more, they will suffer severe backache.

[Teddy Bear]

Not everybody in the Muslim community that was interviewed by the BBC were against the killing of Lee Rigby.

There's a lot of criticism that the BBC chose to interview Anjem Choudary, the man who may well be responsible for having turned these apparently 'nice Christian boys' into extremist Islamic killers.

Why is the BBC giving this man a platform? Backlash after hate preacher Anjem Choudary is invited onto Radio 4 after two Muslim converts are found guilty of hacking soldier to death

• Outraged listeners question the corporation's decision to give radical Islamist the prime interview slot on the Today programme
  
• Broadcasting regulator Ofcom confirm they have received a complaint
  
• Anjem Choudary refused to condemn the actions of Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, convicted of the brutal murder of Lee Rigby
  
• Lord Carlile, former anti-terror adviser to the Government, said the public 'should be disgusted' by Mr Choudary who 'offends law abiding Muslims'
  
• Met Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick tells Panorama she 'looks forward to the day' the force can bring Mr Choudary to justice
  
• The Muslim Council of Britain claims the BBC was 'unwise' adding the community is united in its condemnation of the Woolwich murder
  
• David Cameron slammed the radical preacher's views as 'absolutely despicable' and called for his 'poisonous narrative' to be 'trashed'
  
• BBC spokesman said careful consideration was given to coverage of Fusilier Rigby's death adding Mr Choudary was 'robustly challenged'

By Lizzie Parry

Angry listeners have today questioned why BBC bosses chose to give hate preacher Anjem Choudary the prime interview slot on the Today programme after two Muslim converts were found guilty of hacking a British solider to death.

The radical Islamist appeared on the corporation's Radio 4 show where he refused to condemn the horrific murder of Lee Rigby on the streets of London, despite repeated calls from presenter John Humphreys to do so.

Muslim converts Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, were yesterday convicted of the young soldier’s brutal murder.

The pair were told they face life behind bars and will be sentenced in the new year.

But the 45-year-old former leader of Islam4UK, a banned Islamist group, refused to condemn their actions, instead blaming the barbaric murder on British foreign policy.

As the interview aired at 8.10am, listeners immediately took to Twitter to share their disgust.

Mr Choudary said: 'I think that to talk about condemnation or to talk about how we feel is not the most important question now, and I'm not going to go down that road.

'I think that what is important is to learn lessons from what has taken place. Whether you agree or disagree with what took place, you cannot predict the actions of one individual among a population of 60 million when the Government is clearly at war in Muslim countries.

'I condemn those who have caused what has taken place on the streets of London, and I believe that the cause of this is David Cameron and his foreign policy.'

Reacting to Mr Choudary's comments the Muslim Council of Britain said the BBC was 'unwise' to give him airtime.

A spokesman said their condemnation of Lee Rigby's murder comes from a 'deeply held belief in Islam and the premium it places on the right to life'.

He told MailOnline: 'The murder of Drummer Lee Rigby was truly a barbaric act. Muslim communities then, as now, were united in their condemnation of this crime.

'This was a dishonourable act and no cause justifies cold-blooded murder.

'Mr Choudary is a self-serving publicity seeker and the BBC was unwise to give him so much airtime, unchallenged.

'He relies on the oxygen of publicity to influence impressionable young people at the margins of society.

'It is unfortunate that Lord Carlile feels the mainstream Muslim community is not doing enough to condemn Mr Choudary's views, but if this morning's Today programme is anything to go by, our community remains voiceless compared to the coverage Mr Choudary enjoys.'

He added: 'Our condemnation of the Woolwich murder and the extremism and terrorism it represents comes from our deeply held belief in Islam and the premium it places on the right to life.'

David Cameron slammed Mr Choudray's views as 'absolutely despicable and appalling', and described him as 'a minority of a minority of a minority' who did not represent the mainstream of British Muslims.

His 'poisonous narrative' should be 'trashed', said the Prime Minister.

Mr Cameron, speaking at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, said: 'This is an absolutely classic case of that poisonous narrative of extremism and violence. We must defeat it by demonstrating what a minority view it is.'

Asked about whether Mr Choudray should have been interviewed on the Today programme, he said that was a matter for the BBC.

'It is actually important that we make sure these views are properly examined and then properly trashed for all to see. He is a minority of a minority of a minority and should be treated as such.'

In the backlash that followed, broadcasting regulator Ofcom confirmed they have received a complaint from a listener who was 'offended by the comments' made on the show.

Also speaking on the show was Lord Carlile, the former Government anti-terror adviser, who urged the Muslim community to publicly speak out against Mr Choudary's views and actions.

He said: 'Mr Choudary is a demagogue, he does not like the United Kingdom, he does not believe in democracy.

'He is an outrageously bad influence on young Muslims and he offends the law abiding Muslim community who are proud to be British.

'We now need to hear much more from the young leaders of the Muslim community about how they condemn his actions.

OFCOM INVESTIGATES THE BBC

In July broadcasting regulator Ofcom had launched an investigation into the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 over their decision to give airtime to Anjem Choudary after soldier Lee Rigby’s murder.

Shocked viewers complained when the radical cleric refused to condemn the killing in Woolwich in interviews with Channel 4 News, BBC2’s Newsnight and ITV’s Daybreak following Fusilier Rigby’s death on May 22.

Conservative peer Baroness Warsi said at the time that hate preachers who are ‘idiots and nutters’ should not be put on air.

She added she was ‘really angry’ that broadcasters were ‘giving a platform to one appalling man who represents nobody’.

After receiving 22 complaints from viewers, Ofcom has launched an official probe.

The watchdog said there were grounds to look at whether the programmes met ‘acceptable standards’.

Choudary appeared on Channel 4 News and Newsnight on May 23. He told Kirsty Wark on the BBC2 show he was ‘shocked’ by the murder but did not ‘abhor’ it.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the Government had to look at ‘whether we’ve got the right processes, the right rules in place in relation to what is being beamed into people’s homes’.

'I think British imams should be more ready than they are to preach the antidote to people like Mr Choudary from their pulpits, which in my view unfortunately they don't.

'I think that there is a great need for the Muslim religious community in the United Kingdom to realise how serious the challenge made by Mr Choudary is, which runs the risk of criminalising a small number, but a very important small number, of Muslims in the UK.

'Very few Muslim leaders agree with him. The public listening should be disgusted Mr Choudary will not condemn the hacking to death with a meat cleaver of an innocent British solider.'

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick told last night's Panorama that the police regard Mr Choudary as 'a very bad influence on people' and looked forward to the day when he could be successfully prosecuted.

'When he is not committing a crime, but simply speaking in a way that is allowed by the law, clearly that's not a job for the police,' she said.

But asked if the Met would be keeping close watch on him, she said: 'We absolutely are and we have been and we look forward to the day when we can bring him to justice.'

A spokesman for the BBC said the corporation had carefully considered their coverage of Fusilier Rigby's murder and added the views of Mr Choudary were 'robustly' challenged by presenter John Humphreys and Lord Carlile.

He said: 'We have given great consideration to our reporting of the Woolwich murder and the subsequent trial, and carried a wide range of views from across the political and religious spectrums.

'We have a responsibility to both report on the story and try to shed light on why it happened. We believe it is important to reflect the fact that such opinions exist and feel that Choudary’s comments may offer some insight into how this crime came about.

'His views were robustly challenged by both the presenter, John Humphrys and by Lord Carlile, the government’s former anti-terrorism adviser.'

During his rant on the show, Mr Choudary, the former leading member of banned extremist organisation Al-Muhajiroun said he was 'very proud' of killer Michael Adebolajo as 'a practising Muslim and a family man', but 'differed' with him about the interpretation of Islam which he used to justify the murder.

Formerly a Christian, Adebolajo converted to Islam and became a member of Al-Muhajiroun, taking on the name Brother Mujahid.

BBC1's Panorama broadcast interviews with acquaintances who said he was heavily influenced by Mr Choudary's preaching.

One former friend told the programme: 'We saw videos of him. He went to his lectures. He would talk about him with respect, that he admires the person.

'He said he is a very good influence and we should also go to his lectures and follow him.'

Asked about comments by Al-Muhajiroun founder Omar Bakri Mohammed, who said he was 'proud' of Adebolajo, Mr Choudary said: 'He was talking about Brother Mujahid in terms of the fact that he has been invited into Islam, he is a practising Muslim, he is a family man and by all accounts I'm very proud of him as well, but as for the incident we are talking about something where we differ about the Islamic opinion that he adopts.

'I can't control what the youth do. The sad reality is that people have cut off individuals like Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, Sheikh Abu Qatada and myself, they ban organisations who are in fact channeling the energy of the youth through demonstrations and processions.

'These people are now going online, finding al-Qaida, swallowing that narrative and seeing Britain as a battlefield.'

In understanding what the BBC call 'robustly challenged', here's the observation of Tom Chivers at the Telegraph

The BBC putting Anjem Choudary on the Today programme isn't 'free speech'. It's trolling
By Tom Chivers

People get a bit confused about freedom of speech. They don't always see the line between "being allowed to talk" and "other people having to listen". It's a conversation I have every so often in the comments here – the fact that you're not allowed to say something on our website does not mean you're not allowed to say it (comments are off, by the way). And I've seen people complain, when some celebrity or other blocks them on Twitter for one abusive tweet too many, that they've had their freedom of speech trampled on. No: the celebrity has simply employed their freedom to ignore you.

This morning, the BBC will be employing the "free speech" defence. They had Anjem Choudary, the fringe Islamist extremist – who calls for the imposition of sharia in Britain, and the whipping of Muslim restaurateurs in London's Brick Lane if they serve alcohol – talking about the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby on the prime 8.10am interview slot on the Today programme. That's the slot they usually give to people like George Osborne or Ed Miliband. You know, quite important people. They will, without doubt, argue that it's important that all voices be heard.

But that is, without wanting to put too fine a point on it, nonsense. Choudary no more represents mainstream British Muslims that the Westboro Baptist Church represents American Christians. He is a fringe voice in a fringe community. He has, for instance, 6,700 Twitter followers – around half that, to pick an example pretty much at random, of Julian Huppert, the Lib Dem MP for Cambridge. His YouTube channel, in which he talks about the establishment of an Islamic caliphate, has 1,300 subscribers. For comparison, the Slow Mo Guys, two British public schoolboys who blow stuff up and film it on a super-high-speed camera and say "dude" a lot, have somewhat over three million.

My point is, no one actually cares what this guy thinks, apart from a few furious bedroom loners. He is not a great leader of the Muslim disaffected. He is not the voice of radical Islam. He's a Muslim David Icke.

The thing is, it's obvious why the BBC have got him on. As someone who commissions pieces around here, I know the temptation, and so does everyone else on every newspaper. It's the same reason the Sun have hired Katie Hopkins, and why she gets so many appearances on BBC Breakfast: because she'll say something outrageous and get the Twittersphere raging and get people like me writing pieces about how ghastly it is and so on, and it'll get lots of rubbernecking car-crash traffic from people rubbing themselves all over in the thrill of being appalled. ("And how does I'm-so-appalled traffic show up in the ratings?" "It shows up the same, my friend. It shows up just the same.")

You can't, sadly, defend it like that, by saying "we run it because you idiots will click on it". Not if you're the BBC, and you're supposed to be above such grubby things. So you say that you're "starting a conversation", and that you're "allowing all voices to be heard". In a liberal democracy, you say, gravely, it is important that we defend the right of free speech, even for those of whom we disapprove.

And that's true. But – and this is where we came in – defending the right of free speech does not mean providing a platform. It does not mean giving a loudhailer. It does not mean giving a man who (thankfully) only a minority of people have heard of, who represents nobody but a lunatic fringe, an audience of millions, so that he can tell them that Britain is a war zone.

Anjem Choudary is an idiot and a thug, who wants to exploit the horror of Woolwich to make his own fatuous points about British foreign policy (as though Michael Adebowale's mental illness was brought about by the invasion of Iraq). He should be free to do so, in his hate-filled little corner of the internet. But by giving this Samantha Brick of radical Islam a platform, the BBC has gone beyond "defending free speech" and started trolling us.

[dance2drop]

Wasn't aware that Anjem Choudary has been given air space. I've heard it all now

[Teddy Bear]

Probably better for your blood pressure that you weren't aware of it