Post by Teddy Bear on Sept 11, 2012 23:21:07 GMT
Screening of controversial Channel 4 documentary on history of Islam cancelled after presenter is threatened
I watched this documentary when it first aired, and it certainly raised some important issues concerning the origins of Islam. The main ones was there was little or no evidence to substantiate the ones that were popularly accepted or desired.
What is a fact, is that regardless of its origins, the menace that Islam is used to propagate is a reality today. It also shows that those extremists who believe themselves to follow this 'faith' have no substance to absorb the challenges that this documentary presents. Instead they resort to threats in an effort to diminish the doubts raised by it.
Clearly they haven''t even learned from history that all energy expended to silence something, generally fuels it.
For now the dhimmitude of the media, as evidenced daily by the BBC in their presentation of Islam, is duplicated here by Channel 4.
I watched this documentary when it first aired, and it certainly raised some important issues concerning the origins of Islam. The main ones was there was little or no evidence to substantiate the ones that were popularly accepted or desired.
What is a fact, is that regardless of its origins, the menace that Islam is used to propagate is a reality today. It also shows that those extremists who believe themselves to follow this 'faith' have no substance to absorb the challenges that this documentary presents. Instead they resort to threats in an effort to diminish the doubts raised by it.
Clearly they haven''t even learned from history that all energy expended to silence something, generally fuels it.
For now the dhimmitude of the media, as evidenced daily by the BBC in their presentation of Islam, is duplicated here by Channel 4.
Channel 4 cancels Tom Holland’s history of Islam, but the extremists will not win
Douglas Murray 11 September 2012 18:30
Channel 4 has cancelled a screening of Tom Holland's 'Islam: the untold story' after the presenter was threatened by extremists. Image: Getty.
In what may prove to be the most depressingly predictable story of the year, we learn that Channel 4 has chosen to cancel a screening of Tom Holland’s programme ‘Islam: the untold story‘ tomorrow night because of threats to the author and presenter.
If there is a reason why so many stories and facts to do with Islam remain ‘untold’ it is simply because of this. None of the people who threatened Tom Holland even have to mean it — the threat is enough to ensure that Channel 4 don’t go ahead. I don’t blame them, and have seen this happen too many times, in too many different countries, to be surprised. Not all threats have to be taken seriously (the Tom Daley Twitter case being one such example), but when they come from quarters which have acted on such threats before then they should be.
Nevertheless what one might term as these ‘hard’ attempts to silence a discussion as well as the slightly ‘softer’ efforts to censor Mr Holland and Channel 4 (discussed in my previous post on this subject) are a scandal and I hope they receive the widespread disgust they deserve. The fact that extremists can stop a screening should be worrying to everybody who cares about our free societies.
But as I said before, those who are trying to stop this debate — even if they succeed for a short time — will lose in the long term. Such people are, essentially, Canutes — albeit dangerous ones. People who try to stop factual, historical, inquiry are shouting — often very unpleasantly — at the waves to stop. But the waves will not stop. They will continue to come roaring in, whether tomorrow night’s screening occurs or not.
Douglas Murray 11 September 2012 18:30
Channel 4 has cancelled a screening of Tom Holland's 'Islam: the untold story' after the presenter was threatened by extremists. Image: Getty.
In what may prove to be the most depressingly predictable story of the year, we learn that Channel 4 has chosen to cancel a screening of Tom Holland’s programme ‘Islam: the untold story‘ tomorrow night because of threats to the author and presenter.
If there is a reason why so many stories and facts to do with Islam remain ‘untold’ it is simply because of this. None of the people who threatened Tom Holland even have to mean it — the threat is enough to ensure that Channel 4 don’t go ahead. I don’t blame them, and have seen this happen too many times, in too many different countries, to be surprised. Not all threats have to be taken seriously (the Tom Daley Twitter case being one such example), but when they come from quarters which have acted on such threats before then they should be.
Nevertheless what one might term as these ‘hard’ attempts to silence a discussion as well as the slightly ‘softer’ efforts to censor Mr Holland and Channel 4 (discussed in my previous post on this subject) are a scandal and I hope they receive the widespread disgust they deserve. The fact that extremists can stop a screening should be worrying to everybody who cares about our free societies.
But as I said before, those who are trying to stop this debate — even if they succeed for a short time — will lose in the long term. Such people are, essentially, Canutes — albeit dangerous ones. People who try to stop factual, historical, inquiry are shouting — often very unpleasantly — at the waves to stop. But the waves will not stop. They will continue to come roaring in, whether tomorrow night’s screening occurs or not.