You are in:
- Archives » 2006 » February 2006
The Cringe Continues
The BBC's religious rebirth continues. It's incredible how reporters who up to recently prided themselves on their godless scepticism now find room in their hearts for a misty-eyed vision of other belief systems.
Ross Hawkins' report from Saturday's protest in London sounds more like a review of the Glastonbury festival than objective coverage of a demonstration. Its fawning, boke-inducing title "Prayer mats lined the pavements" suggests a parade on the scale of the Diana memorial or 2003's anti-war protests. No: This was a demonstration by 3000 people, not the 50,000 organisers promised, never mind the 100,000 they said they would bring last week.
The feature plays up the admittedly reasonable nature of the demonstrators, though leaves out the rather important fact that the core of their protest was a criticism of free speech - something you'd think would be rather important to a BBC journalist.
Anyway, what are we to make of the low turnout? That the parade organisers couldn't find more than 3000 moderates? Or that the vast majority of Britain's Muslims have better things to do with their Saturday than protest against silly drawings?
Hawkins glosses over it, preferring a puff piece on the Britishness of the protestors. He lets slip, though, that rogue MP George Galloway, who spoke at the demo, was listened to in "respectful silence" apart from some heckling youngsters. A parade that invites Galloway as a guest speaker is hardly innocent or apolitical.
Over in Paris, a slightly larger parade passed without incident. The main part of the demo passed along the city's Boulevard Voltaire, suggesting that the organisers hadn't paid too much attention in French history class - or that like all literalists, they missed the irony of stomping their demands up and down a road dedicated to one of the world's great champions of free speech.
UPDATE: A reader emailed EURSOC to tell us about a very interesting counter protest in Paris. Appearing at a Muslim rally wearing a Danish flag might be classed as a dangerous sport, but luckily these guys escaped with insults. In Britain, the cops would probably have arrested them.
