The Spectator's Notes

10 January 2009

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

Although television coverage of the Israeli attacks on Gaza is extensive, it is uninformative. The BBC, in particular its reporter Jeremy Bowen, seems to be in thrall to the images it can project. But, by its Charter, the BBC has a duty to educate, and what is missing in so much of the coverage is context. What is Hamas? What does it believe? Why is it not reported that the Arab press carries numerous attacks on Hamas for exposing the Palestinian people to suffering? Why is Hamas, despite being a Sunni organisation, close to Shi’ite Iran? What are the politics of the situation on both sides? Why, in short, is what is happening happening? The rise of Hamas adds to the idea, much loved by the BBC, that the authentic leaders of Muslim societies today are all political Islamists — the intellectual model being that of Sinn Fein: terrorists as the people who make peace. As a result, we are told about very little else. Just before the end of the year, for example, Bangladesh, which has one of the largest Muslim populations in the entire world, returned to democratic rule. British officialdom, notably the Muslim adviser to the Foreign Office, Mockbul Ali, and the Muslim Contact Unit of the Metropolitan Police, have liked to say that Jamaat Islami, the party of political Islamism in Bangladesh, can help control militancy in this country, where the Bengali population is extensive. Its extremist leaders have been invited here. Mosques like the East London Mosque, which furnishes the current leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, are close to Jamaati elements. In the Bangladesh elections, though, Jamaat was left with only two seats in the 300-seat parliament, and the secular Awami League was victorious. Virtually no attention from the BBC. Perhaps they would say faraway elections among dark-skinned people are boring — but then let us not hear their self-justifications about their unique educational role.

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wayne metcalfe

January 8th, 2009 11:17pm Report this comment

Hi charles, I have started a campaign of my own, My facebook group against the tv licence has now reached over 250,000 members, could you give it a plug please - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28406901260

also the site with the petition is here - http://www.onebillionpageviews.org/guestbook/index.php

best regards wayne

David Lindsay

January 9th, 2009 4:06pm Report this comment

Unable to attend the Extraordinary Form on Tuesday, I missed the Epiphany for the first time in my life, even though I did not become a Catholic until two thirds of the way through my BA.

There are, however, those in England who will still be keeping it on the same day as the Pope.

In the Church of England.

Quite a senior member of which recently asked me in all seriousness whether or not we were still keeping Christmas Day on 25th December rather than moving it to the nearest Sunday.

This borderline schismatic act by the "Catholic" Bishops' Conference of England and Wales must be reversed immediately.

And the Epiphany should be made a public holiday in place of the pointless celebration of a mere change in the date (which happens every day), with the New Year's Eve revelries transferred back to Twelfth Night, which is too long after Christmas for the whole country to shut down between the two.