Here's a letter to The Times, published three days ago. It comes from former BBC reporter/producer Eric Abraham, and sums things up perfectly:
Sir, I read about the terminology used by Tarik Kafala, head of the BBC Arabic service, for the killers of the staff of Charlie Hebdo, with incredulity and anger (News, Jan 27). In line with BBC World Service policy he rejected the word “terrorist” for that of “two men who killed 12 people in an attack on the office of a satirical magazine”. What about using “killers” or “murderers”? But they inspired terror, so why not “terrorists”?
I am shocked at the climate in this country in which the most obvious term is deemed unacceptable through fear or misguided political correctness. Shame on you BBC.
Eric AbrahamFormer producer, BBC Panorama, London W8
Good for Abraham for speaking out, but he's wrong. Kafala said what he did not out of fear or in fealty to political correctness, but because he knows that the definition of "terrorism" has been expanded not only to mean an act of violence against civilians intended to coerce them towards a political goal, but to also now be a condemnation of the motive behind that act.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, he's saying that a large portion of the BBC Arabic audience support the motives behind Islamic terrorism. That's much worse than timidity or PC dhimmitude.
Also, the surname "Abraham" will probably cancel out any possible credibility from being a Panorama producer in many people's minds.