The BBC News Channel is making a lot of Visit My Mosque Day - an initiative promoted by the self-proclaimed Muslim Council of Britain to "reach out to fellow Britons following tensions around terrorism". The news summary on The Andrew Marr Show also found time for it, and it's among the headlines on the BBC News website too.
It's not a story that either Sky or ITV News are running with though. Or, doing a search on Google News, any of Britain's national newspapers other than the Guardian. So it's mainly the BBC, it seems, promoting this MCB initiative.
What does it involve? Well, if there's a participating mosque in your area you can pop along, have a cup of tea or coffee (but not a glass of wine) and discuss what Muslims believe.
The man behind it, Miqdaad Versi, was being interviewed by Nicholas Owen on the BBC News Channel just now (a repeat of an interview broadcast an hour or so earlier). According to Hadar at BBC Watch, Mr Versi "appears to have something of a penchant for Hizballah’s former ‘spiritual mentor’ Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah".
Here Miqdaad of the MCB was saying that the initiative was important because of "increasing Islamophobia" following the Paris massacres. Nick Owen didn't demur from his assessment.
Prolific BBC tweeter (and News at Ten journalist) Julia MacFarlane is enthusiastic:
Nothing more British than inviting guests to your home for tea, cakes and a natter. @MuslimCouncil's #VisitMyMosque pic.twitter.com/UP9JVKJLPS
— Julia Macfarlane (@juliamacfarlane) January 28, 2015
What could be more British?
ReplyDeleteNot inculcating in your kids the idea that they should make friends in the non-believer community or that they can only marry believers when they grow up.
I was thinking "This is a typical MCB stunt." First they like to give the impression they represent all Muslims. Secondly when they launch this sort of stunt they like to give the impression all their affiliates are taking part. To be fair to teh BBC they at least made clear:
ReplyDelete"More than 20 mosques were expected to take part.
The figure is a small proportion of the total number of mosques in Britain, which is estimated to be 1,750."
Another way of looking at this is that 1,730 Mosques out of 1,750 in the UK have absolutely no intention of opening their doors to wider public view.
I wouldn't mind betting that the 20 participating Mosques probably already have some sort of public interface programme in place for their own reasons.
This is simply a stunt, rightly ignored by the other news orgs.
After reviewing the papers on 'Broadcasting House' this morning Channel 4's Cathy Newman went to a mosque to participate in 'Visit My Mosque Day'. She was sent packing.
ReplyDelete"I was respectfully dressed, head covering and no shoes but a man ushered me back onto the street. I said I was there for #VisitMyMosque mf"
This is being reported by the Telegraph and the Daily Mail so far.