Terrorists

Hmm, I suspect many of you will not be surprised that Sunday Morning Live is discussing the question 'Are Muslims being demonised?', prompted by a letter from the Muslim Council of Britain to the Home Secretary last week urging the government to act on the issue.

The programme is framing the discussion in this way:

Does the way Muslims are portrayed by media and elsewhere play a role in creating an environment where Muslims are made to feel alienated – or are these the actions of a small minority of criminals, who have paid no attention to constant efforts from politicians and public figures who try to explain that Islam is a religion of peace? 

The programme's website, however, includes something highly unusual for a BBC programme:

In the last month, three mosques have been targeted by terrorists who have left viable explosive devices at each site.

Yes, the BBC is actually using the forbidden 't word' - terrorists - without quotation marks.

Does this mark the beginning of a sea-change, and a change to their editorial guidelines? Or is it more of a one-off - to be applied [sparingly] to anti-Muslim terrorists only?

Update: Sunday Morning Live polled its viewers on the question 'Are Muslims being demonised?' The result came in at the end of the programme: 22% saying 'yes' and 78% saying 'no'.

Polls on Sunday Morning Live have the habit of not going the way one suspects the BBC might have expected them to go. Poor Mehdi Hasan (one of the three main guests, alongside Douglas Murray and Anne Atkins) rolled his eyes in disbelief. I laughed.