Is the BBC up to its old tricks again?

There's a familiar charge on anti-BBC bias blogs that the BBC seeks to downplay the specifically Islamic character of many serious crimes, due to its left/liberal oversensitivity to the 'cultural sensitivities' of Muslims. 

That charge will doubtless be made again today in the wake of the excellent news that police have captured the man suspected of carrying out the murderous anti-Semitic terrorist attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels.

This is an example of why such charges are made against the BBC: 

Here's how the Sky News website reports the arrest:

Jewish Museum Shooting Suspect Arrested

The 29-year-old, who has suspected ties to Islamic radicals in Syria, is held in Marseille over the deadly attack in Brussels.

Police investigating a shooting at a Jewish museum in Belgium that left four people dead have arrested a man.

Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman with suspected ties to Islamic radicals in Syria, was detained in Marseille in southern France, investigation sources told the AFP news agency.

The 29-year-old, who is being held on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, was allegedly found with a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun.

Two women and a man were killed in the shooting in Brussels on May 24, which French President Francois Hollande said was clearly of "anti-Semitic character".

And here's how the BBC News website reports it:

Brussels Jewish Museum killings: Man held in Marseille

A Frenchman has been arrested at a train station in Marseille over a fatal shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels eight days ago.

Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, is being held on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. He was reportedly carrying a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun similar to the ones used in the May 24 attack.

Three people were killed while a fourth victim is critically injured.

Security was tightened at Jewish sites across Belgium following the attack.

Mr Nemmouche, a French national who is believed to be from the northern town of Roubaix, is also suspected of having been with Islamists militants in Syria last year.

As you can see, Sky mentions the alleged Islamist connection underneath its headline and again in the second paragraph proper of its news report while the BBC holds off mentioning it until the end of the fifth paragraph of its article.

If Nemmouche is a French Islamist terrorist then that's obviously a key part of the story and should, I would have thought, be mentioned at the start of the report - unless you're deliberately seeking to downplay that aspect of it (for whatever reason).

Update: There's a characteristically cogent article now about this from Douglas Murray at the Spectator titled 'They always come for the Jews'.

He notes that this isn't a one-off. French Muslim Mohamed Merah targeted a Jewish school in Toulouse.

He also dismisses though who blame the West for failing to intervene in Syria and thus, in some way, being responsible for radicalising the likes of Nemmouche, noting that both intervention and non-intervention (as well as intervention that didn't go far enough) have all been used as excuses by Muslim terrorists in the past.

He also recalls the specific anti-Jewish atrocity committed by the Muslim terrorists who carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

And the reason? Well, it's what Mehdi Hasan said:

It pains me to have to admit this but anti-Semitism isn’t just tolerated in some sections of the British Muslim community; it’s routine and commonplace. Any Muslims reading this article – if they are honest with themselves – will know instantly what I am referring to. It’s our dirty little secret.

As Douglas Murray concludes,

And this hatred, which is taught among Muslims in the UK and across Europe, is part of the reason why when a radical decides to go on a killing spree it is always Jews who are at the top of the target list. It is the point. They always come for the Jews.