Sunday Morning Live

I blame Sue. 

It's the only thing I blame her for, but leading me into regularly watching those ghastly Sunday morning BBC One religious programmes placed in between Andrews Marr and Neil is something definitely to be held against her! 

(Please imagine a whole row of 'smileys' extending towards infinity).

Today's Sunday Morning Live (the better one of those programmes) discussed whether British soldiers should be immune from vexatious prosecutions, whether the young are disadvantaged by the old, and whether Islam should be more British (there's almost always a Muslim question). 

There was also an interview with Christian Olympic boxer Nicola Adams (though her interest in Muhammad Ali seems to have interested the programme more)...

Nicola Adams and the BBC's Samanthi Flanagan

...and, to end, a song "inspired by the refugee crisis" from Deacon Blue.

The programme had Frederick Forsyth on and the Daily Express claims that "Naga Munchetty LOSES COOL as Frederick Forsyth defends UK troops while 'ISIS play victim'". 

What actually happened was that Naga completely misunderstood Freddie's point. He was saying that British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were facing an enemy that - unlike the conventional Argentinian army during the Falklands War - doesn't wear military uniform, thus making it easy for such people to pretend to be civilians and then go on to make vexatious claims against the British army. Naga didn't register that and wrongly assumed he'd said that the British soldiers facing accusations weren't wearing uniforms and, thus, challenged him on that (without, I think, 'loosing her cool' at all).

The main 'Muslim spokesman' today was Sunday morning BBC One regular Ajmal Masroor - someone they seem to have on speed-dial.  He did 'lose his cool' when Freddie Forsyth pointed to the new problem (for the UK) of inter-Muslim killing, following the killing by a Muslim fundamentalist of an Ahmadiyya Glasgow shopkeeper who'd wished his Christian customers a 'Happy Easter'. Ajmal went mad, ranting that that was just one case in several million. 

Alas, there was no Douglas Murray or David Vance on today's programme to point out to Imam Masroor that there have been other cases - such as the horrific murder of the elderly Sufi Jalal Uddin in Rochdale by another Muslim fundamentalist fanatic. 

Nor was there anyone to challenge Ajmal Masroor on his assertions (beyond SML), reported in the Times last week, that the murdered Imam Uddin was a "sinner" engaged in "voodoo" practises "totally forbidden in Islam", and, thus, guilty of a "grave sin" - though he also called the murder "barbaric". British Sufis, the Times reported, have called Mr Masroor's comments "a theological justification" for murder, and the Quilliam Foundation has agreed with their concerns.

And yet the BBC saw fit to invite the self-same Ajmal Masroor on today, as they've done so many times before.

And no one - no one at all - challenged him on what he'd said about the late Jalal Uddin, bludgeoned to death in a children's play area by a British Salafist.

Was no one at Sunday Morning Live even aware of the row over Mr Masroor's comments this week? (I'm sure Douglas Murray and David Vance would have been aware of that).