I must admit that I've found it hard to write anything this week, especially since Muslim terrorists targeted girls and young women enjoying a pop concert in Manchester.
Four of my friends at work (all female) were at the Manchester Arena in the days immediately before the attack, watching their beloved Take That. They and their families have, therefore, had quite a week themselves, wondering 'What if?'. What on earth could I add to that, especially as I had absolutely nothing new or helpful to say?
The apparently random targeting of an Ariana Grande concert was hard to make sense of, and nothing in the BBC copious coverage illuminated that for me. Only Douglas Murray in the Spectator explicitly and plainly pointed out what, in hindsight, seems absolutely, appallingly obvious: The Ariana Grande concert wasn't randomly targeted. It was specifically targeted. The reason? Because mostly girls and young women would be attending (with their parents), enjoying themselves and - as Salafists would see it - behaving and dressing 'immodestly'.
Girls and young women were precisely the targets. Puritanical Muslim fanatics regard them as 'slags', 'hoes', 'whores' (as they themselves put it) and, thus, as devilish, decadent, un-Islamic and most definitely not 'innocent'.
Several of the perpetrators of past attacks in the UK have been very explicit about that being the reason why they chose their specific targets, such as a ladies' night in London for example. Their motivation is very openly religious (i.e. Islamic).
Several of the perpetrators of past attacks in the UK have been very explicit about that being the reason why they chose their specific targets, such as a ladies' night in London for example. Their motivation is very openly religious (i.e. Islamic).
Douglas Murray's perspective hasn't crossed my radar on any of the BBC coverage I've seen. Have you encountered it anywhere on the BBC? Shouldn't it have been all over the BBC? Shouldn't it have been one of the BBC's main talking points?
I must also admit that I've been very slow to blog about this. I certainly didn't want to blog about it the morning after the attack, or for quite some time after. It felt ghoulish to even think of scoring points (or appearing to score points) off the BBC in the wake of such an attack. The risk of seeming or, worse, actually being, an opportunistic/obsessive sleazebag who sees everything through the prism of 'BBC bias' (and can't wait to leap into print about it) was a risk not worth taking - not that I even remotely felt like doing it anyhow.
But the BBC's coverage has been seriously disturbing (as has much of the media's coverage as a whole).
It's felt like a concerted attempt to squash anger and steer the public's reaction in a 'safe' direction. It's felt like they've been trying to divert us away from the main point. It's felt dishonest and deeply manipulative.
I contented myself with ranting to Sue about one episode of Today (Wednesday's edition). Here's what I ranted:
I was driving to work during the 7.10-7.20 segment and heard Matthew Price and his totally-on-message main 'vox pop'. Her message was: Let's love. Let's hold vigils. Let's not blame Muslims, or do anything decisive because that would be really, really bad.
And then came Mishal Husain and her 'backlash' agenda (the 'backlash' explicitly stated as a fact) leading to an interview with a Muslim headteacher at a school where all the girls wear hijabs as part of their school uniform (!!!!) telling the tale of a 'backlash' story about a Muslim pupil of hers being shouted at by a passer-by.
I felt a strong "Aaagghh!" come upon me and went into work in a bad mood.
Listening to it more closely a couple of days later, to check my impression, Matthew Price was doing what he always does after every such attack: Love, candles, flowers, hugs. This time though he kept on saying, in passing, that some (nasty) people criticise such things, and say that we should actually do something. He himself, however, dismissed such criticisms at around 6.30 am and then got the vox pop woman to dismiss them again at around 7.10 am. He was covering himself.
I forced myself to listen to all the attack-related bits of that morning's Today and got more and more depressed. Everyone was on message - being so, so, so 'nice'. Mishal & Sarah kept asking 'the important questions' about how bad Prevent is and whether the government has given the police enough resources, Andy Burnham & Co. kept saying 'It's nothing to do with Islam'. 'TFTD' was on how Jesus isn't like a gun but somehow is. Amber Rudd said something or other. Mrs Mumsnet said something or other too. Libya. Frank Gardner. Hazel Blears came the nearest to making a difficult point. Barely a mention of Muslims, other than as victims. No mention of Islam (except to say "INTDWI"). No one at all to articulate the point of view that we have - and many, many others have - the point of view Matthew Price was alluding to (and dismissing). Even Frank Furedi of Spiked (it's always Spiked on the BBC, isn't it?) didn't appear on Today that morning to put a small spanner in the BBC's works, despite being promised in the programmes' running order. He said on Twitter that he'd been "disconnected" - whatever that means.
Yes, I'm sure Matthew Price was being very nice and thought that he was being very nice, and that everyone else was being very nice too. Let nothing divide us. Love conquers hate. Etc, etc.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagghh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
