A series of videos on the BBC website, under the BBC’s ample #MeToo umbrella, includes a short film about Tariq Ramadan who is currently in custody in France, facing charges of rape.
We’ve alluded to professor Ramadan previously - here on this site and, back in the day, on Biased-BBC, but the most exhaustive critique of Ramadan, Islamic philosopher and grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, is in Paul Berman’s ‘The Flight of the Intellectuals’
“In short, Berman finds the widespread admiration of Ramadan to be misplaced. Berman regards Ramadan as a sinister figure with a sinister agenda, and at the same time deplores the intimidation and violence directed at that “subset of the European intelligentsia — its Muslim free-thinking and liberal wing especially” — who “survive only because of bodyguards.”
In making this film, which someone has bizarrely titled 'The rock star scholar and rape claims” the BBC has commissioned - or collaborated with - another object of its own misplaced admiration, none other than a lady you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever watched The Big Questions; the sanctimonious Muslim intellectual Myriam Francois, formerly known as Myriam François-Cerrah.
Having apparently ditched the “Cerrah” as well as the hijab, I wonder if Myriam Francois is another beneficiary of the BBC’s vigorous pursuit of diversity for the sake of it, in presenters, guests and talking heads. (Although the proliferation of brash, 'Identity-Muslim' female recruits such as Mehreen Baig and Nelufar Hedayat etc seems hardly diverse if you see what I mean)
Obviously, I have no idea who dreamt up the idea for this film and I’m not even accusing it of being especially one-sided, for although it contains a considerable amount of content favourable to Ramadan - (more so, for example, than anything I’ve seen in the BBC’s coverage of Harvey Weinstein) it clearly includes criticism of Ramadan, his serial sexual infidelity and patent hypocrisy as a devout Muslim and “Oxford professor.”
Nevertheless, the BBC’s coverage of this sordid business strikes a jarring note. This is an ongoing case and, I daresay, none of Myriam Francois’s business. The report seems prurient, exploitative and inappropriate. Could it have any effect on the trial? I don’t know. It just seems all wrong, somehow.
Someone I know suddenly decided to give up his business and work for someone else. He was fed up with hiring staff who turned out to be unreliable and incompetent, and tired of reps phoning him every ten minutes. He figured he’d be better off just doing what he enjoyed - (hairdressing as it happens) No more responsibility, thanks. I’d rather be told what to do.
That’s an allegory. Parable for the day.
Call me Dawkins, but that’s kind of why people do religion, or more specifically, Islam.
Get your daily guidance from God almighty, and be righteous. While I appreciate the appeal of relying on eternal paternal guidance, it also seems like an abnegation of responsibility.
I regard people who espouse literalist interpretations of holy scriptures with incredulity. Especially when they seem otherwise normal. As Professor Richard Dawkins said to Mehdi Hasan “You believe that Mohammed went to heaven on a winged horse?”
However, this isn’t the time or place for my views on religious mumbo-jumbo. My job here is to opine on the BBC’s approach to these vexed issues. Craig has already blogged yesterday’s The Big Questions - the episode called “Do we need a British Islam” but nevertheless, I’m going to do it some more.
First of all, who is “we”?
As Craig says, all the front row participants were Muslims. Does the “we” in question allude exclusively to “Muslims”? Was the Big Question: Do Muslims need a British Islam? Do British Muslims need any kind of Islam?
It was impossible to derive any kind of satisfaction from this unpleasant programme. Viewers were further away from knowing whether or not British Muslims think they need a British Islam at the end of the programme than at the beginning. At one moment, when Nicky Campbell tried to elicit a straight answer from an Imam, one might have thought we were dangerously close to getting somewhere. But no.
It was just an unstructured row, with no beginning, middle or end. Maybe they’d have forced out a more definitive answer if they’d stuck to the usual format, stuffing three different Big Questions into the allotted hour. Condensing it might have taken them by surprise. Who knows what might have come out in the rush.
On the other hand, it was a big subject, so the one-topic experiment was worth a try.
I think what they were arguing about is this: should someone create a watered-down version of Islam in order to fit in with “Britain”?
Unfortunately this argument fell at the first hurdle because no Muslim agrees about what truly constitutes Islam, let alone which bits need watering down to fit in with British values.
Judging by what we saw on this programme and what we already know, that is insoluble. True Islam is unBritish and true Britishness is clearly unIslamic.
I’m suspicious of people who wear a collar and tie with a jumper so I felt obliged to Google Adam Deen. He has an extensive Youtube / web presence.
I learned that he used to be called Hakkan Cerrah and is married to TBQ regular Myriam Francois Cerrah. No doubt her absence on yesterday’s episode was due to some kind of BBC misogyny.
Incidentally, Myriam’s verdict on misogyny in Islam is that it doesn’t really exist. Any perceived misogyny is just a wrong interpretation of Islam. Phew. That must be a relief to all those Islamic ladies in Britain.
I mean, what if British Muslims believed the teachings of, say, Imam Ghazzali? I realise that ‘Jedi’s” summary of Imam Ghazzali’s teachingsis a tad tongue in cheek, but it seems fairly accurate.
“She should remain in the inner sanctum of her house and tend to her spinning; she should not enter and exit excessively; she should speak infrequently with her neighbours and visit them only when the situation requires it; she should safeguard her husband in his absence and in his presence; she should seek his pleasure in all affairs and refrain from betraying him through herself or his possessions; she should not leave his home without his permission: [...] she should be content with the means that God has provided her husband; she should place his rights before hers and before the rights of his relatives; she should always observe the rules of personal hygiene, and be ready at all times for him to enjoy her whenever he wishes; she should be affectionate toward her children, zealous to protect them, refraining from uttering profane words against them and from talking back to her husband.”
Is it any wonder that Myriam and her feminist Muslim coreligionists, frantically pushing their dream of a feminist, non-misogynist Islam, wish to reinterpret all outmoded codswallop? But too much reinterpreting risks losing the essence of Islam and arouses all sorts of ire from traditionalists. Interpreting the Koran seems to be as elastic as...go on, supply your own knickers simile.
I also learned about the controversies surrounding Deen’s conversion from extremism to Quillium and the hooha over a ‘Happy Muslims’ video - of Muslims dancing to Pharrell Williams’s “Happy”, featuring Deen’s poor dance moves. (his own words). Several Muslims were not happy at all. They thought it was a disgraceful attempt at kowtowing to .... the British.
The Bradford Imam, aptly named Imam Fazal Dad, complained that Adam Deen was getting too much airtime. Very childish and unbecoming for an Imam called Dad. (I think it was him - one does sometimes get ones Imams mixed up)
There is one small question I’d like to mention, and one Big one. The small one first.
Why does the BBC allow audience members to ‘photo bomb’ the speakers? I mean the attention-seeking idiot in the audience who wouldn’t keep still. Gurning, waving, clapping and being generally distracting. The camera could have moved in close to the speaker and edited out this annoying person.
The Big Question that needs answering is one that no TV presenter ever gets round to putting.
Is Islamic antisemitism acceptable in Britain? Why does the antisemitism in Islam get a free pass? The British don’t like it when antisemitism or racism emanates from any other individual or group, be it a non-Muslim individual, a right-wing antisemite or a bunch of Nazi sympathisers. But with the majority of Muslims antisemitism and anti-Zionism are a given.
Mindless opposition to Israel’s existence is rooted in gross antisemitism, and that is the elephant that’s always present in the studio. An enormous elephant that’s allowed to career around, willy nilly, trampling on everything with impunity, utterly and completely confident it can get away with it.
Well, it was genuinely moving (and, thanks to all the sad music and other such familiar stand-bys, clearly meant to be so), and it was also surprising fair in parts.
...the programme was also heavily infiltrated with strongly-hinted-at messages and outright statements (not so much from the lips of Myriam herself though but from others [including the head of the charity at the heart of the programme]) that Muslims in the multi-cultural UK, facing "racism" as they do (apparently), might somehow face the same fate as the Muslims of multi-cultural Bosnia - if we aren't careful. ("It could happen here").
Most of the charming youngsters involved in the programme seemed to buy into that alarmist message too.
The sense of grievance built up by Myriam's youngsters as they toured the region - especially the young Muslim lad, Abdul, who got very passionate at times (and whose bizarre point about Muslim suffering being ignored by the British media wasn't even challenged) - seemed appropriate but was also rather disturbing.
Given that some people think that the present-day ultra-violent jihadi tsunami really began in Bosnia (something that wasn't mentioned here), the BBC ought to have trodden very carefully. I smelled suicide bombers watching, and their many-and-various apologists lurking in the wings.
And though the programme mentioned the fact that many British Muslims felt upset about what happened in Bosnia, there was far too little about the West's role in ending the Bosnian War (despite the involvement of the daughter of Col. Bob Stewart), and nothing about the West's heavy anti-Serb military action over Kosovo - both to help Muslims...which might have provided a truthful counter-narrative.
It will be presented by a leading British Muslim convert, Myriam François-Cerrah - a familiar face on the BBC's The Big Questions and Sunday Morning Live.
Will it be a balanced account that, as well as detailing the massacres committed by the Serbs and Croats and the suffering of Bosnia's Muslim population, also mentions (a) the role of foreign jihadis in fighting on behalf of Bosnia's Muslims, marking - some believe - the real starting point of the whole modern ultra-violent jihadi phenomenon, (b) doesn't completely airbrush out the atrocities committed by the Bosniak side, and (c) mentions the West's military actions against Serbia on behalf of the Bosnian Muslims (and later the Kosovans)? Or will it be just another one-sided BBC programme?
Well, I have to say that the blurb on the programme's webpage doesn't look promising. Not only does it look as if it might be one-sided in its coverage of what happened in Bosnia, it appears as if it might also be used to further project a very familiar BBC message: a "warning" that anti-Muslim prejudice is a danger in "multicultural Britain today" too:
Journalist Myriam François-Cerrah travels to Bosnia to mark the 20th anniversary of one of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II.
In July 1995, in the midst of war in the former Yugoslavia, around 8,000 Muslim men and teenage boys were massacred at Srebrenica. Now Myriam, a British Muslim, is visiting the site with a group of young people - all born in the year of the genocide. In an often emotional trip, they learn first-hand how easily prejudice can take hold and why this story has important lessons for us all in multicultural Britain today.
...medical student Abdul, who is astonished that he didn’t hear about the story in school. He wonders why, as he feels that “when Muslim people die you don’t learn about it as much.”
Hopefully, Myriam will correct Abdul over that, given that the BBC provided massive coverage of the atrocities against Bosnia's Muslims at the time - including Srebrenica. We wouldn't want such an unjustified grievance to be stoked by a BBC documentary, would we?
