"The BBC is full of Liberals afraid to mock Islam" Roger Bolton.

[Childrenofthestones]

Roger Bolton confirms what Muslims, Christians and just about anyone with half an eye has known for a long time.

"Regarding the BBC Mr Bolton said it had got to a point where audiences thought it was ?fun? to mock Christianity but would not dare laugh at jokes about Islam"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...teran-BBC.html

apologies....better link -

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2202379/BBC-liberals-afraid-mock-Islam-says-veteran-BBC.html

To be fair, Christianity has always been mocked (I remember Dave Allen was considered downright subversive by my and my friends' parents and Spitting Image's portrayal of the Pope gave my mother apoplexy).

I don't think Islam is mainstream enough yet to be mocked in the same way - I don't 'get' it or know enough about its practices and oddities (unlike Christianity) to know what's funny about it.

I do think it's healthy to be able to laugh at yourself and your religion, though. It says something for your faith if it can't stand a little teasing.

I like Roger Bolton. He's very informed and combative during interviews but in a polite, good-humoured way.

But how strange that someone who edited Panorama seems to object to human rights legislation which has led to the Freedom of Information Act which has done so much to help investigative reporting.

I wonder whether this report of his speech in the Mail has been put together with the care Bolton takes over his own reports?

Not only are Christians mocked (especially Catholics) but the ethnic cleansing which is going on in certain areas of the Muslim world is largely ignored. There are huge problems in Pakistan.

The old dictators swept out in the Arab Spring did at least stop the Islamic fanatics from burning churches and killing Christians.

(Obv. Arab Spring point not referring to Pakistan.)

Don't know about that, Abra1d. It is covered in the less trashy news outlets. I certainly read a lot of that on the BBC website. And I remember Archbishop Carey's trip to Sudan to support Christians there, which was covered on the news. It was a courageous act by him, actually.

I think the Christian joke telling is less about " We're doing this because we don't dare tell Islam jokes" and more about it being the shared cultural heritage of the vast majority of the population. You generally have to know about something to make fun of it, and to most people in Britain, Islam is genuinely peripheral.

You only have to have seen what has happened to the US ambassador in Libya and his colleagues to see why it is easier to mock Christianity than Islam. I doubt Dave Allen was ever a victim for being murdered because of his jokes....

Roger Bolton's so right - and it's not just 'a little teasing' that Christians get from programmes like R4's The News Quiz, it's contempt. The BBC elite that he mentions are ignorant about Christian belief and the grounds for it, but they know it's wrong! (Much like I was till I was 27.)

I think Bolton is wrong in his emphasis about 'mocking'. No religion should be 'mocked'.

He is right about liberals, but he actually says ''liberal sceptical humanists' and it is that that explains the 'mocking'. It is essentially an agenda - a progressive, liberal, sceptical humanist agenda against more traditional, conservative religious beliefs.

It is not surprising, because the BBC has a progressive slant across most of its programming, as the comments of Daily Mail readers at the bottom of that article show.

Daily Fail article
find me some other outlet where he said the same thing ....

'find me some other outlet where he said the same thing'

You may find it difficult to find other reporting on this, as other progressive newspapers will probably prefer to bury the news. The Daily Mail is a different kettle of fish, it reports what the public already knows.

No religion should be 'mocked'

Why not?

'he made his comments at the BBC?s Re:Think festival in Salford, when he gave a speech and sat on a discussion panel.'

Some BBC executives at the festival possibly choked on their ciabatta and spat out their soumante in sudden shock at the stating of teh bleeding obvious. It was akin to Bolton saying that the emperor has no clothes. There was probably much sweeping under the carpet and tut-tutting.

But to the seasoned Daily Mail reader, this is no news at all. As one astute Daily Mail reader so rightly says "Tell us something we didn't know".

'Why not?'

Out of respect for the sensibilities of millions of believers. Progressives are big on respect and rights, except when it comes to people they don't agree with.

I don't know. My thoughts are that Islam is a young religion and is going through the same stage that Christianity went through 800-1000 years ago.

Not very happy for us but that's the way I look at it from a personal perspective.

For me the most important things to remember are that Christians believe in turning the other cheek, and if you have no belief, then who cares?

The murder of the American ambassador in response to that film have been reported very soberly by Sky News's foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall.

Sky isn't an organisation that you'd expect to be thoughtful but they surprise me constantly.

He's been at pains to explain that the film was a provocative act made by nasty simpletons.

His take is on people in Egypt principally, but you can take that wider. He talked about a largely illiterate population who can understandably be manipulated. A people who see things on TV or the internet and believe that because nothing appears on that medium without the consent of their governments then this crackpot film must be sanctioned by the US government.

I saw Hillary Clinton's repudiation of it in the same context.

I'm not in favour of censorship, but in the light of that I think we can hold off protesting about the rights of people to wear crosses at work or stopping gays from staying in B&Bs

Of course religions should be mocked. Any religion that can't survive a gentle ribbing isn't up to much, is it? Dave Allen didn't bring down the Catholic church. But there should be no special favours for one religion over any other.

However, I agree with the point that Christianity is the majority religion of this country and has been for the best part of 1,600 years, and has formed our society, our culture, our structures, our laws... so it's hardly surprising that most jokes are told about that particular religion.

As for Bolton, the BBC gives religion a very privileged status. They won't allow atheists on Thought for the Day, an extremely prominent slot. Religious hierarchies have a privileged position in public debate and in framing our laws. Look at all the fuss about gay marriage - it really is none of the churches' business, it's about civil marriage, a purely legal issue that doesn't affect church marriage at all - yet they all stick their oar in and, crucially, are listened to by MPs and the government.

Look at the way the BBC treats the Catholic church with respect, reporting the words of Popes and Cardinals without a nod to the context of institutionalised child abuse.

I suppose that is the same BBC that during it's main news radio programme that sets the news agenda of the day has Thought for the Day that comes a little over an hour after, Prayer for the Day, but there would be a public outcry if they broadcast the adhan every morning.

At least the adhan, done well is a fantastic sound and great to wake up to. Thought for the day is like the Rev I.M Jolly but without a punchline or relevance.

You may have got your wish had Ken won the Mayoral election.

Who knows, maybe they will broadcast the adhan in London when they broadcast thought for today in Mecca.

They do broadcast thought for the day in Mecca already.

TalkinPeace2
Here's another outlet -

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9539982/The-TV-elite-assume-Christians-are-lunatics.html

I also heard him interviewed on Premier Christian radio.

It's not just the BBC though, is it? Given that the Islamic community world-wide seems to have very little sense of humour when it comes to their version of religion, most people with the exception of a few weirdos seem to step back from anything rather than risk offence. Maybe British Muslims are confident & secure enough these days to accept an equivalent to 'The Imam of Dibley' and treat it as proof they are part of British culture, but who's brave enough to face down a fatwa for a BAFTA? (I'm going to assume the execrable 'Citizen Khan' slipped through the net by accident..... )

Islam gets a free pass because all the liberal journalists are too afraid of criticising it, nothing more. I don't think they really, deep down respect Islam, they are just afraid of getting death threats etc. Why would a cult like Scientology get such a hard time (yes Scientology is a crazy, batshit cult) but how many people have died in the name of Scientology and how many have died in the name of Islam? Yet which gets more criticism? Easy targets are those which the liberal "intelligensia" know won't fight back. And Islamic ideology is the antithesis of what most left wing liberals claim to believe in - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, emancipation of women, freedom of sexuality, freedom to think differently etc.

Citizen Khan was devised and partly written by the Muslim bloke in the lead role.

Maybe so but it's a badly written, toe-curling throwback of a show. Probably illustrates the 'special treatment' point, in fact, i.e. execs are not only afraid to mock but afraid to criticise

Going OT but I don't think the BBC have commissioned Citizen Khan just because Adil Ray is Asian. They commission alleged comedies from writers of all ethnic groups and stubbornly refuse to drop them.

Citizen Khan started life as an amusing character on the clever R4 spoof phone-in Down The Line. It's a sketch that can't sustain being fleshed out. Nothing more sinister than that the BBC awards contracts to people who've done previous work for them regardless of the fact that their current proposal is weak.

Every organisation does it, especially in entertainment.