Media And Politicans Love Anjem Choudary
ANJEM Choudary, who was being billed as the Sun’s Hate Mail Cleric, is now offered a new nickname in the Mirror. He is the “BOOZER OF HATE.”
The Mail leads with the “backlash” over the “fanatics’ march” through Wootton Bassett, or as Jon Gaunt and Choudary agree to call it “Wootton Basset.”
The Mirror’s lead picture of Choudary chugging back a drink in his youth is not much news. Indeed, there is not much news at all. Gordon Brown’s spokesman says:
“We do not yet know what his plans are.”
In any case, it’s PR stunt. As Choudary says on BBC Radio 4:
“The procession is not about the people in Wootton Bassett and never was about that. It is not against them personally. It is to highlight the real cost of the war in Afghanistan. The sad reality of the situation is that if we were to hold it somewhere else it would not have the media attention it has now. We want to create a sense of awareness about it.”
Not sure about that. If 500 Islamists – that’s the number cited in the Telegraph – massed in a Welsh valley, the attention gained might be pretty big, too.
In the New Statesman, Mehdi Hasan has a question:
But why does the media give the buffoonish Choudary so much time and attention? And why, when he is interviewed, are the questions so piss-poor and pathetic?
Because there is no news, Mr Hasan, and Choudary knows that while anything about Israel always leads on the BBC and Channel 4 news, mad mullahs are a tabloid favourite. With Omar Bakri gone and Abu Hamza in jail, the media needs a gurning face of Islamic extremism. So here’s Choudary. He’s not much to look at but he’s all we’ve got.
And we love reacting to Choudary. He can be used to back up your own views. Gerald Warner tells Telegraph readers:
If the Islamic extremists eventually provoke an extreme reaction from their opponents, they will not only have Choudary and his ilk to thank for their predicament, but also Brown, Harman, Cameron et al whose weakness excited their aggression. It is going to be an interesting decade – especially after we deposit Dave in the dustbin of history in 2015.
The rest of us like to be outraged to:
More than 220,000 people had last night signed an online protest on Facebook.
Choudary gives Gordon Brown and all the politics a chance to say the blindlgly obvious:
Gordon Brown: “I am personally appalled by the prospect of a march in Wootton Bassett.”
Home Secretary Alan Johnson: “I find it particularly offensive that the town, which has acted in such a moving and dignified way in paying tribute to our troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice, should be targeted in this manner. The people behind this stunt seek only to incite hatred and discord.”
David Cameron: “Anjem Choudary is one of those people who needs to be looked at seriously in terms of the legality of what he’s saying. He strays, I think, extremely close to the line of encouraging hatred, extremism and violence.”
And Choudary is the voice of a bunch of vain, powerless god botherers. But thanks to a desperate media and a political elite scrambling for an opinion, he is taken seriously…
Posted: 5th, January 2010 | In: Reviews Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
