Exposed: Citizen Khan and the Daily Mail’s anti-Muslim bias
THE Daily Mail never misses the chance to attack the BBC. Today, Paul Revoir write of a new BBC sit-com beneath the headline:
BBC accused of insulting Muslims with new sitcom Citizen Khan as 200 complain about first episode
Revoir notes:
It was probably unlikely that a TV comedy series about a Muslim community leader would pass without comment.
Why’s that, then? Is it because all telly shows are routinely reviewed in the papers’ TV sections? Or is this a special sort of show because it’s about Asian Muslims?
And so it was that in the region of 200 complaints were made to the BBC yesterday after it broadcast the first episode of Citizen Khan.
200. Not edgy enough. When it gets to 20,000, we’ll have a look. In 2009, the PCC received over 22,000 complaints about Mail hack Jan Moir’s words on the “unnatural” death of homosexual singer Stephen Gately. Thanks to Moir, the PCC received more complaints in a single weekend than it has had in the past five years. Who then didn’t read her piece?
Maybe Revoir can get us angry enough to add to that paltry 200:
It was claimed that the programme ‘takes the mickey out of Islam’, was guilty of ‘stereotypes about Asians’ and was ‘disrespectful to the Koran’…
The programme’s “British Muslim creator” is Adil Ray. The show stars Bavna Limbachia, Maya Sondhi, and Shobu Kapoor. Revoir doesn’t say if those three are Muslim, nor if they are gay, Christian or anti-abortion.
One scene that particularly provoked anger was where a heavily-made up girl, Mr Khan’s daughter, rushed to put on a hijab and pretended to be reading the Koran when her father entered.
In her haste was the book upside down?
The six-part series, which aired for the first time on BBC1 on Monday at 10.35pm, has been created by British Muslim Adil Ray, who also plays the lead role.
One viewer wrote on the BBC’s messageboard: ‘This is terrible stereotyping, ignorant and just dreadful.’
Another said: ‘HIGHLY disappointed especially when her father walks in and she dis-respectfully opens the Koran!!’
And… Nothing. Nothing about insulting Muslims. And- get this- no bomb threats against the BBC and the show’s stars delivered by gurning loons.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘Citizen Khan has made a very positive start, launching successfully with 3.6million viewers and a 21.5 per cent share in a late night slot.”
Meanwhile, if Muslims want to be insulted, they can check out the news in the Daily Mail. These stories are from 2012:
Mail: “White Muslim convert who threatened to disrupt Royal Wedding among six held as police swoop in raids across London to stop ‘major terrorist attack'”
Mail: “Muslim converts who ‘plotted to attack Olympic canoeing venue’ arrested after police see them acting suspiciously in a dinghy”
Neither story – both still oline – contain the news update
Scotland Yard says an 18-year-old and a 32-year-old arrested at separate addresses in east London last week have been freed “with no further action.”
You can read the full story here.
Mail: “More than two-thirds of young British Muslims believe honour violence is ‘acceptable’, survery reveals”
Only that was wrong (full story here):
..three times this number (i.e. 18%) in the entire sample selected one or more of five ‘reasonable justifications’ for physical punishment of female members of the family. The figure was highest among Asian Christians (23%), followed by Muslims (20%), Sikhs (14%), and Hindus (13%).
And this gem from late 2011:
Mail: Church fury over opening of McDonald’s on Christmas Day as Muslim manager is drafted in
“Church leaders have hit out at a branch of McDonald’s which is to open on Christmas Day”
A McDonald’s spokesman reveals:
“We expect there to be about 60 stores in the UK that remain open this year.”
But only he one with the Muilism manger made it into the Mail. (Full story here.)
And then there was the anti-Mulsim bacon-wafting cafe – the one owned by a ,er, Muslim.
If you want to see Muslims portrayed in a bad light, don’t watch the BBC. Read the Daily Mail…
Posted: 29th, August 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (10) | TrackBack | Permalink
