Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Thursday 15 May 2008

Police and CPS condemned for 'fake' claim about Moslem TV documentary

Channel4 television and production company Hardcash Productions have today been totally vindicated for a 'Dispatches' programme (Undercover Mosque) detailing the extreme views being propagated in some mosques.

I watched the programme when it was broadcast and was astonished when I heard later that the broadcaster and production company had been accused by West Midlands Police and the CPS of 'selective editing' and 'distorting' (i.e. faking) the filmed material and evidence they had gathered. They were also accused of 'undermining community relations'. Media wathcdog Ofcom, to whom the police referred their allegations, has thrown them out declaring that the programme had "accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context". Ofcom also stated that it was a "legitimate investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest” and that each quote was "justified by the narrative of the programme and put fully in context".

The allegedly (by the police and the CPS) 'distorted' commments by Moslem clerics included the following:



— Whoever changes his religion from al-Islam to anything else — kill him in the Islamic state

— Take that homosexual and throw him off the mountain

— By the age of 10, it becomes an obligation on us to force her [young girls] to wear hijab, and if she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her

— Allah created the woman deficient

— If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that is my freedom of speech, isn't it?

In exactly which context would such comments ever have been justified? The police and CPS need to explain exactly what was their thinking when they made the allegations they did.

It is stated that a 'six figure' sum in libel damages is being paid by the CPS and West Midlands Police for their outragreous attempt at stifling legitimate exposure of shocking utterances. However, although this sum will undoubtedly come out of a police and/or CPS budget, it will ultimately be borne by all tax-payers as it is they who fund theoretically public services such as the police and the CPS.

Now that this ridiculous case has been thrown out, when are the police going to recommend a prosecution by the CPS against those Moslem clerics who uttered those obnoxious sentiments, quite clearly in contravention of British law? I am not holding my breath!

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