I have just made my first ever complaint to the press regulator https://www.ipso.co.uk/complain/ about the article yesterday in The Sunday Times about suicide bombers blowing themselves up in Tower Hamlets.
Not only I have worked in Tower Hamlets for 25 years and have lived next door in the even more diverse London borough of Newham for even longer. I can remember being woken up by the noise of the 1996 IRA bomb in Canary Wharf, which murdered two people and hurt over a 100, some permanently disabled and disfigured (it also wreaked the headquarters of my employers).
I also remember the Brick Lane nail bombing by a Nazi extremist in 1999, which injured 6 people.
Never mind all the residents in Tower Hamlets I have met who lived through the fear and destruction of the second world war Blitz.
Bombing in Tower Hamlets is not a laughing matter.
So this is what was said yesterday in the (paywall) Sunday Times article about suicide bombers, by their long time commentator, Rod Liddle. He said: “I don’t really mind if they don’t leave the country, so long as they blow themselves up – somewhere a decent distance from where the rest of us live. Tower Hamlets, for example.” (my emphasis)
Is blowing up a bomb in Tower Hamlets supposed to be a good thing or somehow inconsequential? So is he saying "normal people" the "rest of us" - don't live in Tower Hamlets? Only muslims and suicide bombers live there - so who cares?
This is not only clearly discriminative against all Muslims but will also only give succour to violent Nazi racists who make constant threats against the Borough. The Sunday Times may soon have blood on its hands.
Ironically, the ignorant Rod Liddle, does not seem to realise that if a bomb went off nowadays in Brick Lane, it would probably kill or maim non muslim tourists who are in search of a decent curry.
People say that the IPSO is a toothless tiger controlled by the industry. If this is not true then now is the time for it to act.
Hat tip Ejaz
3 comments:
Well done John, for far too long Rightwing Columnist's have made offensive/racist/islamaphobic remarks under the guise of freedom of speech or we are expected to buy into the usual rubbish spewed out by rightwing Editors and Commentators who arrogantly claim that they expose such parties and spokespeople by having them on their shows and in their newspapers. This is either a massive delusion or a dangerous game with the end result being we unwittingly become so immune to this nastiness that we end up 'normalising Fascism'
Well done John, for far too long Rightwing Columnist's have made offensive/racist/islamaphobic remarks under the guise of freedom of speech or we are expected to buy into the usual rubbish spewed out by rightwing Editors and Commentators who arrogantly claim that they expose such parties and spokespeople by having them on their shows and in their newspapers. This is either a massive delusion or a dangerous game with the end result being we unwittingly become so immune to this nastiness that we end up 'normalising Fascism'
Well done John, for far too long Rightwing Columnist's have made offensive/racist/islamaphobic remarks under the guise of freedom of speech or we are expected to buy into the usual rubbish spewed out by rightwing Editors and Commentators who arrogantly claim that they expose such parties and spokespeople by having them on their shows and in their newspapers. This is either a massive delusion or a dangerous game with the end result being we unwittingly become so immune to this nastiness that we end up 'normalising Fascism'
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