http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/dgreenfield/bbc-agreed-to-censor-mention-of-mohammeds-murder-of-poet/

February 19, 2015 by Daniel Greenfield 11 Comments

This is remarkably creepy because it isn’t simply a refusal to show material that offends Muslims, but a post-fact deletion of it from a dialogue. That’s downright Orwellian.

The night after the Charlie Hebdo atrocities I was pre-recording a Radio 4 programme. My fellow discussant was a very nice Muslim man who works to ‘de-radicalise’ extremists. We agreed on nearly everything. But at some point he said that one reason Muslims shouldn’t react to such cartoons is that Mohammed never objected to critics.
There may be some positive things to be said about Mohammed, but I thought this was pushing things too far and mentioned just one occasion when Mohammed didn’t welcome a critic. Asma bint Marwan was a female poetess who mocked the ‘Prophet’ and who, as a result, Mohammed had killed. It is in the texts. It is not a problem for me. But I can understand why it is a problem for decent Muslims. The moment I said this, my Muslim colleague went berserk. How dare I say this? I replied that it was in the Hadith and had a respectable chain of transmission (an important debate). He said it was a fabrication which he would not allow to stand. The upshot was that he refused to continue unless all mention of this was wiped from the recording. The BBC team agreed and I was left trying to find another way to express the same point. The broadcast had this ‘offensive’ fact left out.
I cannot imagine another religious discussion where this would happen, but it is perfectly normal when discussing Islam.

It’s the most explicit and disturbing form of censorship imaginable. This shows how much of an impact Islam has on our intellectual freedom.

Douglas Murray had already pointed out the BBC’s censorship of the cartoons themselves. But then he found himself censored.

You can find illustrations from this touching anecdote of Mohammed’s life here.

Filed Under: The Point

About Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.