Dear Brothers and Sisters

As you may have noticed, the BBC presenter, Robert Kilroy-Silk has been the subject of intense media speculation due to his inflammatory anti-Arab/Muslim rant. Yesterday, he appeared on the Trevor McDonald Tonight programme, seeking to qualify his blatant hatred of Islam through the kaleidoscope of Freedom of Speech.

Following the initial condemnation of Kilroy-Silks remarks, and the subsequent decision of the BBC to temporarily suspend showing his daytime show, there is now a growing body of support for him.

According to Kilroy-Silk, this campaign against him has been manufactured by the Muslim Council of Britain. As Muslims, we need to be aware that any steps that we undertake for Dawah, any steps we undertake for clarifying misconceptions about Islam, are dealt a blow through these types of vile and erroneous attacks.

And, in light of recent events, such as Muslims being targeted, beaten and having their religion mocked by the police (for more information visit www.stoppoliceterror.com), it is important that we do not allow comments such as Kilroy-Silks to go without reproach. This is because hate filled comments such as these, become the basis for hate crimes against us all!

Here is an opportunity for the Muslim community to make a firm statement, that it will no longer tolerate being the victim. There is a very real possibility that Kilroy-Silk could be prosecuted under the Public Order Act. However, before that, we need to ensure that he never appears on our screens again being paid by OUR television license fees. If we, as a community can achieve this, then this could set a precedent to deter other wannabe Islamophobes.

Therefore, al Jumuah Magazine, asks you to write in to the BBC, and tell them that they should terminate Kilroy-Silks contract. Al Jumuah has already written a letter to the BBC; demanding that they terminate the contract of Kilroy-Silk. You can see this letter at the bottom of the page.

If you havent read Kilroy-Silks article, view it on this link (along with MCB's response)

http://www.mcb.org.uk/letter60.html

ACTION ALERT:

Please email to the following, and demand that the BBC sack Kilroy-Silk.
BBC One, Lorraine Heggessey: lorraine.heggessey@bbc.co.uk
Director General, Greg Dyke: greg.dyke@bbc.co.uk

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al-Jumuah letter to the BBC

Ms Lorraine Heggessey
Controller
BBC One
Wood Lane
London
W12 7RJ

13 January, 2004

Dear Ms Heggessey,

On behalf of the readership of al-Jumuah Magazine, we would like to express our condemnation of Robert Kilroy-Silks outrages racist remarks in the Sunday Express, 4 Jan 2004. Whilst we fully applaud your decision to temporarily suspend the Kilroy programme, we would like to stress that anything short of the termination of his contract by the BBC, will be viewed as a complete disregard for the feelings, integrity and values of the Arab and Muslim communities in Britain and abroad.

The BBC is a publicly funded body, which is under an obligation to provide fair, balanced and accurate information to its license payers of whom Arabs and Muslims constitute a substantial body. It is totally unacceptable for the BBC to continue employing someone through OUR MONEY, who demonstrates a complete ignorance, bias and hatred against Arabs and Muslims alike. This becomes all the more pressing, considering that Mr Kilroy-Silk presides over a programme that deals with current affairs.

In the article itself, Kilroy-Silk wrote,

We're told that the Arabs loathe us. Really? What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they murdered more than 3,000 civilians on September 11 That we admire them for the cold-blooded killings in Mombasa, Yemen and elsewhere? That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women-repressors?

Here, Kilroy-Silk is making a sweeping generalisation of ALL ARABS making no distinction whatsoever. What can be the purpose of this type of a remark, particularly coming from a supposedly intelligent person such as him, other than to engender a climate of fear and hostility towards Arabs and Muslims? Interestingly, Kilroy-Silk now claims that the article was in reference to Arab states, and that his comments have been taken out of context. Here, his weak defence is self-defeating.

Context is something which he himself ignored about the Arab countries by his comments regarding Arab states, and replacing them with democratic governments The context here being that many of these states are disliked and despised by their own people, yet they are supported, ironically by Western, democratic governments. By deliberately ignoring this context, not just here, but also, I hasten to add on his programme, Kilroy-Silk is able to sex up his own unsubstantiated claims, prejudice and hatred ironically this is what he claims to be subjected to himself.

Yet, this demonstration of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric is not new, as from a previous piece in the Daily Express, 16 January 1995, Kilroy wrote

Moslems everywhere behave with equal savagery. They behead criminals, stone to death female only female adulterers, throw acid in the faces of women who refuse to wear the chadar, mutilate the genitals of young girls and ritually abuse animals. Nor are non-Moslems immune to their depravity.

They conspired to kill the Pope, placed a death sentence on Salman Rushdie for writing things they did not like, murdered several of his supporters, threatened the life of a Moslem author who said, rightly, Islam treats women as second-class citizens, and indiscriminately murdered Western holiday-makers in Algeria, Egypt and elsewhere just because they were Westerners.

Please note the opening paragraph Moslems everywhere behave with equal savagery, again stating that ALL, not some, but ALL Muslims are barbaric. He continues this line of argument until ALL Muslims are accused of murdering Westerners. All this clearly demonstrates that Robert Kilroy-Silk is an Islamophobic bigot, who revels in gaining publicity through notoriety.

Now, against this background, how can Arabs and Muslims feel re-assured about the objectivity of such a programme if its presenter holds such repugnant views whilst still remaining defiant? How can they feel comfortable with an institution that continues to employ a man whose comments, and others like his, become references for hate crimes against our communities? If anyone made the same blanket accusations against Jewish people, we are sure that substantive action would have been taken and rightly so! This type of hate-mongering is totally unacceptable in our society.

We urge you to uphold the integrity of the BBC and terminate the contract of Robert Kilroy-Silk.

Yours Sincerely

Saqib Sattar
UK Manager
Al Jumuah Magazine
CC: Greg Dyke, BBC Director General