BBCphobia

I am beginning to seriously despair about the BBC. 

Yesterday they published a video showing the moment in which a gathering group of armed German police surrounded the Magdeburg attacker and forced him to drop to the ground beside his car, at which point he seems to shout ‘Alahu Akbar’. (At least that is my conclusion. It appears far less likely that it was one of the cops showing satisfaction at the arrest. There’s also a bystander very close by losing his shit, so there is reasonable doubt.) 

Viewers can of course draw their own conclusions. My point is not really about Taleb Al Abdulmohsen’s motivations. This individual was manifestly very disturbed and probably also depraved. 

Clearly no Islamist from Central Casting, he had been accused of rape in Saudi Arabia and other sexual offences, including human trafficking in Germany, whose government he seemed to have developed a particular grudge against. 

My point is how can the BBC publish that video with this sort of text accompanying it? 

“An atheist, he ran a website that aimed to help other former Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands. His social media was full of anti-Islamic sentiment and conspiracy theories.”

Surely, the video alone would prompt an element of nuance to this assessment in any serious journalistic body? Instead, the first instinct is to nail down a verdict which simultaneously makes the incident both more complicated and also rather handily less complicated. But walking on eggshells has a very distinct sound to it.

The Beeb might also have wanted to point out that these other former Muslims he was helping all tended to be women of the young sort. 

It would seem reasonable to presume that Al Abdulmohsen might have needed a pretty big reason to dodge the extradition request which the Saudis had consistently lodged. At least appearing to be a highly audible apostate would certainly fit the bill. 

And what of his other social media activity? The examples below are doing the rounds on X, as yet unverified, I would add. The BBC has at least so far restrained itself from describing the Saudi shrink as ‘pro-Israel’ (others haven’t), but for how long? 

Anyway, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was taking the piss to an even greater extent yesterday, when she referred to this man who seemingly shouted ‘Alahu Akbar’ after committing mass murder as “an Islamophobe.”

Whatever our values and perspectives, in a fully functioning democracy we all have a right to be treated with much greater respect, both by our leaders and by the media outlets with strong ties to the state. 

I am aware that I could be wrong here in precisely the way that my national broadcaster isn’t. And that now bothers me, a lot.