BBC Take Kilroy Off After Anti-Arab Rant
This has just popped up on my screen.........seems like Mr. Kilroy-Silk is a little out of step with the...........BBC's political agenda. I'm sure readers, you will have some thoughts on this !! Seems like the BBC doesn't want people to say what they think, in their own free time. Beware, while you are watching the Big Brother Corporation, they are watching you. You have been warned.
"Robert Kilroy-Silk's BBC1 daily talk show has been taken off the air by the Corporation after the TV host penned an "anti-Arab rant" in a national newspaper column.The BBC said it "strongly disassociated" itself from the the star's comments.Writing in the Sunday Express at the weekend, the ex-Labour MP described Arabs as "suicide bombers, limb amputators and women repressors".
Under the headline, We Owe Arabs Nothing, he continued: "Apart from oil - which was discovered, is produced and is paid for by the West - what do they contribute?
"Can you think of anything? Anything really useful?... No, nor can I..."
A statement the Corporation said: "The BBC strongly disassociates itself from the views expressed in an article by Robert Kilroy-Silk in the Sunday Express.
"We stress that these comments do not reflect the views of the BBC."
It added: "The BBC is taking the Kilroy programme off air immediately while we investigate this matter fully."
The Muslim Council of Britain described the prose as an "anti-Arab rant".
Kilroy also has a show on BBC Radio 5 Live.Speculation has already mounted that this could be axed if he is found to have breached rules on presenters writing newspaper columns, brought in after the Andrew Gilligan affair. "
Comments
What about um...algebra? and, ah, Arabic numerals, Lawrence of Arabia, and Arabian Horses and err, Civilization? I know it been a while since they came up with these but we are still using some of them.
Posted by: Phil | January 9, 2004 8:35 PM
I note (BBC Website!) that he now says that he actally published this many months ago and that NO-ONE made any complaints at the time and that it was a re-publication in the Sunday Express. He also says that the original article had ARAB STATES not Arabs. If true puts a slightly different light on it. ie why did the MCB not complain after the original publication months ago, how come the CRE are still in existance and trying to justify their inflated budget and feeling of self importance?
Posted by: Dave T | January 9, 2004 9:57 PM
Algebra was invented by the Greeks, although the Arabs developed it (and preserved it during the Dark Ages).
Arabic numerals were developed in Southern India. They reached the West via the Arabs.
Civilisation may have started in that region, but I think it may have been before the Arab peoples arrived there.
OTOH, the Arabs have been credited with inventing the number 0, and the modern scientific method.
A quick google on Arab Inventions returns 21,600 sites. Not all of these are necessarily accurate - a common claim seems to be that the Arabs invented gunpowder in the 14th Century AD, yet Roger Bacon included a formula for it in one of his works a century earlier, and the Chinese are credited with possessing it in the 9th Century AD.
Posted by: Simon Jester | January 12, 2004 2:07 PM
So the guy makes some true statements and now everyone is up in arms over it? I can't wait for the Arab uprising in Europe. Should make for some great TV. Maybe a good skirmish there will convince the few with some backbone to come out and make something out of that country. The English are fatalist's with no passion for the future.
Posted by: radtec | January 13, 2004 4:48 PM
Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui (of the "Muslim Parliament of Great Britain") apparently has two letters in the Grauniad today -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1122411,00.html
- in his second epistle (third one down) he claims to be a black lesbian.
Well, it made me laugh.
Posted by: Simon Jester | January 14, 2004 1:07 PM
Dang, they've fixed it now. Bloody stealth editing...
Posted by: Simon Jester | January 14, 2004 4:39 PM
shame...!
Posted by: Mr Free Market | January 14, 2004 5:09 PM