Undercover Mosque producer attacked on Press TV (Iran)

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George Galloway (Press TV, Iran) and David Henshaw (Hardcash, UK) have a face to face argument on Iranian television over the handling of the “Undercover Mosque” documentary, which shows British Muslims espousing views and intent to kill homosexuals and apostates and the desire to take over the UK Government and institutions while not integrating with the Kuffar. This documentary was highly controversial, but Ofcom found no wrongdoing and accurately reported the material. There’s a lot to learn about the religious argument from the irrational way in which George Galloway catfights in this discussion. Watch now!

Channel 4 was referred to Ofcom by the West Midlands Police on the same charges that George Galloway puts across and the outcome of the court case was that the Police had to pay Channel 4 £50,000/$100,000 of Libel damages. In this excerpt from The Guardian:

In August last year West Midlands police complained to regulator Ofcom about the editing of the Dispatches documentary.

But Ofcom said the programme was "a legitimate investigation uncovering matters of important public interest" in a subsequent ruling in November.

The regulator also said there was "No evidence that [Channel 4] had misled the audience" and "the broadcaster had accurately represented the material and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context".

Channel 4 and the independent production company, Hardcash donated all the damages won from West Midlands Police’s libellous statements to charity. The question that we should be asking as taxpaying citizens of the UK is why West Midlands Police accepted and took to court on behalf of the taxpayers of the UK, these ridiculous claims from the “offended” Muslim accusers on account that the accusers wish to enact censorship of free and fair speech in the UK. It is our understanding that the original Muslim accusers were not fined or asked to pay any of the £50,000 of damages caused by the spurious libel claims made by West Midlands Police.

George Galloway seems to be taking up the argument that Hardcash had been unfair in the way in which they presented the documentary and he took exception to the undercover nature of the filming and Galloway’s arguments were filled with systemic fallacies, “You only filmed it because it was Muslims” he said. “You don’t hunt the Christian bigots in the same way”, and “You’ve got a particular angst against Muslims”. George Galloway doesn’t appear to understand that Hardcash’s previous documentary was explicitly on Born Again Christian bigots in the UK and in many ways nearly as shocking as Undercover Mosque. What makes Undercover Mosque so extraordinarily shocking and violent were the statements, fairly and accurately recorded by people who are able to stand and unchallenged issue statements like, “The one who changes his religion, what are we to do? We kill him. Kill.”.

George Galloway defends the above statement by using the same old “Faith needs to be respected” trick. He says that these sentiments are in the bible too, and therefore what’s wrong with iterating them in a Mosque? Surely the Christians and Jews are just as bad? The producer makes George a challenge. If George Galloway can name or suggest a Christian or Jew in leadership who is making these statements then Hardcash will go undercover to film them. And yet it appears in the Regents Park Mosque, these kind of sentiments are being routinely expressed. Furthermore, Channel 4 recently returned to the Mosque in order to see if these views were being espoused. Despite claims that the rather nasty material from Saudi wouldn’t be sold, they still are. The calling for the killing of homosexuals is not known to be occurring anywhere else, but if it is, get in touch with Hardcash and they’ll get the evidence on tape.

Libel

I assume that by making such crazy statements on TV, that George Galloway will be finding himself digging into his pockets to hand over another round of £50,000 for libel damages to the producer. But of course we know that George Galloway won’t find himself in court over these crazed and baseless accusations. Why? Because Press TV is based in Iran. An Islamic police state with a bias against Channel 4 and Hardcash and a motivation to provide fuel for the “anger” in the “Muslim community”. I know from experience that it’s so easy to be offended as a religious person. It’s much harder to actually explain coherently why you are offended and to consider the response that you have no right not to be offended – and importantly – why these valuable freedoms are so important and why many have sacrificed their lives to protect them.

But the Bible is just as bad… so leave us Muslims alone!

Here’s the problem of respecting faith again. Why should I respect anyone’s views when those views contain sentiments that I should be killed or subjugated? What about the wonderful benefits that modern free thought and Science have brought us? Our infrastructure (transport, electricity, heating), our medicine (MRI, x-rays, antibiotics) and our entertainment – beer, movies, music. Why should we be forced to give these up and remove equal rights for women and gays purely based on their particular arrangement of nucleotides? What if, for example those views appear to condone slavery, rape, incest and murder? The Abrahamic faiths are filled with the stuff – a brutal reminder of the Bronze age history of our species. And a reminder for a faith led community? You need look no further than the Dark Ages.

In short, there is nothing to respect about someone’s beliefs when those beliefs are absolutely repugnant and vile. It doesn’t matter whether they are a Christian, Muslim, Jew, 7th day Adventist or a follower of any of the hundreds of thousands of Gods that people have shed rivers of blood over. We are all human beings and we can all share together in the human experience through the vehicle of free expression and thought, Science and progress.

Give me a good reason why I should respect your beliefs, those that are based upon no evidence or good explanation whatsoever and I’ll respect them or show you, gently if possible, why you are wrong.