Glob-a-log

Well, better late than never, I suppose.

West Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service will today issue a high court apology and agree to pay six-figure libel damages to Channel 4 and the independent makers of a Dispatches documentary, Undercover Mosque. The broadcaster and Hardcash Productions launched the action after the media regulator cleared them of TV fakery and ruled they “dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context”.

Last August, West Midlands police referred the show to Ofcom and, in conjunction with the CPS, issued a statement saying the words of three preachers featured had been “heavily edited” so their meaning was “completely distorted”. In their statement today, West Midlands police and the CPS will say they “now accept that there was no evidence that the broadcaster or programme makers have misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity”.

The documentary, an undercover investigation into extremism in mainstream British mosques, featured preachers calling for homosexuals to be killed, espousing male supremacy, condemning non-Muslims and predicting jihad. David Henshaw, of Hardcash Productions, said: “The abhorrent and extreme comments made by the fundamentalist preachers in this film speak for themselves. They later claimed they had been taken out of context – but no one has explained the correct context for arguing women are ‘born deficient’, that homosexuals should be thrown off mountains and that 10-year-old girls should be hit if they refuse to wear the hijab.”

It is an altogether disgraceful story though. The authorities had been warned before about these fundamentalist ravings in some of these mosques but had chosen not to investigate. Incompetence, fear of reprisals, laziness, a misplaced sense of political correctness – or a bit of all of the above?

Whatever it was, the authorities decided it was better just to ignore the hateful and bigoted noises coming from these so-called holy places and do like the ostrich does. Of course, nobody likes it when they are told they’re not doing their job properly, so when this documentary showed that there was something rotten in the heart of many of Britain’s mosques the police and the Crown Prosecution Service decided to take action against the movie makers rather than belatedly doing something about the hate peddlers.

I’m sure they thought they could get away with it too. British TV had been suffering from a few scandals involving fake documentaries, problems with call-in shows etcetera, so they judged the public would automatically buy yet another claim of fakery. It was a thoroughly cynical ploy, meant to hide their guilt with a well-timed lie. A perfect cover-up operation – if it had worked. Which it happily didn’t.

So, now they’ve been forced to admit that they were wrong to accuse the makers of the documentary of distorting the truth. It’s a pity they haven’t been forced to admit to being as guilty as Nixon after Watergate – and it’s a damn shame they are not being prosecuted themselves as accessories to hate crimes. Which, of course, they are. By trying to cover up their own incompetence, they also covered up the words of these hate-filled and hate-rousing imams.

It is a very depressing idea that these police and prosecution officers are allowed to keep their jobs. The statement that they have “now” come to accept that they had no case against the documentary makers is a bloody lie, of course. They had known this all the time. They had just chosen to ignore the hate crimes they knew were being committed.

Maybe the most depressing thing of all is that while these fine public servants may have made their very lukewarm apologies, they haven’t announced that they will now be investigating these mosques thoroughly. So, those calling for homosexuals to be killed and girls to be beaten etcetera will know that neither their hateful words not their sleep are likely to be disturbed by those meant to uphold the laws of the land.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 16:00 and is filed under Columns, Crime, Politics, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.