{"id":565,"date":"2007-08-07T03:35:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-07T09:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=565"},"modified":"2008-06-03T21:25:35","modified_gmt":"2008-06-03T20:25:35","slug":"extra-judicial-killing-and-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2007\/08\/extra-judicial-killing-and-islam\/","title":{"rendered":"Extra-judicial killing and Islam"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>ispatches<\/span> reporter Phil Rees<\/a> last night made much of a purportedly rather dangerous sounding man in glasses and a scarf, giving his rather dangerous sounding interpretation of the Qu\u2019ran.<\/p>\n

Rees\u2019s justification?<\/p>\n

Journalists need to present the views of radical Muslims in a way that does not push them toward further violence. Journalism has a duty to reflect and not condemn the views of people such as Abu Muhammed. In denying them a voice, it is contributing to the radicalisation of British Muslims.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Daily Telegraph<\/span> begged to differ:<\/p>\n

The director of last night\u2019s opus, Phil Rees, describes this interview – which (living up to its advance publicity) would seem to qualify as specific incitement to violence – as a much-needed antidote to the one-sidedness of media debate about Islam. Does he really believe that a near-unanimous opposition to mass murder is a form of narrow-minded prejudice?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have put radical Islamists on TV (and members of the BNP too), but usually in an interview setting where their views can be challenged. Journalism is not a mirror, it also stands for something, and whilst those values may be highly contested, they don\u2019t usually include advocacy of extra-judicial murder.<\/p>\n

Because that is what the debate is about, it\u2019s not about Islam<\/span>, it\u2019s about the rights of individuals to kill one another without due legal process.<\/p>\n

If Rees had really wanted to put on a show he should have found someone to advocate the extra-judicial killing of Abu Muhammed (we are at war, after all). And perhaps too, the dangerous sounding Irishman outside Paddington Green. After all, once you start it\u2019s hard to know where to stop! But then didn\u2019t we used to do something similar<\/a> in Northern Ireland? Best not to bring that up. Still, IMO journalism needs to hold people to account – the state and its servants as much as self-justifying sociopaths. Rees let the big mouths off the hook, and didn’t challenge the efforts of moderates either (apart from showing up at a school briefly). <\/p>\n

In the meantime, if you want to explore some of the non-stereotypical range of Muslim opinion can I suggest the excellent Pickled Politics<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dispatches reporter Phil Rees last night made much of a purportedly rather dangerous sounding man in glasses and a scarf, giving his rather dangerous sounding interpretation of the Qu\u2019ran. Rees\u2019s justification? Journalists need to present the views of radical Muslims in a way that does not push them toward further violence. Journalism has a duty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[231,182,1414],"class_list":["post-565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","tag-channel-4","tag-guardian","tag-telegraph-media-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}