The Big City

A funny thing happened at the BBC yesterday. Someone from the Cairo office rang up the Newsnight programme asking them whether the rumours they had heard that Newsnight was going to be showing the controversial Danish cartoons that night were true. Newsnight were surprised, they said no, nobody on the programme had even suggested that they should show the cartoons, they hadn’t even discussed it. Later that day someone from the British Home Office rang to ask the same question, they had heard the rumour from the Foreign Office. Newsnight were even more surprised than before, but they gave the same answer - it wasn’t even on the agenda. Even later in the day the BBC press office rang. Over 700 people had rung the BBC to complain about Newsnight’s intended showing of the cartoons. A well co-ordinated complaining operation organised by foolish people based on nothing at all, rather like the whole controversy.

So what was going on here? Who was spreading this utterly baseless rumour? Was it the BNP? They must be absolutely delighted about this whole affair. For years they have been saying that Islam isn’t compatible with British values, now thousands of Muslims around the world are rallying in the streets echoing that view. Or could it have been Islamic extremists trying to stoke up the row in order to gain tactical advantages over other more liberal Muslims?

Meanwhile in Pakistan at least 27 people were killed today, torn apart by a bomb set off in a religious procession. The people who were killed were Muslim pilgrims. In the rioting that followed the explosion over half the town’s bazaar was destroyed, an unknown number of people were killed, countless more were injured or had their livelihoods destroyed. Was this bomb more objectionable than a picture in a newspaper, or is it just far easier for simple minded people to protest about some imagined insult instead of addressing the many difficult problems that we already have to deal with?