The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has tendered an unconditional apology to a Mumbai-based Islamic organisation on Thursday a day after a complaint was registered against the media organisation for ‘hurting’ the sentiments of Muslims.
On Tuesday, an organisation named Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Risalat Board (Protection of the Honour of Prophet), backed by radical Islamic organisation Raza Academy, had filed a complaint against the BBC Hindi for disrespecting Prophet Mohammed in one of their shows.
Maulana Moin Ashraf Quadri, who is the head of the organisation, cleric Mohammad Saeed Noori and Congress MLA Amin Patel had approached the Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh to register an FIR against BBC Hindi for the usage of a certain ‘blasphemous’ image in one of their shows. The clerics had demanded a strict action against the news outlet for depicting Prophet in their show.
The letter stated that in a Facebook video about Ahmadiya Muslims in Pakistan, BBC had displayed a portrait with the prophet’s name written on it and it is ‘extreme blasphemy’ in Islam to portray a sketch of the prophet.
BBC apologises for ‘hurting’ sentiments of Muslims
A day after the complaint was lodged against the media organisation, the BBC has apologised to the radical Islamic organisation for allegedly hurting the Muslims’ sentiments. It comes as a surprise for many that BBC, which champions the cause of free speech, has capitulated against an Islamic organisation by issuing an apology immidiately.
According to the Times of India report, the BBC Hindi issued a statement to the Islamic organisation saying that they regret the offence they have caused by publishing Prophet Mohammed’s image. In a letter written by Mukesh Sharma, the editor of BBC, to Maulana Noorie, Raza Academy’s General Secretary, he said that the BBC has already revised the video and removed the contents that hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims.
In addition to this, an audio of a BBC journalist, who identifies himself as Iqbal Ahmad, has also gone viral. In the audio, Iqbal Ahmed can be heard speaking to Maulana Noorie and pleading to him to forgive the BBC and their employees for hurting the Muslims’ religious sentiments.
“BBC is ashamed for committing such a grave mistake, and an enquiry has already been initiated. I want to assure you that we at BBC understand the sensibilities and accept our mistakes. We profusely apologise for depicting such an image on our show that hurt sentiments of many. The BBC has also decided to remove the objectionable contents from the video, and we are ready to accept any of your demands,” said Iqbal Ahmad, as he pleaded with Maulana Noorie to forgive BBC for their mistakes.
OpIndia could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio. However, we found that a ‘journalist’ named Iqbal Ahmed currently works for BBC Hindi as a Senior Broadcast Journalist.
Following the apology issued by the BBC, the Islamic clerics of the Raza Academy have accepted their regret. In a statement, Maulana Moin Mian said that as the BBC regretted their ‘error’ and removed the content, the issue is over.
“We had approached the cops with the complaint because we did not want any confrontation. It is good that BBC acted fast and the issue has been resolved before it went out of control,” said Moin Mian, the chief of the newly formed organisation Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Risalat Board that intends to seek legal remedies against such ‘blasphemous’ acts against Islam.
Following BBC’s apology, the Raza Academy has hailed the clerics for making BBC regret their ‘blasphemous’ action.
BBC denigrates Hindus and its culture, while it apologises to Muslims
The BBC, which often claims to be the epitome of freedom of speech, has a habit of brazenly carrying out Anti-Hindu propaganda to denigrate and attack Hindus and their culture. However, the left-wing media organisation has never cared about the sentiments of Hindus or Indians per se as they push false narratives.
Ironically, the BBC that claims of speaking truth to power has now surrendered against the radical Islamists in India, such as Raza Academy, for just publishing an image in one of their shows.
Raza Academy – a notorious radical Islamic organisation
The Raza Academy has been one of the notorious radical Islamic organisations that has instigated violence on the streets of the country in the past.
In August 2011, Raza Academy had staged a morcha at Azad Maidan ground to protest against the alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar, which later turned into a riot. The protest turned violent after one of the notorious group attacked the policemen leading to police firing in which two persons were killed and 63 persons, including 58 police officers, were injured.
Raza Academy, which had organized the protest, had earlier assured the Mumbai Police that only 1,500 people would turn up. However, more than 15,000 people assembled at the Azad Maidan and later, the crowd swelled to over 40,000 people resulting in Muslim mobs unleashing violence on the streets of Mumbai.
The most shocking incident of the Azad Maidan Riots was the desecration of Amar Jawan Jyoti memorial by the Muslim mobs. The war memorial is dedicated to the fighters of 1857 – the First Indian Freedom Struggle. The riots had caused approximately Rs 2.72 crores worth of damages to various public properties.
Earlier this year, Raza Academy had threatened with ‘law and order situation’ if the movie ‘Muhammad: The Messenger of God’ was not banned. The movie depicts the life of the prophet from birth till the age of 13. The Islamic organisation had issued a fatwa against AR Rahman, the music composer of the movie, and Iranian director Majid Majidi in 2015 as well.
The same Raza Academy has also filed FIR against Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami, accusing him of spreading ‘communal hatred’ as he was reported on the Palghar mob lynching of two sadhus.
