The BBC has controversially dropped a debate on homosexuality from a live panel discussion show because of objections from Birmingham Central Mosque in which the programme was being filmed.
As first reported by Breitbart London, the BBC Three live debate and discussion show aimed at young people, Free Speech, had intended to ask the question, “When will it be accepted to be Muslim and gay?” However, after showing a clip featuring Asifa Lahore, the UK’s first Muslim drag queen discussing his multiple identities of Muslim, gay and British, the show’s host, Rick Edwards, announced that the debate would not take place as planned. He told the audience:
“We were going to debate that question today, but after speaking to the Mosque, they have expressed deep concerns with having that discussion here.”
The producers of the show, Mentorn Media – the makers of Question Time – say the debate will happen on its next show on 25 March.
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society said: “After agreeing to allow a programme called Free Speech to be filmed at the Mosque, it is absurd and counterproductive to then censor the topic being discussed.
“It is unfortunate that the BBC allowed itself to be censored on this occasion by reactionary imams, but this was a place of worship, and perhaps the BBC would do well to choose religiously neutral venues to hold such debates in future”.
BBC cancels a debate because mosque people won’t like it. I have seen worse. My drama series were banned by government,because mosque people won’t like those series. And not a single Bengali media ever mentioned that the drama series that I wrote for TV, were banned, because mosque people won’t like it. Not a single Bengali media publishes any single review of any of my books because mosque people won’t like it. Publishers don’t want to publish my books because mosque people won’t like it.
The difference between UK and India is UK has the National Secular Society which protests against Media’s cowardly acts. India has no such society as the National Secular Society that can protest against media’s cowardly acts. For example, there is no such organization that can protest against the cancelation of my drama series, or the constant banning and censorship of my best selling books. The truth is, media doesn’t ban my books or drama series, media bans ME, the person. I would have felt contented if there were a National Secular Society in India for shouting out loud whenever anyone’s free speech is violated.
If you want to know why much of the Islamic World is a cauldron of psychopathology, read Saharasia by James DeMeo. The intolerant aspects of Islam are the result of an extremely patriarchal, war- like psychology that came into existence after the last Ice Age in the arid region that extends from Senegal all the way to Siberia through the Near East and Central Asia. As that green, fertile area increasingly desertified, people couldn’t grow or gather enough food and needed to raid other tribes for sustenance. As desertification continued, cliff and cave paintings increasingly lacked women. They were replaced by men who were presented more and more as warriors. The advent of Islam was fortuitous in that there were already “armored“, war like people who desperately needed peace between each other in order to wage war on others. The doctrine of “the house of Islam and the house of war” fitted the bill quite nicely. I would be happy to mail you a copy of Saharasia if you give me your snail mail address.
To me the real issue is the conflict between knowledge, whether intuitive or intellectual, and belief. Belief is always based on ignorance. If you know something you don’t believe it and if you believe it you don’t know it. Religious belief bases itself on spiritual ignorance. The pantheist mystic knows with sharp clarity far beyond the mere disbelief of the atheist that the male ruler of the universe, the ogre- in the- sky god is a myth.
The more a society evolves the less it believes and the more it knows. As far as intuitive awareness is concerned the East has been the world vanguard. As far as intellectual awareness is concerned the West has been the world vanguard The biggest threat to world peace is coming from that area that is unevolved both intuitively and intellectually, the Middle East and SouthWest Asia. There is lots of religion in that region but very little spirituality. Knowledge is suspect there because knowledge will always be subversive to belief.
John Coelho @ # 1 – So howcum we have such a long tradition of warlike cultures and people from such still-green nations as Germany, Congo, Britain, Vietnam, Colombia, and the United States?