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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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27 July 2006

Updated Alert: Complain to BBC regarding forthcoming Panorama Documentary

1. Background
2. How to Complain

1. Background

The broadcast journalist John Ware, responsible for last year\’s one-sided Panorama programme on British Muslim leadership, is making another documentary about British Muslims. Thi shas now been scheduled to air on Sunday 30 July, as \’Faith, Hate and Charity\’.

This time he is focusing on the community’s alleged support of Palestinian groups and aims to expose activists’ links with political movements such as Hamas which Ware considers to be a terrorist organisation. For more details we refer to the journalist Faisal Bodi’s article on the forthcoming documentary on The Guardian website:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/faisal_bodi/2006/06/british_muslims_braced_for_mor.html

Ware’s last programme ‘A Question of Leadership’ was supposed to examine the role of the Muslim Council of Britain. Instead, it degenerated into an ‘McCarthyite’ attack on Muslims and their beliefs, overflowing with Islamophobic stereo-types and glaring inaccuracies. John Ware’s pro-Israel bias was also evident in the documentary. He reserved all his criticisms and condemnations for the Palestinians without a word of criticism for the Israelis.

The programme resulted in the BBC receiving over 600 complaints in the first week alone and provoked wide spread condemnation by Muslim groups and non Muslims alike. The documentary and its Islamaphobic nature was also highlighted by the IHRC via our alert:

https://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=1497

IHRC is deeply concerned that once again BBC is being used as platform to unleash another prejudiced and hate-filled attack on the Muslim community, by a journalist whose anti-Muslim prejudice has been fully exposed.

IHRC also feels that by choosing a journalist with a personal agenda against Muslims, to present a programme on the Palestine-Israel conflict, the BBC will be unable to fulfill their duty to report with accuracy and impartiality.

2. How to Complain

Please fill out a complaints form on the BBC website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
Copy your complaint to the Panorama team by email on: panorama@bbc.co.uk
Or post it to them at:
BBC Panorama Room 1118, 201 Wood Lane London W12 7TS 4.

Please CC correspondence to info@ihrc.org.uk so we can track the number of letters sent.

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Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom

T (44) 20 8904 4222
F (44) 20 8904 5183
E info@ihrc.org
W www.ihrc.org.uk