This is a little late, but it's a good piece so I wanted to share it.
Farooq Siddique: Nick Griffin was hit by verbal truck
Last week began with BBC's
Panorama exposing the kind of racism that still infests some parts of Bristol and ended bizarrely with BBC's
Question Time giving a platform to the kind of intolerance we saw on
Panorama.
I understand the argument that we need to challenge extremist views head-on and I'm all for free speech, but the way it was handled on
Question Time has in no way assured me that this is the best way to undermine an extremist ideology.
BNP leader Nick Griffin's performance on the programme was admittedly dire. He was like a deer caught in headlights. I've never hit a deer, but I can imagine how it must be. Nick Griffin was hit by a verbal equivalent of a truck. Even I felt pity for him.
Yes, it began very well. Griffin revealed himself to be devious, evasive while his party policies were shown to be divisive and hate-filled, even though that was never in doubt. But then, as the crowd cheered each swing of the proverbial baseball bat around his proverbial head, it all fell apart with the utterance of one simple word: immigration. And suddenly, the three main political party representatives turned their attention on each other. Griffin just sat there silently, with a grin as wide as the English Channel, licking his lips, watching the petty bickering that followed.
Then, perhaps the most stupid question ever asked by a Muslim audience member on television: "Why do you call Islam a wicked and vicious religion?" – It enabled him to reel off the content of a standard-issue BNP leaflet, unchallenged. Even Sayeeda Waarsi, considered by many to be the most powerful Muslim woman in Britain, ignored it, too busy scoring points for the Conservatives. Griffin went on to call homosexuals "creepy".
The most the BNP ever had was six per cent of the vote. After the show, 22 per cent of the British public believed Griffin "had a point" and would consider voting for him.
You may not agree with everything that is said, but on some things, everyone "has a point". That's what happens when you listen to any point of view, on any given subject. Labour, Conservatives, Liberals all "have a point" too.
They all have some of the answers; no one has all of the answers.
What we have to decide is what kind of country do we want to live in; a tolerant or intolerant society?
The Anglo-Saxons were Germans. Jesus was a Palestinian Jew. The patron saint of England was born in modern-day Turkey and lived and died in Palestine.
And yet, during another world recession, we are being tempted to blame "the other". Europe has been here before. We led the fight against that fascism then. We must not now stare into that abyss ourselves.
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