The BBC today is promoting an article entitled “The Enduring Appeal of Violent Jihad” written by its security correspondent Frank Gardner.

Comment:

It is a well written piece of propaganda which precisely follows the BBC formula to label violent acts and murder as jihad, while denying any opportunity for the real meaning of jihad in Islam to be heard. It is highly dishonest to provide only a Western inspired perspective on the phenomenon of targeting civilians for attack that have become common since the Western states launched their war on Islam, which they named war on terrorism. However, this article, and all other BBC articles on the subject, consistently ignore the fact that the Muslim community has consistently condemned and rejected the naive individuals who undertake such violent acts, and thus actually help the Western media portray all Muslims as violent criminals. Furthermore, despite attempts to correct the BBC narrative, they stubbornly refuse to allow the actual informed discussion among Muslims about jihad to be heard. In effect it is the BBC that is the chief promoter of jihad as violent attacks on civilians, not the Muslim community.

Dawah and jihad always have, and always will be the basis of the foreign policy of the Islamic State that is the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the way of Prophethood. It is the protection for the global dawah that exposes the corrupt and oppressive regimes that the BBC is desperately trying to protect. Hence, their reluctance for a real and sensible public discussion about the role of jihad based on real Islamic scholarship.

The BBC’s terrifying of their own audience to make them constantly fearful and distrusting of Muslims serves their aim of putting obstacles in the way of the dawah to Islam, and it puts pressure on the Muslim community to adopt more and more secularism out of fear of being labeled supporters of what the BBC likes to call “terrorism” today.

Ironically, this current BBC article didn’t appear to notice the contradiction in the British government’s own support for the un-Islamic regimes of the Muslim world, which the BBC is a propagandist for, and their alleged opposition to violent attacks against civilians.

“There is a reason why the Middle East has long been a primary source of global jihadism. Corrupt, undemocratic and often oppressive regimes tend to drive peaceful political dissent underground…It will require far better and fairer governance, removing the drivers that spur people towards the violence that ruins so many lives.”

Surely, if the BBC was genuinely concerned about the violence as it claims to be, then it would be willing to entertain genuine discussion about the root causes, and the Islamic solution for better governance, rather than simply scaring their considerable audience into submissive acceptance of the secular status quo.

Yahya Nisbet

Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain