Fury as Israel President Claims English Are 'Anti-Semitic'
THE TELEGRAPH: Israel's president has accused the English of being anti-semitic and claimed that MPs pander to Muslim voters.

Shimon Peres said England was "deeply pro-Arab ... and anti-Israeli", adding: "They always worked against us."

He added: "There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary."

His remarks, made in an interview on a Jewish website, provoked anger from senior MPs and Jewish leaders who said the 87-year-old president had "got it wrong".

But other groups backed the former Israeli prime minister and said the number of anti-semitic incidents had risen dramatically in the UK in recent years.

The controversy follows the furore last week over David Cameron's remark that Gaza was a "prison camp", as he urged Israel to allow aid and people to move freely in and out of the Palestinian territory.

Mr Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is three years into his seven-year term as president and was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen in 2008, said that England's attitude towards Jews was Israel's "next big problem".

"There are several million Muslim voters, and for many members of parliament, that's the difference between getting elected and not getting elected," he said.

"And in England there has always been something deeply pro-Arab, of course, not among all Englishmen, and anti-Israeli, in the establishment.

"They abstained in the [pro-Zionist] 1947 UN partition resolution ... They maintained an arms embargo against us in the 1950s ... They always worked against us. They think the Arabs are the underdogs."

By contrast, relations with Germany, France and Italy were "pretty good", he added. >>> David Harrison and Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Saturday, July 31, 2010

Shimon Peres has got this right. MPs do pander to Muslims for votes. Further, the Foreign Office and the establishment of this country has long been pro-Arab. Bravo, Mr Peres for having the courage to state the truth! I applaud you. – © Mark

THE GUARDIAN: Israel president Shimon Peres accuses Britain of pro-Arab bias: Veteran politician claims MPs pander to Muslim voters with anti-Jewish rhetoric and glorify Palestinians as underdogs >>> Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem | Sunday, August 01, 2010

Slimy, Weak Politicians Pandering to Muslims
THE GUARDIAN: The government's attempts to placate Muslims will cause long-term damage to communities, a charity said yesterday.

The warning came from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, chair and co-founder of the British Muslims for Secular Democracy, a new organisation claiming to represent the "silent majority who feel no conflict between their faith and democracy".

Speaking before the launch, attended by Baroness Kishwer Faulkner and former Islamist Ed Husain, the journalist said the government was pandering to Muslims by granting too many concessions, fuelling their separation from the rest of society.

"The government has found a way of placating Muslims in a way that will only damage us in the long term, Muslims wanting separate schools or different measures. There must be one law for all. Stop Pandering to Muslims Says 'Silent Majority' >>> By Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent | May 2, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

MY ESSAY ON THE INCOMPATIBILITY OF ISLAM WITH DEMOCRACY:
Islam: The Enemy of Democracy and Freedom

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

BBC Chief Warns of ‘Over-Cautious’ Islam Coverage
THE TIMES: Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, tonight warned broadcasters against becoming overly-cautious in their reporting on Islam for fear of causing offence to Muslims.

Speaking at Westminster Cathedral Mr Thompson, a practising Catholic, said there was “a growing nervousness about discussion about Islam and its relationship to the traditions and values of British and Western society as a whole”.

He said that the BBC and other major channels “have a special responsibility” to ensure that debates about “faith and society” and about any religion “should not be foreclosed or censored”.

In an effort to demonstrate that his remarks were not targeted solely at ensuring that Islam received journalistic scrutiny, Mr Thompson also referring to his decision to broadcast Jerry Springer, The Opera despite an avalanche of complaints from Christians unhappy at the depiction of Jesus in the satire.

“There is no point having a BBC which isn’t prepared to stand up and be counted; which will do everything it can to mitigate potential religious offence; but which will always be forthright in the defence of freedom of speech and of impartiality,” he said.

The lecture, Faith and the Media, also discussed how religious broadcasting at the BBC developed from the secularist perspective of the 1960s and 1970s, when Mr Thompson worked on Everyman, to faith-oriented programmes that tap a “sharp revival of interest in the spiritual potential”.

He contrasted The Passion, a traditional portrayal of Jesus Christ’s last days written by Frank Deasey, with the previous attempt to tell the story of his life, Dennis Potter’s 1969 version of a self-doubting prophet in Son of Man[.]

“It is quite simply inconceivable that the BBC in the 1970s or 80s or indeed the 90s would have [shown] a drama about Christ’s passion across BBC One’s primetime schedule”. [Source: BBC Chief Mark Thompson Warns of 'Over-Cautious' Islam Coverage]

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)