We all know that Islam has an incredibly fragile glass jaw when it comes to criticism. We also know that the BBC is absolutely cowardly when it comes to reporting on matters Islamic.
But the latest outbreak of Islamic cry-bullying, and the BBC’s astonishingly gutless “reporting” of it, sets a new low.
Muslim nations are denouncing as “Islamophobic” a plain statement of Islamic scripture. The BBC is so spinelessly chicken-hearted that it refuses to publish excerpts of Islamic scripture, “as they are offensive in nature”.
That’s right: Muslims are offended by their own holy books and the BBC is too spineless to quote them.
India has been forced to try to placate its partners in the Islamic world after growing anger over controversial comments made by two senior officials of the country’s ruling party about the Prophet Muhammad.
Nupur Sharma, who was a spokesperson of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made the remark in a televised debate last month, while Naveen Jindal, who was media head of the party’s Delhi unit, had posted a tweet on the issue. The comments – especially Ms Sharma’s – angered the country’s minority Muslim community, leading to sporadic protests in some states. The BBC is not repeating Ms Sharma’s remarks as they are offensive in nature.
BBC
Wow, what were these remarks that were so offensive that the trembling scribes at Britain’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster had to avert their eyes?
“Should I start mocking claims of flying horses or the flat-earth theory as mentioned in your Quran? You are marrying a 6-year-old girl and having sex with her when she turned 9. Who did it? Prophet Muhammad. Should I start saying all these things that are mentioned in your scriptures?” said Sharma, after being heckled by Taslim Ahmed Rehmani while talking about the longstanding practice of mocking Hindu Gods and Goddesses.
OpIndia
Wait… aren’t all those things in Islamic scripture?
The “flying horse” is al-buraq, described as “a heavenly equine or chimeral beast”, which is described in Islamic scripture as having transported Muhammad on his miraculous Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and up through the heavens and back by night. The Quran itself merely describes the journey. Buraq appears in other Islamic scripture, notably Sahih Al-Bukhari, a collection of hadith (traditions of the sayings and doings of the Prophet) which is considered the second-most holy book in Sunni Islam, after the Koran. Bukhari describes buraq as “a white animal, smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey”, which transports Muhammad on his miraculous journey.
Numerous Koranic verses describe the Earth as flat, as indeed does the Bible.
Finally, the description of Muhammad marrying a six year old, and consummating that marriage at nine, is likewise explicitly stated in Bukhari. In fact, it is given as the explicit personal testimony of the girl herself: Muhammad’s favourite wife, Aisha.
“Narrated Aisha: The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years)… Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age” — Bukhari 58:234.
“Narrated Hisham’s father: Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married ‘Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed that marriage when she was nine years old” — Bukhari 58:236.
Certainly some, such as Shia scholar Imam Mohammad Tahwidi has argued, not unconvincingly, that the hadith traditions are a misrepresentation and that Aisha was likely in her teens. Nonetheless, the above verses are taken directly from the “most authentic” Sunni Islamic scriptures.
So, why are Muslims suddenly violently offended by their own holy books? Why is the BBC too terrified to report what is orthodox Islamic scripture?
After all, if Sharma had said — correctly — that the Bible says the Earth is flat, that Noah got drunk and had sex with his own daughters, or that King David murdered his best friend in order to shag his wife, would Christians be rioting in the streets?