Channel 4 had two programmes last night to commemorate the anniversary of the London Bombs.
The second, the Miracle of Carriage 346 was about how some of the people in the carriage survived and rebuilt their lives. Two women who lost legs got on with their lives with no whining, just gratitude for the emergency service and medical personnel who saved them. A man who was protected from injury by the bodies of those killed who is thankful for every minute of playing with his grandchildren. Another man, blinded in one eye by a flying chunk of the bomber’s shinbone celebrating the birth of his new son.
My husband thought it was an insult to the survivors and the bereaved families to show it on the anniversary and I never thought I would find myself in agreement with the editor of the Express newspaper.
Peter Oborne the presenter was incredibly irritating. Mary tells me that he has spoken out about affairs in Zimbabwe and he must be given credit for that. But if he continues leaning into the camera while punching the air so as to appear to be leaning out of my television and into my front room with such aggression he will end up with a very sore back.
It was emphasised that certain white interviewees were members or supporters of the BNP. An Indian family were also interviewed and they said how uncomfortable they had been made to feel living so near to a particular mosque. But no mention was made of what they had been suffering and whether, (as there may well have been) there was a religious element to how they had been made to feel uncomfortable.
I sympathised with the wife of the man badly beaten and left for dead by thugs; such behaviour is vile and reprehensible. But once I saw in the second programme Gill Hicks walking into church for her wedding on two artificial legs only 5 months after the blast, and Susan Harrison learning to ski on one leg any sympathy I may have had for the woman who stopped wearing the niqab “because people were glaring at me and this upset my children” evaporated.
The programme also spent a lot of time interviewing Sarfraz Sarwar of Basildon (a new Town in Essex where there are about 300 Muslims) about local prejudice as evidenced by their Islamic centre burning down 2 years ago and his friends (all men) having to move from place to place for their meetings ever since.
Mr Sarwar was featured in the Essex Echo yesterday calling for Sharia Law to make Essex a safer place.
A MUSLIM leader believes knife attackers should be locked up for 42 days like terror suspects.
Sarfraz Sarwar, 60, said he couldn't see the difference between the knife crime epidemic and those accused of plotting and carrying out terror attacks.
Mr Sarwar, of Gordons, Pitsea, also backed calls for Sharia law to be introduced in Britain and said public flogging should be carried out in town centres.
He said Sharia law would act as a deterrent in solving crime in Britain.
He added: "If anybody is caught with a knife then give them ten lashes in the town centre.
"Sharia law is not controversial. It's a deterrent. Muslim countries don't have half the problems we have because Sharia law is there."
Mr Sarwar continues to run a minorities support group in Basildon. He was the leader of the Basildon Islamic Centre, in Laindon, before it was burnt down in 2006.
Mr Sarwar is also very concerned for the safety of Muslims today and says racial abuse has increased since the 7/7 London bombings in 2005.
I don’t think that is likely to improve the public perception of Islam somehow.
Peter Oborne gave statistics of a poll taken for the programme. According to which 51% of those interviewed believe that the tenets of Islam itself were responsible for the murders of 7 July 2005. Islam itself. Not an extreme interpretation of it. Not the hijackers of an otherwise peaceful religion. Islam itself.
The genie seems to be out of the bottle and I don’t think Mr Oborne and his fans at the Grauniad are going to be able to put it back in now.
