It seems that at last, as I and others have requested, Fiyaz Mughal’s Tell Mama has finally come forward with what they describe as proof of the ‘threats and abuse’ that they claim have been aimed at them. However, now that I’ve listened to the example Tell Mama have produced, I’m moved to ask ‘is that it?’ Is that all they have as evidence?
On a recent edition (September 4th 2016) of the BBC programme ‘5 Live Investigates’ which was on the subject of the oft claimed and probably dubious ‘post Brexit hate crime spike’, the BBC gave Fiyaz Mughal free reign to state his case. They also gave Mughal a ideal example to show the world exactly what sort of ‘abuse and threats’ they allege that they’ve been receiving. The interview by the Beeboid, Adrian Goldberg with Fiyaz Mughal struck me as so unchallenging and so unquestioning that it could fairly be described as a form of journalistic fellatio of Mughal by Goldberg. Mughal was allowed to falsely claim that social media had been ‘weaponised’ by who he referred to extremists and called for censorship of those social media views that Fiyaz Mughal doesn’t like. There was no real challenge by Mr Goldberg to Mughal’s claim of social media being weaponised and Mughal’s rebutting of the suggestion by Mr Goldberg that people ignore hatefilled guff was also not examined properly. Mughal was also allowed to claim that people’s negative opinions about Islam were ‘criminality’ without any comeback from the interviewer.
Fiyaz Mughal founder of the Tell Mama organisation.
The example of the sort of phone call (at 42:20 – 42:53 on the audio file) that Fiyaz Mughal is claiming that his organisation has received is without doubt hostile to Islam and rude, but if this is what Mughal is claiming to be an example of a credible threat towards Tell Mama then it really doesn’t amount to much.
The caller, who stated that he really hated Islam and Muslims told Britain’s Muslims to ‘FOAD’ which although an unpleasant thing to say, will be seen by many as an expression of antipathy towards Islam, rather than a credible threat to Fiyaz and his motley crew.
Here’s a rough transcription of the 30 or so seconds call in question. In this transcription “C” is the caller and TM is the Tell Mama operative.
C: “I’m a 52 year old English man, with no particular religious persuasions but I just wanted to tell you to you face that I absolutely hate Muslims.
TM: Yeah, is that right? Well I’m not Muslim either so I think you are talking to the wrong person.
C: Well, I’m not sure but I’m just looking at Tell Mama here (on the web I presume – Ed) and it absoutely disgusts me. I work in the city and I want to tell you, I’m not a racist,
TM: <sarcasticly> So you are not a racist are you.
C: yeah I’m not a racist I just hate Islam. I’m proud of it.
TM: Good for you. Excellent. Anything else you’d like to add then?
C: I hope with all my heart that the (expletive deleted by the BBC) Muslims die just as soon as they (expletive deleted by the BBC) can. I hate them, I hate them.
Fiyaz Mughal then popped up on the programme to say that Tell Mama has received ‘literally thousands’ of abusive calls and said that their were too many to count. If that is the case then maybe Tell Mama could explain why they are hawking round this relatively mild example of an abusive call as representative of ‘abuse and threats’. When I clicked on this call, on the part of the programme that Tell Mama is promoting on their site, I expected to hear much much worse. I expected to hear things on the lines of ‘I hate you lying bastards and I’m going to come round and do you in’ or something similar, something that could credibly be said to be a threat. I didn’t hear any threat to Tell Mama in this call, just that the caller was disgusted, as many people are, by Tell Mama and its activities, which go way way beyond monitoring alleged anti-Muslim attacks and stray into campaigining for press and social media censorship. Of course it’s unpleasant and rude to be told to FOAD but to be quite frank, being told to FOAD is a lot less serious than some of the incitement for violence that can be found in Islamic culture, Islamic theology and in such Islamic literature as the Koran and the Hadith. Also, such criticism of Islam, unlike expressions of dislike and disparagement aimed at other more innocent minority groups, is to a major extent justifiable. I may not agree with dishing out genuine threats, but I certainly believe that criticising Islam and Islamic organisations is acceptable, provided, of course, that the line between ‘credible threat’ and criticism is not crossed. Attacking those who’ve done nothing apart from being ‘different’ is wrong, as many people may well agree. However, when you look at the horrific amount of Islamic terror, Islamic rapists, corrupt Islamic politicians and other Islam related or inspired crime that Britain is afflicted with, then you have to ask the question: ‘Is it any wonder that people are getting pissed off with Islam and taking it out on organisations like Tell Mama’?
I don’t personally agree with all of the callers sentiments. For example, I’ve no desire to see Britain’s more troublesome and culturally incompatible Muslims die, just that they sod off to whatever Islamic hell hole that suits them and us better than them being here. But, I do agree that he has a right to criticise Tell Mama and call them ‘disgusting’ he also has a right to express his antipathy to Islam. The last time I checked being rude and unpleasant, even to Mughal and his minions, or disliking Islam were not criminal offences. If this is a representative example of the sort of communications that Mughal has been hawking round to organisations like the Metropolitan Police in a so far unsuccessful attempt to have those who made them arrested, then all I can say is no wonder the police behaved in Mughal’s view ‘unhelpfully’.
I had a feeling that Tell Mama have been exaggerating the content and amount of ‘abuse and threats’ that they alleged that they have received. If the example that TM have provided is representative of the communications, that they have received from opponents, then all I can say is that TM may be over-egging the pudding. I may well be correct in assuming that most of the content of what TM call ‘abuse and threats’ consist mainly of people saying ‘I don’t like Islam very much’ in various tones and language styles, along with people dishing out criticism to Tell Mama. If this is the best that Fiyaz Mughal and the mountebanks of Tell Mama can come up with then I call ‘bullshit’ on their claims that they’ve been the subject of credible threats.
Links
BBC Radio 5 Live programme featuring Phoney Fiyaz and his outrageous claims
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07rkry2
Tell Mama whining about getting criticism and playing ‘poor me’ game
https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2016/09/02/tell-mama-whining-about-getting-criticism-again/
Tell Mama complaining that the Metropolitan Police were not jumping up and doing their bidding
The Tell Mama website
