The BBC has apologised to the neo conservative, anti-Islam commentator Douglas Murray after he was described as a “hate preacher” on BBC News.
Following the deadly Finsbury Park attack on Monday, Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission called Murray a “hate preacher” whilst being interviewed for a news item.
Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain also compared Murray to Anjem Choudary on the BBC politics show.
In a statement read out live on BBC News yesterday a newsreader said: “At this time on Monday we interviewed a contributor who expressed the view that Douglas Murray was a hate preacher. Mr Murray is Associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank that describes itself as working to counter extremism and to support liberal democracy. We’d like to make it clear that we were unaware that Mr Murray would be named in this way and would like to apologise to him.”
Murray has fiercely criticised Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and British Muslim organisations and activists on numerous media platforms.
In February 2006, Murray expressed his views on Islam and Muslims in Europe, in his talk delivered to the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference in the Hague, Netherlands:
He said: “Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition. We in Europe owe – after all – no special dues to Islam. We owe them no religious holidays, special rights or privileges. From long before we were first attacked it should have been made plain that people who come into Europe are here under our rules and not theirs. If some Muslims don’t have a mosque to go to, then they’ll just have to realise that they aren’t owed one.”
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