BBC Propaganda

Paul Weston has written an excellent essay over at Gates of Vienna, highlighting how the BBC manages to sneak in some very careful wording in its GCSE Bitesize revision programme regarding Christianity and Islam.

So disingenuous (and riddled with errors both factual and grammatical) it could have been written by our resident troll Solkhar himself, it completely distorts the meaning of Christianity and Islam as subtly as possible, whilst staying on message.

Here are some extracts:

Opening with Christianity, the first BBC page reverts to Marxist type as it explains that discrimination can only occur when prejudice is combined with power. As no minority race or religion in Britain is deemed to have power, so they can never discriminate against an indigenous British Christian. And so the scene is set for the evil BBC propaganda that follows their publishing of the UN Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

We are also told:

All forms of discrimination go against the first two articles.

Page 2 informs us:

Christianity teaches that everyone is equal in the eyes of God and so all forms of prejudice and discrimination are unacceptable and against God’s will.

Leaving aside the small matter that we discriminate every day on any number of things, such as a preference for good wine over Bulgarian wine or holidaying in Tuscany rather than Arkansas — both examples one would imagine are outside the remit of God’s will — there then comes the inevitable however:

However… there are occasions when Christians are guilty of prejudice and discrimination.

In South Africa, for many years the Dutch Reformed Church supported apartheid, the system which meant that black people were separated from white people and treated inferior [sic].

When Europeans were colonising other countries around the world they often killed the native people there and treated them as slaves.

John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, is from Uganda and he has done a lot to raise awareness and put a stop to racism in the Anglican Church, and in wider society.

Sexism is still a problem for the Christian Church — women are not always treated as equals in roles within the Church.

Page 3 informs us:

Many people think the Christian Church is sexist. It does not treat men and women equally.

So although Christianity teaches that everybody should be treated the same, this doesn’t always happen.

Page 4 is a revision page where you have to match up the end of a statement with the beginning. If completed correctly it reads as follows:

Discrimination =		Prejudice + Power
The Roman Catholic Church does not		allow women to be Priests
Article 1 states that all humans		are born free and equal
There is neither Jew nor Greek		slave nor free
The Dutch Reformed Church		supported apartheid
Paul (St) said: women should		be silent in Churches
You shall love your neighbour		as yourself
Native people were treated		as slaves

If you get all the above correct on their interactive site, a little message pops up stating:

Congratulations, you remembered all the facts about Christian prejudice and descrimination. [Spelling mistake courtesy of BBC educationalists.]

The test bite concludes this section on Christianity. You are presented with an interactive statement to which you have to answer true or false. It mimics most of page 4 so I will draw attention to only 2 out of the 10:

Christians believe most people are equal in the eyes of God.

The second statement reads:

John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York is trying to reduce racism in the Anglican Church.

Another clever question, to which the correct answer is TRUE. Notice there is no argument as to whether there really is racism in the Anglican Church, it is just presented as fact, and provides the BBC with the opportunity to subliminally brainwash whilst promoting the only Christian they admire, based solely on the fact that he is an African, an enormous positive that far outweighs the inconvenient fact that he is far more hard line than the liberal rank and file excuses for the British Clergy epitomised by the Archdruid, Rowan Williams.

Islam, as I am sure you have probably guessed, is treated in an altogether different way.

Page 1 is identical to page 1 for Christianity, detailing the meaning of discrimination and quoting the Human Rights act.

Page 2 informs us:

The Qur’an (the divine book revealed to the Prophet Muhammad) teaches that everyone was created by Allah and that everyone is equal.

Therefore there is no reason to treat people of different races differently. The Prophet Muhammad showed how important this teaching was in his last sermon, when he said…

…All mankind is descended from Adam and Eve, an Arab is not better than a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab, a white person is not better than a black person, nor is a black person better than a white person except by piety and good actions. Learn that every Muslim is the brother of every other Muslim and that Muslims form one brotherhood.

Page 3 informs us of Islam’s attitude to women:

Islam also teaches that men and women are equal in the sight of Allah. They are individually accountable for their actions, and will be judged equally by Allah.

However, although men and women are equal, they are not the same. They have different purposes. It is part of Allah’s design and purpose for men and women to have different physical characteristics; likewise it is the duty of a man to provide for the financial needs of his family, and for the woman to look after the home and family.

Although the rights of women are different to those of men, they do have the right to choose whom they marry, to divorce, to study, to own property, to conduct business and to take part in politics.

The Prophet Muhammad stressed the importance of women and the respect that should be shown to them when he said — paradise lies at the feet of your mother.

Page 4 is a revision page where you have to match up the end of a statement with the beginning. If completed correctly it reads as follows:

Discrimination =		Prejudice + Power
The Qur’an teaches		that everyone is equal
Article 1 states that all humans are		born free and equal
Women have the right		to take part in politics
Men and women		will be judged equally
All mankind is descended from		Adam and Eve
Paradise lies		at the feet of your mother
Sometimes men		have the final word

If you get all the above correct on their interactive site, a little message pops up stating:

Congratulations. You have understood all the arguments about Islamic prejudice and discrimination.

Notice how the BBC uses the word “facts” in relation to Christian prejudice and discrimination, but replaced it with “arguments” with regard to Islam.

The test bite concludes the section. There is nothing surprising in it; just a continuation of the BBC’s overt propaganda suggesting Islam is divine, pure, non-racist and non-sexist.

There is a different section on Christian and Islamic attitudes to fighting and warfare. It is worth browsing in its entirety but the general thrust of the propaganda is that Christians and Jews are warlike and Islam is a religion of peace.