Former Labor MP Causes Anger With "Anti-Arab Rant"

January 8, 2004

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3376633.stm

On January 8, 2004 the BBC News reported, "Muslim leaders have accused Robert Kilroy-Silk of 'anti-Arab and anti-Muslim views' after a newspaper piece entitled 'We Owe the Arabs Nothing'. The Muslim Council of Britain denounced the BBC discussion show presenter's piece as a 'gratuitous anti-Arab rant. In the Sunday Express piece, the former Labour MP referred to Arabs as 'suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women repressors'. The Commission for Racial Equality has also reported the matter to the police. The MCB secretary general Iqbal Sacranie said in a letter to BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey that Mr Kilroy-Silk had failed to distinguish between the terrorists behind the 11 September attacks and 200 million 'ordinary Arab peoples'. Mr. Sacranie questioned whether if the word Jew or black was substituted for Arab in the piece, the presenter would not still be occupying a high-profile spot on television."