The BBC has been criticised over its coverage of the 9/11 anniversary after focusing on Islamophobia rather than the terrorism behind the outrage.
One Westminster source said it was ‘like starting D-Day memorials by remembering the plight of the Nazis’.
Radio 4’s Today programme featured a Muslim interviewee who said: ‘We were viewed through the lens of terrorism. Sadly there were questions about our faith and whether we share British values.’
The BBC reporter at the memorial in New York told News at Ten: ‘25 years on, the city has its first Muslim mayor. At the same time Muslim Americans experience a record rise in discrimination and increased anti-Muslim sentiment from voices on the Right.’
On both the Six O’Clock News and News at Ten, the main package was about a man who lost his brother, a Muslim American police cadet, in the tragedy. He said Right-wing commentary is the ‘kind of rhetoric which adds to the pain’.
Former BBC journalist Catherine Leng said: ‘Words I heard on BBC News in its coverage: Islamophobia, disproportionate overreach, Muslim communities. Words I have not heard: Islamist terrorists.’
the twin towers of the World Trade Center after they were hit by two hijacked airliners in a terrorist attack September 11, 2001 in New York City
Ex-Sky journalist Colin Brazier said the BBC was determined ‘not to use the word “Islam” in connection with 9/11 but rather to turn it into another chance to…hint that the West got what it deserved’.