Auntie Fights Shy of New Muslim Quarrel [incl. Tariq Ramadan]

Is the BBC running scared of the Muslim Council of Britain? Last night at a tetchy Intelligence Squared debate entitled “Europe is failing its Muslims”, chairwoman Zeinab Badawi, pictured below, insisted that Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social Cohesion withdraw his comments about Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the MCB.

Murray, speaking against the motion at Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square, told the lively audience that Dr Bari condoned stoning, only to have Badawi, news presenter at BBC World, tell him he was wrong.

“That’s not right,” Murray told me after the debate. “Muhammad Abdul Bari said he did in a 2007 interview with the Daily Telegraph — it’s on record.” In the interview,

Dr Bari did say stoning

could be justified in some circumstances but was a metaphor for disapproval.

“I think the BBC is scared, after it paid £30,000 to the MCB after Charles Moore’s comments on Question Time, which it didn’t need to,” continued Murray.

Dr Bari was due to attend the dinner after the debate but he didn’t turn up.

Speaking for the motion were Oxford academic Tariq Ramadan and former Dutch diplomat Petra Stienen, while Murray was teamed up with Flemming Rose, the Danish journalist who ran the cartoons of Mohammed that sparked international controversy in 2005.

Murray and Rose carried the debate by more than 100 votes.

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