This abject failure of journalism coupled with Pearson’s toxic views should warrant a strong and swift response from British Muslims. I urge you to take the time to write to Ofcom (as has been made very easy thanks to MEND), and likewise to urge your family and friends to do so as well.
This abject failure of journalism coupled with Pearson’s toxic views should warrant a strong and swift response from British Muslims. I urge you to take the time to write to Ofcom (as has been made very easy thanks to MEND), and likewise to urge your family and friends to do so as well.
If you’re in a hurry here’s what you need to know: Lord Pearson, a known Islamophobe and self-confessed friend of Tommy Robinson, made a number of demonstrably false, Islamophobic claims during an interview with Sky News.
Here’s what you need to do; complain to Ofcom. MEND has produced a guide on how to do so.
Lord Pearson appeared in an interview on Sky News on Halloween. His costume was an ex-UKIP Islamophobe and friend of Tommy Robinson. Indeed, he embraced the spirit of Halloween by telling horror stories about Islam in Britain.
If only it were merely a costume and stories told for entertainment. The demonstrably false claims made by Lord Pearson are tropes used by the far-right to stoke hatred against Islam, and, with rampant Islamophobia blighting our society, these tropes are tragically having their desired effect.
The claims made by Lord Pearson arguably breach Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. MEND has helpfully compiled the statements made by Lord Pearson that breach codes 2.2 (factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience) and 5.1 of the Broadcasting Code (news must be reported with impartiality). The claims made were as follows:
- “Muslim birth rate is going up 10 times faster than ours”
- “In 12 years time, 11 local authorities, including Birmingham, will be Muslim majority”
- “The Quran instructs Muslims not to mix with Jews and Christians”
- And, “One of the world’s leading Muslims said to a friend of mine the other day: ‘We really don’t need to go on blowing you up, all we need is to wait because we will take over your culture through the power of the womb and ballot box’”
The ugly theme of Muslims taking over via birth-rates is otherwise known as ‘The Great Replacement’ – the name of the manifesto written by Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shooting. The idiocy of Lord Pearson in believing and then repeating such a dangerous idea is bewildering. But the real urgency here is that he was able to propagate such views with little to no confrontation by the presenter Adam Boulton.
This abject failure of journalism coupled with Pearson’s toxic views should warrant a strong and swift response from British Muslims. I urge you to take the time to write to Ofcom (as has been made very easy thanks to MEND), and likewise to urge your family and friends to do so as well.
