Bowen was true to his and Al Beeb’s agenda-laden form.
He loftily pronounced the biblical account of Moses and the Exodus to be “a fanciful tale ... the stuff of fairy tales”.
“If the Hebrews were never in Egypt then perhaps the whole epic was fiction, made up to give the Jewish people a history and a destiny,” he declared. And he scoffingly dismissed what he called “the religious justification of the State of Israel” – Moses’ “burning bush” encounter with the Almighty.
As the London-based Israeli journalist Douglas Davis observes of that documentary, in an essay entitled “Hatred in the Air: The BBC, Israel and Antisemitism” that appears in the book A New Antisemitism? Debating Judeophobia in 21st-Century Britain (2003):
“I have no problem with a documentary that suggests scientific explanations for seemingly miraculous events in the Jewish story, but I do object when I suspect that the purpose of the investigation is to delegitimize the basis of Judaism and to undermine the claim of the Jewish people to national expression in even a part of its ancestral home. ...[I]t is inconceivable that the BBC would devote an hour-long prime-time documentary to a critical investigation that served to delegitimize the Prophet Muhammed and undermine the basic tenets of Islam.”Now, the BBC seems set on the delegitimising-Israel-through-undermining-Judaism course once again.
Aaqil Ahmed, a Muslim who to many Christians' astonishment and indeed consternation was appointed Head of BBC’s Religion and Ethics department a couple of years ago, commissioned Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou, an atheist university lecturer in theology and religion at Exeter University (for whom also see http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-bible-a-history/articles/abrahams-inheritance), to present a three-part series “that seeks to de-construct and sceptically critique the Holy Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity”.
Have a look at the presentation on King David, replete with much modern Israeli imagery, including a certain wall, beside which the presenter strides, and you’ll see what I mean: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8383956/Bibles-Buried-Secrets-BBC-Two-review.html
And please be sure to look at David Vance’s fine post on the Biased BBC website, which in discussing the Stavrakopoulou series shows how the BBC manages to decry the Bible as a fount of male chauvinism and to excoriate sexism in Christianity while treating the misogyny of the Quran and of Islam in a manner that I can only describe as respectful, if not reverential. http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2011/03/loving-religion-of-peace-loathing.html
The comment by Max on the following thread is of interest too: http://cifwatch.com/2011/03/15/in-the-arab-world-but-not-of-it-glaring-omission-underlines-the-anti-israel-bias-of-the-bbc/#comments
Let's have a scientific investigation of al Buraq the flying horse.
ReplyDeleteStavrakapoulos is a purveyor of history for dummies and TV addicts who would rather watch yet another narcissistic personality getting in between the viewer and reality with thair dubious opinions. She is a faux-academic with easily earned credentials and a mountain of bias. Dismal stuff indeed. I'm glad I don't have a TV and pity the masses who accept such a morally degenerate medium of mind control. This is 'reality TV' passing itself as something more.
ReplyDeletePegasus is the only flying horse I've heard of!
ReplyDeleteRoger, she is easier on the eye than Bowen, which is probably all part and parcel of the strategy :~[
Yes, Daphne, she is the proverbial eye candy that lowers the defences of the unsuspecting viewer even further to facilitate the desired elimination of critical and original thought.So yes, very much a strategy to keep those ratings up and the message strong.
ReplyDeleteAnd indeed Anonymous, why doesn't she target the fantasies of the Koran, Mohammed's miraj trip to 'the farthest mosque'....no mention of Jerusalem btw.....and his trip to the heavens for a friendly rap with God, Moses and Jesus, not to mention his visitations from Angel Gabriel. All solid history right? I prefer Narnia.
Oh...and how did these airheads ger their professorships? Another one who comes to mind is Karen Armstrong,the world's leading non-Muslim(?) apologist for Islamic supremacism.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/03/karen-armstrong-islam-came-to-spread-compassion-among-the-nations-of-the-world.html
Some of these "professors" are Americans, so not necessarily professors in the English or Australian sense. In America an Assistant Professor is often abbreviated to Professor when used as a title before the name, but an Assistant Prof is in reality a lecturer. I believe Francesca S is a Senior Lecturer...
ReplyDeleteThe racism involved in this activity by these culturally Christian-European (Christian and post-Christian) people is obscene and vile.
ReplyDeleteWho the hell cares about what is said in the texts of the traditional religion of the Jewish people?
The point is that Israel is the country of the Jewish people.
Just like Japan is the country of the Japanese people. And just like Italy is the country of the Italian people. And just like Thailand is the country of the Thai people. And just like Ireland is the country of the Irish people. And, for two thousand years, the Jewish people have been homeless and persecuted - persecuted BY CHRISTIAN EUROPEANS, and by Muslim Middle-Easterners - both of whom are peoples who utterly usurped the traditional religion, and cultural narrative, and even the cultural identity, of the Jewish people.
What the hell is wrong with these evil, imbecilic, self-worshipping, obscenely, perversely, dishonest, malicious Christian-European (Christian and post-Christian) people among whom the Jewish people have been born in this world?
Israel exists. Israel is a nation. Who the hell do these vicious, imbecilic, sanctimoniously genocidal, racist culturally Christian-European (Christian and post-Christian) people think they are?
The time is over for Jewish people to be acting, immorally, like timid, cowering, traitorously appeasing, slaves.
Jewish people had better start to act like normal human beings, and, therein, by speaking the truth, charge the obscene, lying, Western and Muslim attackers of the Jewish people, or the Muslim world and the Western world will, again, commit genocide against the Jewish people, and the world will be thrown into an age of darkness and evil.
-- Daniel Bielak
http://danielbielak.blogspot.com
Thanks for your comment, Daniel. The BBC mocks the texts of the Judeo-Christian religion but treads on eggshells where the other monotheistic faith is concerned. It is a truly bizarre, morally moribund organisation.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course Israel is the only nation on earth whose right to existence is being made contingent on its behaviour. Again, the BBC is in the forefront of this evil, and has teamed its leftism with worship of islamofascism.
Daniel, I have added your blog to my blogroll.
ReplyDeleteFor people in doubt about the veridicality of the Bible, information might be of use. For those who have decided that the Bible is a "fake", no information will suffice.
ReplyDeleteI will now offer some rather interesting information. Language is a developmental process.
Take the example of "Friendship is a value worth striving for." While everyone understands this sentence, the truth is that it makes no sense. "is", "while", and "everyone" are the only words that can be operationalized - and those with difficulty. "Friendship", "value", "striving for" are all abstract constructs and mean whatever the speaker and/or the listener wants them to mean. Yet we all understand the sentence. Strange!
While "friend" appears in the Bible many times, "friendship" does not. "Friendship" makes its appearance in Hebrew only in the post-Mosaic era. This is true as well for many words: "Brother" - yes; "brotherhood" - no; Peace - yes; peacefulness, completeness - no.
To make a very long story short: The more ancient the text, the fewer abstract constructs that are present. Comparing "Prophets" and "Writings" to the Five Books of Moses, this pattern is very clear. Thus, we may logically conclude that the Five Books of Moses is the older document and could never have been composed later than either of the other sections of the Bible, since modes of cognition are intertwined with language complexity. This analysis says nothing about the actual events found in the Bible, but it eliminates the argument that the Five Books of Moses was a late construction.
Like all people who have suckled at the breast of Marxism, "truth" has no particular value. Understanding becomes clear at the point of a bayonet, figurative or literal. BBC has no interest in history, linguistics, facts on the ground, justice in all its complexities, and most definitely the fate of the Jews. In spite of their lovely accents, they are low-class, insensitive louts. Did everyone understand that thought?
Thank you, Daphne.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your appreciation, and thank you for your understanding, and thank you for adding my blog to your blogroll.
What you wrote about the BBC is exactly right.
I just want to clarify about the following that I wrote:
I wrote:
"...Who the hell cares about what is said in the texts of the traditional religion of the Jewish people?..."
I meant that which I wrote as it would be expressed by writing that sentence with a period, instead of by writing it with a question mark.
I meant, by that which I wrote, the following.
What the texts of the traditional religion of the Jewish people say about the country of the Jewish people have nothing to do with the right of the Jewish people to have, and to live in, and to govern themselves in, and to defend themselves in, their own country, in the same way that other national groups - other peoples - have, and live in, and govern themselves in, and are able to defend themselves in, their own countries.
Are culturally Christian-European (Christian and post-Christian) people scouring the texts of the traditional religions of other peoples in order to delegitimize the nations of those peoples? No, of course, they are not doing so.
The texts of the traditional religion of the Jewish people are not anyone's, other than the Jewish people's, business.
Also, as part of that, the traditional religion of the Jewish people, unlike Christianity, and unlike Islam - which are both derivations of, and modifications of, the traditional religion of the Jewish people, and which utterly usurped the traditional religion of the Jewish people, is not an imperialist, nor supremacist, religion.
The traditional religion of the Jewish people, like the ancient traditional religions of other peoples, is a culturally chauvinistic religion, but the traditional religion of the Jewish people, unlike Christianity, and unlike Islam, is not an imperialistic, nor supremacist, religion.
Most importantly, the traditional religion of the Jewish people, unlike Islam, is not a totalitarian, imperialist, supremacist, theocratic political ideology and system of government.
There are approximately 2 billion Christians in the world.
There are approximately 1.5 billion Muslims in the world.
There are approximately 14 million Jewish people in the world.
There are 56 Muslim states in the world.
There are several officially Christian states in the world.
There are over 20 Muslim Arab states in the world.
There are several European states in the world.
There are many national states in the world.
There is only on Jewish state in the world - Israel, which is one of the smallest countries in the world, and which is a liberal democratic country.
There is now a huge, genocidally anti-Jewish, totalitarian, imperialist, Islamic supremacist political movement in the world - which is a political movement that is a revival of authoritative Islam, with the addition, to authoritative Islam, of traditional culturally Christian-European malicious conspiracy-theory ideology about the Jewish people.
What are culturally Christian-European (Christian and post-Christian) people such as the members of the BBC doing in response to this huge, genocidally anti-Jewish, totalitarian, imperialist, Islamic supremacist political movement? They are, with lies, attacking the besieged - intendedly genocidally besieged - country of the Jewish people, and they are, with lies, glorifying, and, as part of that, obfuscating the actions of the adherents of, and, therein, obfuscating the nature of, and, therein, obfuscating the existence of, and, thereby, enabling, the huge, genocidally anti-Jewish, totalitarian, imperialist, Islamic supremacist political movement. Such culturally Christian-European (Christian and post-Christian) people are blameworthy.
Where do they get the idea that Zionism was religious?
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the three latest comments.
ReplyDeletebbi, clearly the anti-Israel brigade are fighting this war on all fronts, leaving no weapon untried.
Hi Daphne,
ReplyDeleteJust as an add-on to that post on 'Biased BBC' & its quotes from the BBC GCSE Bitesize Guide to Religion...
The BBC revision guide tells us "Some people say that Judaism is sexist". It also tells us "Many people think that the Christian Church is sexist." Its section on Islamic attitudes to women, however, says...well it doesn't say ANYTHING about sexism. Far from it. The Prophet Mohammed, apparently, has nothing but sweet things to say about the ladies!!
The link for the BBC is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/prejudice
Please check it out only if your blood pressure will stand it!
Craig, I shall certainly have a look at that later. I have missed that altogether. There are many nooks and crannies in Al Beeb's online empire that are relatively unexplored.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere on the CoJo site is a training video telling how to read the news - the woman who is instructing the would-be news readers reads in a wooden monotonous manner to show how not to do it and extracts many laughs and sniggers. But the piece she is reading about is an account of a real-life murder. Talk about politically incorrect and insensitive. I do hope the victoms'relatives never see it!
Craig, I see that Islam is touted as a "religion of peace" and that non-Muslims misunderstand the idea of Jihad.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/war/islamrev2.shtml
Daphne, I never knew that Islamic Jihad had democracy as it goal. Or so the BBC says!
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, Judaism doesn't get the same whitewash from the BBC: "In the Jewish Scriptures there are examples of wars. Others were perhaps ‘Just Wars’ but it could be argued that some of them were wrong and unjustified."
Yes, I noticed!
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether each section was written by Al Beeb or by a "specialist" from each creed. If the latter, some would appear more honest (their religion warts and all) than others.
And why is Al Beeb wasting licence payers' money on GCSE stuff, anyway?
So much of what the BBC does is outside its remit.
Don't get me started!