BBC claims Hypercacher attack on Jews was less “indiscriminate” than Nice attack
The BBC has published an analysis of the terrorist atrocity in Nice, claiming that the attach was somehow worse than the murder of Jews at the Hypercacher kosher supermarket last January because in Nice, “the people at large” were targeted despite doing nothing “provocative”.
Through the last 18 months of jihadist terror in France, a simple pattern is emerging: it keeps getting worse. If the January 2015 attacks were aimed at specific groups – Jews and blasphemers – the November follow-up was more indiscriminate. At the Bataclan and at the cafes the Islamists killed young adults, out being European hedonists. This time, it’s gone a step further. In Nice, it is the people at large – families and groups of friends – doing nothing more provocative than attending a national celebration. Ten children were among the dead.
The BBC claimed that it was not as bad when terrorists just killed “Jews and blasphemers”, and then asserted that what has happened in Nice is a “step further” because the Jewish people shopping for their Shabbat meals in the Hypercacher kosher supermarket were not “people at large — families and groups of friends”. Instead, they were clearly “more provocative” by being Jewish and partaking in a Jewish shopping activity.
The article, by Hugh Schofield, the BBC’s Paris Correspondent, goes on to suggest that the terrorist murderers were somehow not responsible for their own bloodthirsty atrocities, because they merely “fell prey to the torrent of jihadist propaganda emanating from so-called Islamic State”. By claiming that they “fell prey” to propaganda, the BBC suggests that rather than deciding to go out and kill innocents, the decision happened to them, such that they were passive and not in control.
Finally, the BBC imagines a “moment when the attacks become so outrageous they provoke a backlash. A mosque is burned to the ground. Some white youths go on a rampage through a banlieue (suburb)”. The implication is that the worst has yet to come, and that the worst will be attacks on Muslims which would be far worse than slaughtering Jews or “hedonists” or “blasphemers” or people in Nice. The BBC tells us “this is what IS desperately wants to happen, of course” as if the slaughter of Jews and other members of society is not what they are actually trying to achieve; it is just a technique to start “a truly bloody civil conflict”. The notion that the BBC believes that the terrorist massacres in Paris in January and November last year, and now in Nice last week was not “truly” a bloody conflict.
Complaints to the BBC can be made online or by calling 03700 100 222, however, based on past experience, the institutionally antisemitic, self-regulating, BBC is extremely unlikely to find itself at fault. You might instead prefer to complain to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, explaining why you have not felt comfortable reporting the matter to the BBC and leaving it in their hands. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 020 7211 6000.
