Imam loses libel action against BBC over Sunday Politics show
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Version 0 of 1. A London imam who sued the BBC over allegations on the Sunday Politics show that he was an extremist has lost his libel case in the high court. In a ruling on Friday, Justice Haddon-Cave dismissed the claim, saying the BBC had been correct in asserting that Shakeel Begg, chief imam at Lewisham Islamic Centre, held extremist views and had encouraged religious violence. He said Begg was “something of a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character” who presented one face to the local community and another “to receptive Muslim audiences on chosen occasions” when “he has shed the cloak of respectability and revealed the horns of extremism”. Begg sued the BBC over an episode of Sunday Politics broadcast in 2013 which he was named by Andrew Neil as having “hailed jihad as ‘the greatest of deeds’” in a speech at the East London Mosque. The BBC admitted that it had got the location and timing of the comments wrong, but claimed that neither were significant and the substance of its allegation against Begg were true. In support of its defence, the corporation provided a number of incidents including speeches and posts over the last decade that it said proved its assertions about Begg. They included a speech at Belmarsh prison where a number of Muslim people convicted of terrorist offences are held, which the judge said was particularly sinister because it indicated support for their acts. The judge, who said he had read a number of texts about Islam, including the Koran, to make his judgment, said that that a single speech in 2009 would have on its own been enough to justify the BBC’s position. In the speech, the judgment said, Begg “encouraged his audience to rise from their seats and take up arms to wage aggressive jihad against the enemies of Islam, including the Jews in Palestine, and thereby they would thereby get closer to Allah”. He also said Begg’s position would have been clear to those to whom he was preaching and, taken together, the examples provided by the BBC presented an “overwhelming case of justification for the BBC”. Begg has previously called for Isis to release hostages and said the killing of British soldier Lee Rigby was against Islamic teaching. However, the judge said Begg’s reputation for respectability “is likely to have made his (extremist) messages all the more compelling and seductive to his audiences”. He added: “It is all too easy for someone in the claimant’s position of power and influence as an imam to plant the seed of Islamic extremism in a young mind, which is then liable to be propagated on the internet.” A BBC spokesman said: “We were right to stand by the journalism of Sunday Politics. The judge has concluded, based on the evidence, that Imam Begg has preached religious violence and an extremist worldview in his remarks.” A message left with Begg’s office had not received a response at the time of publication. |