BBC ignores another Northern Islamic Movement story – in English

Not for the first time, the BBC ignores a story about the Northern Islamic Movement in English but reports it in Arabic.

Last week the leader of the illegal Northern Islamic Movement, Raed Salah, was arrested at his home in Umm el Fahm.

“In a statement, police said Tuesday morning that they had arrested for questioning under caution “a central instigator” of the Islamic Movement on suspicion of incitement to violence and terror, as well as supporting and being active in a banned organization. The statement was apparently referring to the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement that split from the main organization.

“The investigation is being conducted together with the Shin Bet and was authorized by the State Attorney’s Office, as required in incitement cases, with the consent of the attorney general,” police said and added that the Haifa district state prosecutor is handling the case.

“On a number of occasions, all of them after the movement was made illegal [in 2015], the inciter made statements before an audience and saw his statements quoted in the media. These statement are linked to the movement’s worldview. An examination of the [statements] raise the suspicion that some of the things said [by Salah] meet the criteria for the stated crimes.” […]

Salah has spearheaded campaigns asserting that “Al-Aqsa is in danger,” focusing on the claim that Israel intends to change the status quo at the contested Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem. The allegation, denied by Israel, was at the heart of last month’s violence and tensions surrounding the site.”

Salah’s detention was extended on August 17th.

BBC coverage of the two weeks of violence that followed the murder last month of two Israeli policemen by three terrorists from Umm el Fahm did not inform audiences that Salah conducted prayers for the attackers just hours later. Neither were BBC audiences told of the scenes at the terrorists’ funerals or of the incitement from the Northern Islamic Movement during that period of violence.

In November 2015 the BBC refrained from reporting in the English language on the banning of the Northern Islamic Movement and it has also serially ignored stories relating to that group’s networks of activists paid to disrupt visits by non-Muslims to Temple Mount. In 2013, Yolande Knell provided BBC audiences with a tepid portrayal of the Northern Islamic Movement as a “conservative” group.

While at least one BBC staff member has Tweeted about it, the BBC has not covered Raed Salah’s latest arrest for its English-speaking audiences. The story has, however, been the subject of a report on the BBC Arabic website, which also provided its readers with a profile of Salah.

English speakers interested in reading more about Raed Salah and the Northern Islamic Movement can find a useful backgrounder at the Times of Israel

 

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