“Sharia law is operational in large swathes of the United Kingdom.” The BBC is “erasing Christianity”, to be replaced with Islam or a “secular dystopia”. Meanwhile the archbishop of Canterbury is apparently doing “more to promote Islam than Christianity”.
Oh dear. Welcome to the unhinged alternative reality configured on GB News, where conspiracy theories about the Muslim takeover of British institutions and society are not simply fringe comments whispered in deep, dark corners of the internet (the archbishop prioritising Islam over Christianity is, after all, quite a feat), but primetime television fare. This week’s report by the Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring paints a picture of dangerous narratives being systematically mainstreamed by what is supposedly a regulated broadcaster.
The numbers are staggering. In just two years, it was found that “Muslims” or “Islam” were mentioned more than 17,000 times on GB News – accounting for almost 50% of all such reporting by British news broadcasters. (In response, a GB News spokesperson said the report was inaccurate and defamatory and an attempt to silence free speech, though did not specify which aspects were inaccurate, and said that the Muslim Council of Britain hadn’t invited them to respond ahead of publication of the report.)
The obsession would be laughable if it were not so serious. It is not merely the frequency of mentions that concerns me – but the scaremongering, the “they’re coming to get you” tone.
Need a conspiracy theory about Muslims? GB News has you covered. According to guests on the channel, Islamophobia is apparently not “a thing”, and Islam is “not compatible with British values”. Muslim councillors are apparently seeking to “dictate British foreign policy”. London’s mayor is under the control of Islamists. A presenter asked if there had been a community-wide cover-up of grooming gangs: “What did their womenfolk know about it … what [about] the elders in the mosques?” Even the integrity of our electoral process is apparently under threat from the duplicitous efforts of wayward, postal vote-tampering imams.
In the feverish imagination of some GB News presenters and guests, we mendacious Muslims are apparently quite the busy bunch. When we sought to impose our will through the nefarious scheme of … checks notes … requesting sharia-compliant pensions, it was suggested we were just “one step away” from blasphemy laws.
You may say this is just crackpot codswallop from conspiracy theorists, copying the Newsmax playbook to win viewers – or note that not all contributors or presenters are the same. The Southport riots were a demonstration of the real-world consequences of Islamophobia. And yet commenting on the arrest of a knife-carrying suspect, one GB News commentator claimed there were photographs of a man who “seems to be of Muslim origin or of Muslim faith”. That individual, Jordan Davies, who was later sentenced at Liverpool crown court, wasn’t Muslim at all. While we cannot show causation, the misidentification clearly was part of the journey of how social media went down the Islamophobia rabbit hole.
Let us not forget that it is only a few months since far-right rioters attacked mosques and Muslims on the street. You can imagine how GB News presented that story.
First, the violence against Muslims was downplayed. For example, consider the riots in Middlesbrough, where a mosque was targeted and a mob aimed to break down a door where a young Muslim woman lived. Yet the CFMM report found that none of the 28 references to Middlesbrough by GB News referred specifically to the violence targeted at Muslims.
Despite the far right’s violence predominantly targeting immigrants and Muslims, guests on GB News were pushing the line that the “government’s got to recognise there is violence on both sides”.
Second – and worse still – the aggression was often presented as the inexorable consequence of Muslims’ presence in Britain. Against a backdrop of police officers being attacked outside Southport mosque, where worshippers had been barricaded in against the racist mob attacking them, the GB News presenter asked their guest: “What can the Muslim community do to ensure that there is perhaps [sic]… a perception that integration is not always working? Some people feel that it’s no longer their town, their city; there is a sense of alienation.” Yes, even when the mosque is attacked, they are made to feel it’s their fault.
GB News defenders will cry “free speech!” – and in a free society, commentators can indeed indulge in offensive, stereotyping prejudices. But there is a crucial difference between posting on X and broadcasting on television under an Ofcom licence.
There are laws that govern broadcasting to which GB News has submitted: laws that exist for good reason. GB News’ obligations include the requirement not to broadcast “derogatory treatment of … groups, religions or communities” (section 3.3 of the Ofcom code) and that while presenters of a “personal view” can share their opinion, even if controversial, that must be balanced out in the overall programming (section 5.9 of the Ofcom code).
The Centre for Media Monitoring report paints a detailed picture of how Islam and Muslims are repeatedly treated in a derogatory way. This is rarely challenged, and most certainly not balanced out in the overall programming of the channel. Any reasonable observer will conclude this consistent practice amounts to more than mere coincidence.
If Ofcom wishes to maintain the authority of its code – and live up to its billing as the broadcasters’ regulator – it can no longer justify its inaction in the light of this factory of hate. The application of the rules as they stand and the challenging of prejudice – is that really too much to ask?
Miqdaad Versi is the founder of the Centre for Media Monitoring
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
