Sikhs Being Balmed For Muslims Crime In Uk

[Hammertime007]

COMPLAINT LETTERS AND REPLYS

I wish to make a complaint about your use/abuse of the descriptive term "Asian" to generalise anyone from the continent of Asia and the sub continent of India.

It would seem that your use of the term is typically one of negativity when a particular group is in the news for reasons other than socially and culturally conducive reasons.

Many people are upset at the generalised term "Asian" when most of the population of the minorities who do come from the continent of Asia and the Indian Sub continent do not use this term. Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese are all Asian, they can all be described under the terms of Asian and it is in my opinion quite wrong to generalise such a diverse swathe of people in this broad, sweeping inaccurate term.

It is something I feel that is in danger of creating a broad distrust of minorities in general. If one community is in the news for criminal and public order issues then they should be described specifically, as the term Asian brackets many groups who are not the perpetrators.

Jack Straw used the term “Men of Pakistani heritage" in a case similar to this recently. Maybe you should use the same, as it’s more accurate.

BBC Online URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12159058

reply from various media orgs

Thank you for your e-mail and please accept our apologies for the delay in replying. Firstly we would disagree that we typically use the term "Asian" in negative circumstances. While it carries a different meaning from the American definition it is an acceptable description for people originating from a particular part of the world - indeed the BBC runs its own Asian Network.

There is clearly no intention on our part to cause offence when using any descriptive terms. However, when talking about a Muslim or a Christian, for example, committing an offence of any kind, we are obviously not suggesting that all Muslims or Christians are potential criminals and would not expect people to make that inference.

In the report you cite, we know only that the police have arrested the men and that they have all been described as Asian. We do not know their names or the countries of their origin. In general, the authorities are treating sexual exploitation as an issue often involving Asian men, and while it is fair to say the majority of those so far convicted have been Pakistani, this is not true of all of them. But while we have used the term Asian in our reports, we have also carried Jack Straw's comments which did refer specifically to the Pakistani community.

In general, our policy is not to refer to someone's race, religion or sexuality unless it is relevant to the report. In our previous coverage of the Derby abuse case, we did not mention the men's origins, especially as the judge said that was only a coincidental factor.

But since the conclusion of that trial, when the wider issue has been discussed more openly, there has generally been reference to it involving Asian men, with some specific references to those of Pakistani origin. So we do not feel that our use of the term is inaccurate, especially given the wider context that our reports on the subject have contained.

We thought long and hard about identifying the racial elements of this case. Our decision to do so was based on:

• <LI style="MARGIN-LEFT: 15px">Background conversations with police and child sexual exploitation experts. <LI style="MARGIN-LEFT: 15px">An interview with the Muslim Forum which raised concerns about the willingness of Asian paedophiles to target white girls <LI style="MARGIN-LEFT: 15px">The contents of the Serious Case Review of the child protection issues relating to two of the Operation Retriever victims. This concluded the case raised questions about the ethnicity of the offenders, and recommended national research.
• A review of recent cases, many of which involved Asian men

I think it would have been completely wrong to have ignored the race issue, indeed Newsnight's coverage appears to have done so, and attracted many complaints on the TV log. My coverage on TV has led to no complaints that I am aware of.

I appreciate it would have been better to have been more specific about the racial backgrounds of these men. We asked the police about this, but they said the offenders had refused to answer questions in interview, as is often the case, and as a result there was uncertainly about their home lives, and backgrounds.

Although the key offenders have typically Muslim names, we cannot be certain that the entire gang is comprised of Muslim men, and we can't be sure of their racial origins.

Thank you very much for your email which has been passed to me.

You make a very strong and vaild point and we thought hard and long before we published the story in the way we did.

It is our policy never to make any generalised references about race where they are not relevant, for the very reasons you point out.

But in this story, following so soon after the controversial comments by Jack Straw, we felt it relevant to the story that we should point out the context of the police investigation. We were not able to confirm that this group were of the same Pakistani background as the ones Mr Straw referred to, and that's why we used the term 'Asian'.

Other news organisations seemed to have had the same dilemma and decided to use the term too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12159058

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8252073/Nine-Asian-men-in-Rochdale-investigated-over-claims-they-groomed-teenage-girls-for-sex.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1346066/Gang-9-Asian-men-arrested-grooming-white-teenage-girls-sex.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1346066/Gang-9-Asian-men-arrested-grooming-white-teenage-girls-sex.html

I am very sorry if our use of the term offended you and your community. I'm sure this email is of no comfort to you, you may even think it is worse that we actually thought hard and then still used the term. But I hope it goes some way to explaining why we used the term and to assure you that we it was not use glibly.

Thank you once again for getting in touch.

Very best wishes,

Phil

Phil Wardman

Head of Newsgathering Online

Sky News

[11Gurus1Jot]

Hathori vela sat (Translated Hammertime 7).

You not related to, Kwari suma aath (translated axe time 8)

I do think you touch on a valid point because generalisation is not a good thing, as it does not acknowledge diversity. Sikhs were not allowed to list themselves on the Census as a separate group/ethnicity. This was important as the services central and local government provide are based on Census figures. Therefore no Sikh Pacific services would be considered as a result of the Census, by central or local government.

Another time when generalisation would be bad is,For example, if Sikhs were more prone to cirrhosis of the liver from Alcoholism, and Muslims were more prone to Cancer from smoking, then it would be important to identify the particular group of people affected.

,

And, if a particular group of people were committing a disproportionate percentage of disrespectful acts towards women of a culture or religion different to their own, then it is important that the group is identified and that the public are made aware of that particular group of people. It may save other women from being disrespected. This would encourage the community leaders of that group to address the problem that was more prominent to their community.

So you make a valid point.

On a separate note all Sikhs should definitely disassociate themselves from the EDL. The EDL does have many right wing, Nazi racist that tag on to it. Those Nazis will come for other minorities once they have finished with the Muslims, or more likely, failed with the Muslims.

Every culture and religion needs to be aware of all racists and Nazis. There are racists in every community and there is no community that is free from attack from these racist!

[Paneer Monster]

BBC do it all the time. check out the following link:

http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php?/topic/47988-bbc-bias-against-sikhs-and-selective-use-of-the-term-asian/