John Ware, whose Panorama documentary was criticized for McCarthyism by Madeleine Bunting yesterday, responds in a letter to the Guardian:
Madeleine Bunting is right about one thing: journalists do need to be "very careful" with critical analysis of the Muslim community (Throwing mud at Muslims, August 22). Why then does she use, like the Muslim Council of Britain - the main focus of our Panorama programme on Sunday - extreme language in her comments on it: "McCarthyite", "poisonous", part of an "orchestrated campaign" to "destroy the credibility of the main Muslim organisations" and the clear innuendo our subtext was that all moderate Muslims are "extremists"[?]Read the rest; and see also the letters from Alexandra Simonon and Terry Sanderson in the same place. A letter the Guardian didn't print, and which speaks to one of John Ware's points, is this one from Alan Johnson:
Madeleine Bunting... rails hysterically against the Panorama programme as an example of "a new era of McCarthyism" and as reflecting a "paranoia" about Islamic extremism. In fact Bunting's article failed to refute a single fact presented by John Ware's research team. Not one. Moreover, her article - just look again at its title - ignored the fact that John Ware interviewed many moderate Muslims who are deeply worried that there is a crisis of leadership within British Islam. These Muslim figures fear the MCB is too willing to cut deals with vocal extremists while the majority of Muslims are left voiceless. Bunting's article was an illustration of John Ware's central argument: the power of denial has been left relatively undisturbed in some quarters by the terrible events of 7/7 and 21/7.See also David T's post at Harry's Place.