# Robert Kilroy-Silk



## garyc (May 7, 2002)

Contentious.

Once the CRE gets hold of something, original context is easily side-stepped. Â

"In the Sunday Express piece, the former Labour MP referred to Arabs as "suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women repressors".

Seems factually correct. (albeit neither pleasant nor particularly helpful to anyone)

Can anyone think of any suicide bombing incidents _not_ Â perpetrated by individuals of the arabs persuasion?

Is there another Â non-arab culture that beheads and amputates as part of it's justice system? Â (In 2000 125 people were publically beheaded in Riyadh. )

Would there be another non-Arab creed that treats women in a worse fashion?

Perhaps Kilroy-Silk's mistake (apart from that dreadful perma-tan) has been to accidentally or deliberately imply that _all_ Â Arabs are amputating, women repressing, suicide bombers? Â A clear mistake akin to suggesting that all white anglo saxons are fascists, all the Irsh are terrorists etc Â - Â assertions that any reasonable human being would reject as false. Â Except the stupid and the self-righteous with axes to grind.

I thought the lastest invasions wars were expressly campaigned by Bush in the cause of democracy and free speech? What's happened to free speech in this country?

I don't happen to agree with Kilroy-Slik's words one dot, whatever their intended context , since he should know better about public sensitivities. Â But I fully respect his right to free speech in our 'free' society.

Rant over.


----------



## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Whilst I agree that limb amputation and suicide bombings are largely a middle-eastern way of life, it was perhaps insensitive to tar them all with the same brush.....

But as this article was supposedly a reprint of one from months ago (which was received sans complaint) you have to wonder......!!


----------



## head_ed (Dec 10, 2002)

Whilst I agree entirely with the eloquency of both your posts, c'mon it's Kilroy.

Git.


----------



## L8_0RGY (Sep 12, 2003)

I was worried as to what to say in this post but i think he's said the right thing and when i came to think about it i thought, what have arabs brought to the world apart from oil?

Well, they've brought the good old smelly corner shops, what would we do without them ;D

Freedom of Speech is there to be used and good for him for speaking his mind but the Telegraph say it's the 2nd time he published that article, the 1st time was 9 months ago and no one made any fuss

Why do they make a fuss now? On the other hand, what's the point of publishing a recycled article AND losing your job


----------



## scoTTy (May 6, 2002)

I think people already know my thoughts on these sort of generalist/racist comments. :-X :


----------



## garyc (May 7, 2002)

> I was worried as to what to say in this post but i think he's said the right thing and when i came to think about it i thought, what have arabs brought to the world apart from oil?
> 
> Well, they've brought the good old smelly corner shops, what would we do without them ;D
> 
> ...


1. I think you'll find that arab culture has brought many many good things to the world - sport, art, cuisine, irrigation, agriculture, horticulture, spices and preserviing, trading etc. (but they did invent slaving ). Â

2. Arab corner shops? Â More likely to be Hindi or Sikh, and in turn representing a good work and enterprise ethic sadly lacking in much of this country. (I know you were joking )

3. That the article had been run before is news to me, and further highlights the hypocrisy of those that are getting puffed up in the media at this time.

4. Deffo not worth losing one's job over, hence I hear he has retracted and apologised in full.

On racism, I can see nothing racist about expressing disapproval for concept of suicide bombing, and the constructs of public corporal and capital punishments, plus the repression of women within any culture. 
:-/I was in Yemen many years ago and was shown (with a strange mixture of pride and embarassment) where the public stonings take place (mainly adulterous women and what we would consider minor felons) I shudder to think of it now - they in fact dump a truckload of rocks over someone, as opposed to the Life of Brian type comedy scenario.

Conversely when we have terrible incidents like the Soham murders, such practices may suddenly to some seem less barbaric.

If speaking out against such practices as a trait of anothers' culture is racist, then I am one. Â But of course we know it means something entirely different.

Cheers.


----------



## jgoodman00 (May 6, 2002)

Personally, I think his comments were a little insensitive & poorly thought out. However, more importantly I think it is a sad indication of the PC'ness of our world with the level of hype & 'outcry' which his comments have caused.

I just wonder at what how long it is before saying something like 'Britain is a nation of tea drinkers' will be considered racist...


----------



## garyc (May 7, 2002)

> I just wonder at what how long it is before saying something like 'Britain is a nation of tea drinkers' will be considered racist...


You bastard. How could you? My grandad fought in two world wars so we could drink tea etc etc


----------



## moley (May 14, 2002)

I happen to agree fully with Gary's first post.

I think the first time the article appeared was last March, which would have been when the war was on or at least about to start. So probably his anti Arab comments weren't taken as badly as they have been this time.

Also, I just think that someone within the anti-racist authorities want to get a bit of attention. It has been a bit quiet lately :

Moley


----------



## scotty26 (Apr 4, 2003)

Bloody hell this was a very brave topic - but handled with exceptional maturity and reasonable comment.


----------



## raven (May 7, 2002)

> Personally, I think his comments were a little insensitive & poorly thought out. However, more importantly I think it is a sad indication of the PC'ness of our world with the level of hype & 'outcry' which his comments have caused.
> 
> I just wonder at what how long it is before saying something like 'Britain is a nation of tea drinkers' will be considered racist...


It's interesting to note that the level of hype and outcry is really coming from the media isn't it. I mean, I don't know anyone who has said how awful his comments were. Like Gary says, his comments were factually correct.

What's more, has ANY leading Arab figure publicly said that people who strap a bomb to themselves and blow themselves up along with numerous innocent people (including women and children) WILL NOT go to paradise surrounded by virgins? I don't think so, and until they do, people will continue to have views such as those expressed by Mr K-S. He is a populist, and I bet you any money that if he came up with such a comment on his awful TV show, he would get a huge round of applause.

Anyway, does anybody actually read the Express? :-/


----------



## L8_0RGY (Sep 12, 2003)

They've revealed today that the offending article was sent by mistake by his PA.

One guess who won't have a job on Monday!!


----------



## garyc (May 7, 2002)

> They've revealed today that the offending article was sent by mistake by his PA.
> 
> One guess who won't have a job on Monday!!


And guess what Sunday's sales figures have shot through the roof today as Kilroy replies to his critics?

You could almost be forgiven in thinking that RKS's daytime BBC contract might soon have been up for review, and that a PR injection was needed to generate interest in old leather face. :

I should imagine his marketability has increased exponentially, but I am a cynic.

I still respect his right to free speech in what is, after all a right wing tabloid.

The BBC, in the wake of the Hutton enquiry and in the light of the fact that their entire charter is currently under review by the Gov't, probably have acted a little quickly, but the stakes are high.


----------



## Nik-S3 (Nov 6, 2002)

Agree with GaryC yet again

Adam Boulton was interviewing the racist head of the CRE (Trevor Philips?) and was asking why he was demanding Kilroy Silk be taken off the TV, whilst when another journalist made a comment about how Israel shouldnt be allowed to exist, and anyone found to be 'occupying' Palestinian areas should be shot dead, he merely condemned him

Double standards? surely not


----------



## Kell (May 28, 2002)

"What have the Arabs ever done for us?"

Wasn't that what the article was called? Â Without resorting to a Google search, I think it was along those lines. Â As Gary quite rightly says, lots.

Perhaps if he'd have been able to gave an answer to the question

"What have we done to the Arabs?"

then the sentiment behind their campaign to rmove non-muslims form the Arab Peninsula might be better understood.

They (Arabs) have a legitimate right to to feel agreived - in the same way that anyone who had had land stolen from them does - I just don't particularly agree with some of the forms of protest.

As for Limb Amputation, I would think you could find a lot of people in Britain for it too - especially in the well publicised cases like the one Gary mentions.

And finally, on the news this morning K-S said that at the time it was first printed he only received letters of praise, while the paper itself only had two letters of complaint.


----------



## jonhaff (May 20, 2002)

He is being treated unfairly... just look at the racist comments Prince Phillip has said over the years, we dont see him being taken off air or fined or ......

its blown out of context and proportion, policical correctness gone mad.


----------



## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Never be rude to an Arab,
An Isreali, or Saudi, or Jew.
Never be rude to an Irishman,
No matter what you do.

Never poke fun at a N i g g e r,
A ****, or a ***, or Kraut.
And never poke fun at at...

(KABOOM)


----------

