Stacey’s Islam gaffe
BBC is forced to edit Panorama after she calls prayer gesture an ‘Isis salute’
STACEY Dooley was at the centre of a furious row about ‘insulting’ Islam yesterday as the BBC was forced to re- cut her debut Panorama documentary just hours before broadcast.
The celebrity filmmaker, who admits she is ‘not an expert’ on the Middle East, was criticised for claiming that women she encountered in a Kurdish-controlled refugee camp were performing an ‘IS salute’ by raising their index fingers.
Muslim journalists and commentators quickly pointed out that the gesture only symbolises the oneness of God in Islam – although Islamic State fanatics have tried to hijack it.
Following criticism, the BBC amended the scene from a promotional clip on its website and deleted the August 4 edition of the News At Ten from iPlayer, as both contained the description.
Miss Dooley was previously accused of having a ‘white saviour complex’ after posting a picture on Instagram holding a Ugandan child while filming for Comic Relief earlier this year.
The latest programme, Stacey Meets The IS Brides, due to air on BBC1 last night, sees the Strictly Come Dancing winner visit camps in Syria and speak to women who left their own countries to allegedly join Islamic State.
In the disputed scene, Miss Dooley, 32, says in a scripted voiceover that as she and her crew left the al-Hawl refugee camp, they ‘saw women raising their index fingers in an IS salute’.
The broadcaster also earlier issued a press release promoting the documentary which repeated the error, stating: ‘BBC crew members also witnessed women at the camp raising their index fingers in a known IS salute.’ The gaffe comes just weeks after the corporation reportedly gave Miss Dooley a £250,000 golden handcuffs contract.
In another criticised scene, she is seen remonstrating with Englishspeaking women through a chain-link fence, asking why they had ‘turned their back on democracy’ and ‘joined Isis’ while ignoring their denials that they belonged to the extremist group. The al-Hawl refugee camp, close to the Iraq border, is home to some 70,000 displaced people and was where 19-year-old British IS bride Shamima Begum was found by a journalist. The camp’s population quickly soared after the defeat of IS in March, with many held there after arriving from Baghuz, the last IS enclave to be occupied by Kurdish-led forces in March. Muslim journalists questioned why a celebrity – rather than an experienced reporter – had been dispatched to Syria for the series. Anisa Subedar, a senior broadcast journalist at BBC Trending, wrote online: ‘Islam is a monotheistic faith. One of the five pillars – the declaration of faith – states there is only one God. Raising the index finger is a manifestation of that. It has nothing to do with IS.’ She added: ‘This is what happens when you pass over real journalists to cover these kinds of stories – those that require cultural sensitivity and compassion.’
The Muslim Council of Britain said: ‘The ensuing backlash over this faux pas could well have been avoided had BBC Panorama checked its facts with individuals or organisations with an understanding of the Muslim faith.’
The backlash came after Miss Dooley asserted on a BBC Radio 5 Live podcast yesterday that British IS fighters in Syria were ‘struggling with identity’ – while admitting she was ‘not an expert’.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘ We wrongly described a gesture made by women filmed in a Kurdish controlled detention camp in Northern Syria as an “IS salute”. While IS have attempted to adopt this for their own propaganda purposes, for accuracy we should have been clear that many people of Muslim faith use this gesture to signify the oneness of Allah. We apologise.’
Miss Dooley’s representatives were contacted for comment.
‘These stories need compassion’