BBC's cognitive dissonance

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Sep 25, 2021 at 09:25

Dear Dr Pipes, When it comes to psychologial behavior patterns it is difficult to pinpoint whether the patient exhibiting those patterns is actually having those patterns or just feigning them. Among people, cognitive dissonance is said to occur when a person exhibits mutually inconsistent beliefs. A mother might know that her child stole a candy in the store but may still find ways to "explain away" the child's act of theft and present the child as a sweet angel.

Can human institutions employing thousands of people at a time also display cognitive dissonance? Psychologists should investigate but BBC's reporting on and about Islam and Muslims surely shows signs of cognitive dissonance.

With alarming consistency BBC presents cry-baby stories of Muslims suffering at the hands of each other all of the world. With contrived accents BBC regularly reports the stories of Muslim individuals suffering in Afghanistan, Syria, the (so called) Palestine, Iraq, Somalia and in the rest of the Islamic world. But, like a protective mother, BBC refrains from accepting or establishing a causative link between Islam and misery. BBC suffers from what can be described to be cognitive dissonance.

Recently BBC in their global news podcast read by Jackie London reported that Afghan women's youth soccer team had to flee to Pakistan to save themselves from the wrath of the Taliban. No where in about 2-minutes long report the words 'Islam' or 'Muslim' were mentioned. Afghanistan was not referred to as Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Taliban were presented as if their menifesto was no different from, say, that of Kim Jong-un's.

To be politically correct BBC drops the mention of causal connections between violence and Islam. It only helps that a disportionally large number of reporters in BBC are now Muslims or Mulimas. I should mention that BBC never fails to refer to the current conservative ruling party of India without the epithet 'Hindu Natinalist'. For the media slightly right-leaning Hindum Christian or Jewish parties in democracies are bad but completely kaput Islamists in the emirates are sacred.

Media should not hide the Islamic connection when reports about violence, poverty, suppression of women, and such other social maladies of the Islamic world are presented. People who value free thought should highlight and not suppress Islam's conmnection with violence and other social maladies. . This is the only way we can counter the incessant propaganda about Islam by a Billion Muslims around the planet.

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