The political satirist Rory Bremner has claimed that the “chilling” effect of fundamentalism means that every time he writes a sketch about Islam he fears that he is signing his own death warrant.
Did he only just notice? Or did it take him 20 years into blatant jihad before he thought of knocking Muslims?
Speaking to Sir David Frost in a BBC documentary about the future of satire, Bremner argued that self-censorship was the biggest problem for practitioners of topical comedy today.
Bremner’s views are echoed by other comedians including Ben Elton, who has accused the BBC of being “scared” to allow jokes about Islam. But Bremner went further by speaking about fears for his own personal safety.
“The greatest danger now is that one of the toughest issues of our time is religion,” Bremner told Sir David in the BBC4 programme Frost on Satire, which will be broadcast on Thursday. “When [I’m] writing a sketch about Islam, I’m writing a line and I think, ‘If this goes down badly, I’m writing my own death warrant there.’…
Uh, even if it doesn’t go down badly, Sir.
Because there are people who will say, ‘Not only do I not think that’s funny but I’m going to kill you’ – and that’s chilling.”
… Sir David said he was “surprised” that Bremner felt that his life could be placed in danger by telling a joke.
About Sir David’s “surprise”: Don’t you just love the way one day the British prototype — necessarily Muslim-loving — is sure to express indignation and outrage over any “insensitive” remarks about Muslims, under the guise of being offended, when really he’s terrified but won’t acknowledge it. And the next day, he expresses surprise that one could fear for one’s life and therefore censor oneself when it comes to knocking Muslims.
Does Sir David Frost really think that he hasn’t been self-censoring? Indeed, how much poking fun at Islam or Muslims has Frost been doing on Al-Jazeera, which airs his weekly show? He knows the threat to life and limb all too well, and acts accordingly.
What a liar Frost is, but good for Bremner for finally calling a spade a spade. My tip for him feeling safer: now that he’s on board (i.e. noticed that Muslims are censoring him), perhaps he can convince his fellow frightened comedians to SPREAD THE RISK, damnit. Precisely the point of Facebook’s “Everyone Draw Muhammad Day.”
Duh.
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