ROD LIDDLE’S COLUMN IN THE SUNDAY TIMES INCITES VIOLENCE AGAINST BRITISH MUSLIMS

Rod Liddle wrote a column for British newspaper The Sunday Times discussing the recent release of Anjem Choudary, who was in prison for inviting support for the Islamic State. In the piece, Liddle urges “British Islamists” to “blow themselves up – somewhere a decent distance away from where the rest of us live. Tower Hamlets, for example.” Tower Hamlets is one of the UK’s most diverse boroughs, with an estimated 38% of Muslim residents and an established Bangladeshi community.

Rod Liddle has a history of expressing racist, anti-Muslim, misogynistic and transphobic views in his writing, and has produced inflammatory content in the past. Yet, he has repeatedly been given a platform for his views in The Sunday Times, as well as other national papers in Britain.

GTTO partner in Britain, the Media Diversity Institute (MDI), wrote a formal complaint to The Sunday Times questioning how this piece made it through the paper’s editorial process and why it was allowed to be published. Specifically, MDI feels the piece breached two of ISPO’s Code of Practice: Harassment (code 3) and Discrimination (code 12). The Sunday Times has to date not responded to the complaint.