The BBC supremo caused a storm last night by saying he would not allow jokes about Muslims.
Director-general Mark Thompson announced the ban, saying they were “more sensitive” than Christians. He said the network should not make fun of Islam because Muslims were a minority group in Britain.
But his comments were slammed by Christian groups, and comics including Ben Elton. He accused the network of being “too scared” to joke about Islam.
See also Daily Mail, 15 October 2008 And BNP News
This is one of those reports where it is instructive to replace Muslims and Islam with Jews and Judaism. You can imagine the outcry if a daily paper carried a piece attacking the BBC Director-general for arguing that making jokes about Jews was not the same as making jokes about Christians, under the headline “BBC put Jews before YOU!”