‘My Hometown Fanatics’ on BBC3

Stacey Dooley the documentary maker was, to put it bluntly, irritating. “Why’s my hometown becoming so divided?” she chirped at the programme’s outset. Perhaps I am being a little unfair in my evaluation of Dooley, so let me flesh out her character a little more, for she is more than just irritating: she is also ignorant, naïve and deferential towards Muslims and Islam. She appears to be one of those people who is so open-minded that her brains fall out, as Richard Dawkins might put it; someone ripe for conversion to Islam. Then again, this young woman is the product of a politically correct education system, so her lack of awareness vis-à-vis the fundamentals of Islam can be comprehended, if not forgiven. In sum, she’s as dense as a pig of lead, and thus perfect for presenting a piece celebrating Luton’s “diversity” on BBC3.

The first person she stated she wished to interview was EDL leader Stephen Lennon, whom, it transpired, she had vaguely known years before as the two of them had grown up in the same area of town. Upon his non-arrival for an interview at a local radio station she gave vent to some disparaging remarks about him, whilst savouring the opportunity to speak to the oleaginous Inayat Bunglawala who unfortunately proved to be on hand to extol the virtues of Islam. Dooley, Bunglawala and a local Muslim politician had something of a “love in”, with the latter commenting with respect to the EDL: “They’re not a nice bunch of people”. Not as “nice” as all of those devout lovers of Shariah, needless to say.

Dooley next headed to Lennon’s tanning salon, but sign of Lennon there was none. The reason for his absence and non-attendance at the radio station was, it transpired, that he had been arrested whilst protesting.

The next section of Dooley’s attempt to legitimise the Islamic presence in Luton consisted of a potted and incomplete history of the Muslim settlement of the town, which she attributed to the demand for labour in the Vauxhall Cars factory which closed in 2000. The area in which they chose to settle, as every Lutonian knows, was Bury Park, which now hosts a population of 30,000 “Asians” who happen to be predominantly Muslim. Dooley commented that she had never shopped there and that “it’s really interesting” as “you could easily mistake it for not being an English town”. Her squeals of delight were difficult to suppress, as she revelled in revealing that there are now circa (not the word she chose to use) 30 mosques in Luton.

Dooley’s next encounter was with a group of Lutonian Muslims, yelling the usual anti-British slogans and curses involving death, hell and sundry other unpleasantries. This was, apparently, a demonstration in “defence” of the wife of a Muslim resident who had bombed Stockholm. “I found their chanting provocative and extreme” said Dooley, enjoying the frisson occasioned by the slogan ‘British police burn in hell!’ All was not sweetness and light however, for even Dooley’s dimwittedness gave way before some burka-clad harridan’s injunction for the reporter to “put some clothes on” to cover up her nakedness: “I tried my hardest to sympathise with people who were different to me”, stated Dooley, but her patience was momentarily wearing thin. “One of the saddest things, is that people have brought their kids along” she continued.

The next interviewee was to be Islamist windbag Anjem Choudhary, whose speech bore in its cadence a startling resemblance to that of Nick Griffin’s: “If the law of the land is Islamic, we’ll respect it” he enunciated, in his typically self-assured manner. Still, Dooley was undaunted in leaping to the defence of Luton’s Islamic population: “Of the 30,000 Muslims living in Luton, there are less than a hundred at this rally.” Furthermore, although she ventured to comment, “I do feel shocked at this protest,” she was quick to emphasise her belief that it was not representative of the views of Muslims in Luton.

As was to be expected in a BBC ‘documentary’ of this type, the presenter paid a visit to her old school in an attempt to track down some of her old schoolmates. Strangely, she appeared to be unawares of the existence of the data protection act, so quite naturally her old teachers could not provide her with contact details of other ex-pupils. Sadly, one of them was an English girl who had converted to Islam, for which the school must be assumed to bear a considerable degree of culpability. In order to demonstrate her multicultural credentials, Dooley revealed that she had had a Muslim classmate named Amara, “what I would call a moderate Muslim.” Well, she so wished to seek her out because, after all, “Sometimes, Islam gets a rough old time.” How touchingly naïve of her to say so.

Unfortunately, Amara was duly tracked down, and when asked about the likes of Choudhary and Sayful Islam provided a typically slippery Muslim response which basically told us that she concurred with their views, but she’d prefer to deceive us on camera, describing them as “Not bad people, but people with different views.” So, this self-styled “moderate Muslim” turned out to be just as “moderate” as one would anticipate.

Having thus ‘established’ that other than the hundred or so slogan-chanting bomb enthusiasts all of Lutons Muslims were “moderates” it was time to rubbish the EDL by describing them as “extremists”: “Many believe they’re a violent racist organisation that recruit from football terraces.” Really? And what do you believe Dooley? There wasn’t much insinuation at play there, was there?

Next on the list of interviewees was leading EDL spokesman Kev Carroll: “I’m not aggressive, I’m just passionate, you know?” He singles out the “Islamic community” as alone amongst immigrant groups to who have not made any effort to integrate, unlike Sikhs, Chinese and blacks. Dooley though clearly thought that he was “extreme”, most likely because he didn’t have a holy book to back up his beliefs. If you have a holy back upon which to base your bigotry, then for Dooley this is entirely legitimate, as was evidenced by her total lack of awareness of the theory and reality of Shariah Law. After all, as Caroll indicated, the penalty for adultery is stoning. However, not to be dissuaded from trying to understand and empathise with the advocates of Shariah, Dooley spoke to a Shariah apologist who claimed that stoning was not really a punishment because there were supposed to be four witnesses to such a crime and there rarely were, so in practice people were not stoned for the crime. Did he believe with it in principle. Well, yes, as all Muslims want Shariah. Dooley proved to be blithely accepting of Omar’s explanation and naturally designated him a “moderate”. With such “moderates”, who needs “extremists”?

Dooley continued: “The problem with Luton, is although the central mosque preaches peace, down the road it’s a different story.” Down the road she happened upon Sayful Islam, a former member of Al-Mahajiroun who last year assaulted Stephen Lennon/Tommy Robinson, but he would not condescend to speak to her, claiming that he was busy. Thus, Dooley decided to speak to two others of his ilk who refused to shake her hand. They claimed that women in the UK are “degraded” and “humiliated”. They don’t believe in democracy and secularism and predictably claimed that “Islam is the real solution”. One implied that he supported Al-Qaeda, and eventually Dooley’s even chirpy, sugary idiocy dissolved: “That makes me feel that we’re always gonna have issues in Luton.” She suspected that they, and their kind, “would encourage and applaud others” who carried out acts of terrorism. Yes Dooley, that is how it is. You are not very quick on the uptake, are you girl?

At the central mosque, interviewees claimed that the extremists were loudmouths who were “cowardly”, because although they called for people to go and fight the Americans, they would not go themselves. “It saddens me that young vulnerable Lutonians are being groomed by the radicals” Dooley opined with respect to the malign influence of these Islamist poltroons.

Strangely, she described the call to prayer as a sign of “how diverse” Luton had become. How could this be “diverse”, given that it is a supremacist expression of confident Muslim monoculturalism. She then insisted on smiling at a couple of niqab-clad droids. They were, unsurprisingly, a couple of hostile individuals, who wore this garb as a deliberate statement of their rejection of the host society and its cultural norms. Dooley even went so far as to don full Islamic dress, niqab included: “I do feel so different in this. I feel like people are staring a little bit.” Someone told her to take her mask off: “Why do people think that they can dictate what you wear?”

At last, the final ten minutes of the programme finally brought the much-sought-for interview with Stephen Lennon, who claimed that the EDL had put Luton on the map for a positive reason: “I love Luton, and I want what’s best for Luton.” Dooley, as befitting her lack of morality engendered by her surrender to cultural relativism argued that Muslims should be able to live their lives by Shariah Law, in Luton: “I persuaded Stephen to walk through Luton with me.” He stated that he had not walked through Luton with his wife and kids for two years, and mentioned that she did not agree with the EDL, neither did her parents. Nonetheless, Lennon remained steadfast in his belief in the EDL’s cause for “Islam rules through fear and intimidation” and there was no way that he was going to let it silence him.

Dooley continued to be excruciating, defending the niqab and the burka, and insisted on speaking to a random Muslim on the street who stated that he wanted Shariah Law, yet she still considered him to be a “moderate”. More “moderates”, it would seem, were in the vicinity, for “Soon several young men were following us and I was beginning to feel on edge.” Muslims closed in on Lennon, attempting to intimidate him through force of numbers.

This documentary left me feeling exasperated at Dooley’s wilful ignorance and stupidity. The woman appears to be incapable of rational thought, preferring instead to emote and empathise, even with those who would treat her like trash. “Ignorance is what causes extremism”, Dooley concluded. Now, although I do concur with this conclusion, I do not do so in a manner that she would find agreeable, for it is the ignorance displayed by politically correct cultural relativist dupes such as Dooley that allows “extremism” to flourish. The BBC, once again, has excelled itself in producing a piece of apologia for Islam's presence, entrenchment and growth in contemporary England.

Stacey Dooley: a bit dim, or an animatronic mannequin?