Would EastEnders ever feature a character converting to Islam in prison and becoming a jihadi — which is a real-life storyline of which there are numerous examples? Not on your life. Would EastEnders ever feature a character converting to Christianity and showing its positive impact on his life? Of course not. Britain is a tired, mortally ill society, tired and ashamed of its Christian heritage, which its political and media elites only dimly remember and understand anyway, and anxious to submit to its new Islamic overlords, as resistance requires too much risk-taking, too much effort, too much pride in oneself. All that is gone now from Britain. All that is left are a people who don’t know who they are, and are ashamed of what they think they are, and that is a people ripe for conquest.
“Ian Beale’s teenage son will turn to Islam to find peace after leaving prison for killing his sister in EastEnders storyline designed ‘to challenge prejudices about faith,'” by Jason Chester, MailOnline, July 11, 2019 (thanks to S):
EastEnders bosses have been working with Muslim youth workers ahead of a storyline which sees jailed Bobby Beale explore Islam.
Producers have said they want to show the positive impact of religion in 21st-century society, with Bobby – played by Clay Milner Russell – taking a new direction after leaving prison.
The Muslim Youth Helpline has been working with producers of the soap to offer advice on the character’s new story arc.
EastEnders fans will see Bobby – the son of show stalwart Ian Beale begin to explore the Islamic faith, and its positive impact on his life.
The troubled character will be shown receiving comfort and closure with the help of his new beliefs.
Jon Sen, executive producer on EastEnders, said: ‘We are thrilled to be working with the Muslim Youth Helpline on a storyline which serves to challenge preconceptions and prejudices about the role of faith in young peoples’ lives.
‘Bobby Beale’s story will show how a young boy uses religion to help find peace and give his life meaning, structure and purpose.
‘We hope this storyline will demonstrate the positive impact of religion in modern society.”
Muslim Youth Helpline is a support service set up by young people to respond to the emotional and social issues endured by Muslim youth in the UK.
They have been working with EastEnders to offer advice on the storyline, which they are pleased shows Islam in a positive light.
Zohra Khaku, director of the Muslim Youth Helpline, said: ‘The Muslim Youth Helpline have been providing feedback on Bobby’s storyline with the BBC EastEnders team.
‘In a time where young British Muslims see their faith overwhelmingly represented in a negative way, it is heartening to see Islam portrayed as a positive influence in Bobby’s life.’…
Stephen Silverstein says
Truly disgusting but the BBC panders to them
Lydia Church says
Positive, only if you consider jihad terrorism ‘good.’
Warning: Propaganda artists at work.
Rufolino says
Robert’s comments make me weep.
Against the Brussels broadcasting co says
Well that’s the end of enders in our house
Jayell says
No wonder. The BBC’s Head of Religious Broadcasting was, and probably is still, a muslim. Radio 4 has a new ‘asian’ controller – muslim as well? And their job adverts openly discriminate against ‘white males’, even though that’s supposed to be illegal. Basically, if it’s anything to do with respecting or putting a positive spin on anything to do with the indigenous British or their culture, the BBC doesn’t want to know – despite the fact that we have to pay for this heap of clearly-infested ‘diverse’ excreta. Their coverage of the Pope’s visit to Spain some years ago was an abysmal insult – they made a very obvious point of replaying a sequence over and over again where the wind nearly blew the Pontif’s hat off, trying to make him look silly. And of course it was the BBC who couldn’t wait to put a helicopter over Sir Cliff Richard’s house during that South Yorkshire (Rotherham) police raid designed to smoke-screen the breaking news about the Rotherham rape gangs. To say that the BBC is absolutely disgusting is an understatement – even the High Court have said as much.
Uriah Sheep says
Nothing surprises me about the BBC anymore. Their Muslim characters have always been portrayed as fluffy little kittens by the Eastenders scriptwriters anyway.
Megan E Thomas says
I watch Eastenders regularly, I was hoping they would tackle the issue of Muslim gangs in prison with bobby’s conversion since he’s just got out of a young offenders institute. There’s already a number of Muslims in eastenders, dot is the only Christian and she’s never on it anymore and no Jews in sight. We shall pander to the religion of peace once more.
mortimer says
The impact of Islam on a person’s life is to learn whom to hate: the kafir.
Muslims learn they must above all things hate the kafir ‘for the sake of Allah’. Muslims who do not hate kafirs and show hostility towards them or seek to subjugate them will not enter the pornographic Islamic paradise.
How ‘positive’ is that?
Raja says
Mortimer you are 100% right. The Koran has 61% of its text devoted to the kafir, in other words it is in the business of kafir most of the time… What a “religion”?
Roxy says
Although the Quran mentions the non believers never entering paradise, in no context, shape or form does it encourage hatred against any faith. If anything, it encourages respect, love, peace and perseverance. To suggest or imply such ludicrous misconceptions is the root to all evil. Islam absolutely forbids falsehood!
Raja says
This glorification of a convert to Islam is rather shameful. Would any Islamic nation allow the gospel to be preached including so called moderate Islamic nation- Malaysia?
When apostasy is met with certain death in Islamic nations why glorify your nation of the virtues of freedom of religion? Converting to Islam is not to free ticket to morality but is antithesis to morality as proven in its 1400 years of existence. Recent example of Islamic nations not protesting persecution of Muslims in China is another case in point.
Islam like leftism destroys the entire moral fiber of society, the former in the guise of “giving meaning to life” and the latter who “know just about everything in life”.
No Muzzies Here says
This was not meant to be entertainment. It was meant to influence the minds of the people who once called themselves Christian, so they will more willingly accept the fate that the politicians have chosen for them: submission to Islam.
It’s the same government that slammed Tommy Robinson into prison for revealing that there are Muslim rape gangs in the UK which flourish with the willing support of the government. The same government that is eagerly rolling out the red carpet for the country’s new overlords.
John Slawinski says
Overlords is correct. I’ve thought the very same thing. But on a darker note, who do they answer to? Allah? If so Allah is masquerading who he? really is.
Lover of Truth says
Absolute abomination
Raja says
The fact that this piece is “newsworthy ” (God knows how many spins they have given to the story) proves that conversion to Islam will invariably have nasty repercussions for the host Western nation and the world at large.
PRCS says
“‘In a time where young British Muslims see their faith overwhelmingly represented in a negative way”
Because it IS negative.
As this video shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SAd6DE3KxM
And the guy with the tablecoth across his face makes the bottom line clear @3:30:
“No one disses our religion.”
Gary fouse says
So that’s who stole my tablecloth! Please return to Luigi’ s Italian restaurant.
Luigi
PRCS says
+1
Paul says
These soap operas have self banned themselves from using suicidal and self harming storylines. The figures reported by hospitals rocket up when such juvenile behaviour is depicted.
There are a lot of weak and stupid people out there. And they all have access to knives. Watch your necks folks.
Paul
R Russell says
I don’t watch the UK soaps but I do remember one – either EastEnders or Coronation Street where a main character embraced Christianity and was portrayed as Bible thumping objectionable fool.
That was many years ago.
Christians have to be vilified. That way society at large can dismiss them as irrelevant.
Islam – on the other hand……..
(and as Mrs May tells us, the suicide bombers weren’t true Muslims. hahaha)
PRCS says
“‘In a time where young British Muslims see their faith overwhelmingly represented in a negative way”
Because it IS negative.
As the al Shabaab attack in Somalia makes clear.
terry sullivan says
bbc is really disgusting
Kay says
Propaganda for Mohammadism. But why?
gravenimage says
Yes–this is pure Da’wa.
Battle says
Though not in BBC philosophy, Eastenders philosophy nor in Moslem Youth Helpline’s interpretation, would the BBC, Eastenders or Moslem Youth Helpline have the convert be taught the following?
Jesus taught “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to them, …” –Saint Matthew 7:12 (KingJamesVersion) and
“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” –Saint Luke 6:31 (KingJamesVersion)
CRUSADER says
It seems that the British are like the Byzantines of the 7th century….
fatigued, confused, and easily defeated….
For a long while, since the collapse of their empire, the British have
seemed like stuffed shirts, with laws of not walking on lawns being
prominent on their minds, but letting everything else which matters
slip…
EastEnders probably began as a show which might’ve made light
fun of these tendencies….
EastEnders is a British soap opera which has been broadcast on BBC One since 1985. Set in the East End of London in which the fictional residents go about their daily lives. Initially there were two 30-minute episodes per week — but since 2001, episodes have been broadcast every weekday apart from Wednesdays.
That’s a great deal of broadcasting, and they probably run out of material, so have to make up stuff along the way to fill the script….
——–
Check out a few other British television productions:
” Extremely British Muslims ”
Documentary | TV Series (2017– )
An eye-opening insight into the lives of British Muslims via privileged access to one of the largest mosques in Western Europe – Birmingham Central Mosque.
———-
Can the BBC’s “Informer” finally subvert the Muslim stereotype on TV?
From oppressed wives to crazed jihadists, TV’s Islamophobia is rife. Nabhaan Rizwan stars in the new BBC thriller hoping to change the narrative…
There is a scene in the first episode of new BBC drama series Informer that’s particularly refreshing for anyone sick of Muslim stereotypes on TV. The show’s protagonist, Raza Shar (Nabhaan Rizwan), is being interviewed by a hipster photographer for a flatshare when he notices something weird in a proudly displayed photograph of an east London council estate. On the left is an Asian kid smoking, and on the right a kufi-wearing Muslim man handing out leaflets. In disbelief, he notices that the kid smoking is him (“That’s me on a break!” he says). But why, he asks, is the photograph titled Young Radicals? “I called it Young Radicals because of the radicalising leaflets the man on the right is distributing,” explains the hipster. “That’s Tariq,” says Raza. “He’s handing out menus.” Rizwan believes the scene subverts the white media gaze that pigeonholes Muslims as terrorists – a gaze he’s experienced more than his fair share of in his life. “A lot of people are going to connect with that because they’re tired of the lazy stereotypes of Muslims,” he says.
Playing Raza is a superb TV debut for 21-year-old Rizwan, but it is also quite a responsibility to star in a drama that counters such anti-Islamic prejudices. “Growing up when I watched TV I never thought: ‘There’s a Muslim, I really identify with them.’”
This is because, until now, there have been few characters for someone like Rizwan to identify with. Take the jihadist baddies of US thrillers such as Homeland or 24, or the buffoonery of Asian life in Birmingham-set sitcom Citizen Khan. “For a long time, the Asian community have been the butt of their own jokes,” Rizwan says of Citizen Khan. “It’s like: ‘Oh there’s some Asian people, they speak funny and eat funny food.’ I feel like the Asian community were somewhat accepting of that. At least it’s representation. I understand that attitude but it’s damaging. It’s time for the conversation to move on.”
So how can the TV industry improve? One way of regulating these stereotypes is through dramas passing the Riz test – a system that the actor Riz Ahmed set out in a House of Commons speech last year. It’s similar to the Bechdel test (which requires that a film features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man) in that not many things pass it. If the film or show stars at least one character who is identifiably Muslim (by ethnicity, language or clothing), is the character:
1) Talking about, the victim of, or the perpetrator of Islamist terrorism?
2) Presented as irrationally angry?
3) Presented as superstitious, culturally backwards or anti-modern?
4) Presented as a threat to a western way of life?
5) If the character is male, is he presented as misogynistic?; or if female, is she presented as oppressed by her male counterparts?
If the answer for any of the above is “yes”, then the film/TV show fails the test.
….
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/oct/16/beyond-bodyguard-can-bbc-informer-finally-subvert-the-muslim-stereotype-problem-on-tv
CRUSADER says
….
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/oct/16/beyond-bodyguard-can-bbc-informer-finally-subvert-the-muslim-stereotype-problem-on-tv
Riz Ahmed and Kayvan Novak in Four Lions.
It is likely, however, that Four Lions, Chris Morris’s scabrous 2010 satire on witless Brit jihadists – in which Ahmed starred as a Sheffield suicide bomber planning to detonate himself at a charity fun run – would fail on at least points one to four. But there are very few creations featuring Muslim characters that would pass the test.
Consider Fox’s 24: Legacy. It’s story of a stereotypically capable cadre of foreign jihadis slaughtering US citizens; a plot that gave support to Trump’s Muslim travel ban, ignoring – as the president did – the truth that recent fatal terror attacks in the US and Europe have been perpetrated overwhelmingly by local individuals acting without help from an external group.
The New York Times called it a “one-hour Super Bowl ad for Islamophobia”.
Or Britain’s biggest TV drama in a decade, Bodyguard, which started with Anjli Mohindra playing a hijab-wearing woman hiding in the toilet of a train who’s about to detonate a bomb-packed vest. Her narrative, from victim rescued by Richard Madden’s eponymous hero to jihadist (by the end of the series), seemed like a massive Riz Test fail. The show’s writer, Jed Mercurio, rejected claims of Islamophobia, telling the Radio Times that “if the show were set in the recent British past, the attackers might be Irish republicans”. Of course, he forgets to consider that when levels of anti-Muslim hate crime are soaring, TV could do with more narratives that bring a better understanding of Muslims, as journalist Tasnim Nazeer recently stated. “What would it take for a film-maker to consult diverse writers … and change the narrative?” she asked in the Guardian. Alternatively, we could have white people doing “brown face” to learn what it’s like to be a Muslim in Britain, as on Channel 4’s My Week As a Muslim last year. Or, you know, not.
Ramzi Kassem, law professor at the City University of New York says that those working in mainstream cultural production “need to know that the discourse they shape actually carries real-world consequences”. He was hired as a consultant for Homeland’s sixth season in 2017 after Showtime’s spy thriller series became such a byword for Islamophobia that three graffiti artists, who were enlisted to spray a fictional Syrian refugee camp while the show was being filmed, wrote messages such as “Homeland is racist” in Arabic, which went unnoticed by producers. His input changed the show’s bias: at one point, CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) yells at an FBI agent that their client was “just another Muslim kid you entrapped” by using an informant who posed as a friend. It was a scene scarcely conceivable in previous seasons. “I felt I had a social responsibility to try to do what I could to make the show more realistic,” Kassem told Public Radio International, “to make it less negative in its portrayal of Muslims and more critical in its portrayal of the government’s role in counterterrorism.”
Meanwhile, John Krasinski, the star of Amazon’s series Jack Ryan, recently argued that – despite the main plot of terrorism – the show steers clear from the “archetypal, moustache-twirling terrorist representation” of Muslims through a complex depiction of the main terrorist’s family. Although, even in the absence of moustache twirling, the series fails the Riz test on many points. The family dynamic of a wife alienated from her psychopathic jihadi husband and protected by a white American hero is hardly breakthrough material. In short, if you want to find TV that passes the Riz test, don’t follow the money.
So, does Informer move the conversation on? Rizwan thinks so. “Raza lives a regular life and has a menial job. It’s quite accurate,” he says. “It’s not the stereotypical Muslim family you normally see on telly: his dad drinks and his mum doesn’t wear a headscarf, plus she’s the breadwinner of the family. Growing up in Ilford, lots of my friends who were Muslim had families where the mum was the breadwinner.”
In this more realistic depiction, Informer nods to what Barack Obama recently said about stereotypical Islamic portrayals in the media. “Our television shows should have some Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security,” he told the Islamic Society of Baltimore.
Obama doesn’t watch EastEnders, but perhaps he should. A scene in the British soap from three years ago was gently subversive: just after the terrorist mass murders in Paris, the character of Tamwar Masood (Himesh Patel) explained his religion to girlfriend Nancy Carter (Maddy Hill) after she asked him what an Arabic passage he had marked in the Qur’an meant (“Do good to near of kin, the neighbour who’s a stranger, to the companion at your side, and to the traveller”).
“That to me is what Islam is about,” Tamwar said. “Be kind to people, family and strangers alike, and love them.”
It was a new perspective and storyline previously untold by soaps or dramas, and the product of research into real Muslim lives. According to Rizwan, this is severely absent from most shows and films. “The point is that there are more interesting south Asian stories than we usually get in the media,” he says.
“If you’re not from that part of the world or don’t have family from there, it’s easy to fall back into writing stereotypes. The worst thing about that is that what the viewers see they take as gospel. It’s time for something more nuanced.”
——————–
(ATROCIOUSLY INAPPROPRIATE USE OF THE WORD “GOSPEL”
IN ABOVE SENTENCE!!!)
somehistory says
Yes it is!
For those who don’t know: “Gospel” actually means “Good News.” And that was “good news” about the Christ” in the Bible.
The word certainly has nothing to do with the evils of islam and the evil behavior, lying speech, of moslims. There is nothing “good” about it.
gravenimage says
Does “eddie” have a problem with Muslims deciding to send Infidels to “hell”? Not so he says. Note that Christians are not slaughtering unbelievers–“eddie” hops you won’t notice that.
CRUSADER says
Life is rather futile when separated from the guidance of the Godhead.
gravenimage says
Fine posts, CRUSADER. Thanks for all the information.
somehistory says
Well, young “Bobby” won’t have to say he’s sorry for “killing his sister ” Not only will he not have to say he’s sorry, or regrets the murder, but he won’t have to **feel** sorry either…because islam says he can do that to his sibling and see his way to target other family members if they don’t “convert” to his new-found “faith.”
Will the writers, producers or ***helpful moslims*** **dare** to show him going after his family members and non-moslim friends to convert or suffer the consequences?
To moslims, islam is the only “faith,” and since they are in control in the U.K. now…working high up in government and the BBC…it’s the only way for little “Bobby” to have a “faith” that would “influence” him.
satan is sure busy in this short time he has left and so many humans are helping him achieve his goal of making all humans, all of mankind, bow to him in worship.
Leon Degney says
You couldn’t make this garbage up. What sort of twisted demented orginasition is the useless BBC. Unbelieveable!
melek-ric says
“All that is left are a people who don’t know who they are, and are ashamed of what they think they are…”
This is primary due to the overwhelming success of critical theory, the most lethal poison pill ever introduced into Western society.
FYI says
Thinking of converting to islam?
Then you will need to see a psychiatrist first:given ALL the information out there,it is the height of idiocy to convert to a pagan Arab cult with its false god{Lah “the best of deceivers” k3;54},its self-confessed false prophet muhammed{al tabari 6:111}its “holy” koran,a cognitively dissonant plagiarized fake with its commandment-of-God violating teachings.
I have no sympathy for anyone stupid enough to knowingly join this false cult.
With its false god,false prophet and false scripture.
….
muhamamed split the moon in half
nobody saw it
muhammed had a magic fantasy horsey called buraq with wings,a woman’s face and a peacock tail
nobody saw it
muhammed split the moon in half
nobody saw it
muhammed received the koran in a cave
nobody saw it
muhammed flew from mecca to Jerusalem k17 .1 on his magic horsey to visit a
mosque that didn’t exist in his time
nobody saw it
muhammed admitted to being a fraud al tabari 6;111 and formally proved himself so after he FAILED the poison test.Al Lah the muslim Arab god is NOT the Biblical God.
If you want to convert to islam and can’t see how stupid it is,then yes,maybe islam is for you.
islam is not for people who can think for themselves.
Gary fouse says
I’ll bet he was converted by the two savages who butchered Lee Rigby and who convinced Bobby that Islam is a religion of peace.
Eighty years ago, either Hitler or Goebbels said that Britain was a nation of shopkeepers. They were wrong then but today the term applies.
Ade Fegan says
I am loosing the will to live
gravenimage says
Don’t give up, Ade–get mad!
CRUSADER says
America | “Lonely People” song lyrics:
“Don’t Give Up Till You Drink From The Silver Cup…”
Cassandra complex says
If he follows the converts path to the “religion of peace”, a realistic tv show could have some explosive story lines in the pipeline. Won’t hold my breath tho.
gravenimage says
UK TV show EastEnders to feature jailed character converting to Islam “and its positive impact on his life”
………………………
Now he can rape, rob, and murder all he wants!
James Lincoln says
Robert Spencer says,
“Britain is a tired, mortally ill society, tired and ashamed of its Christian heritage, which its political and media elites only dimly remember and understand anyway, and anxious to submit to its new Islamic overlords, as resistance requires too much risk-taking, too much effort, too much pride in oneself. All that is gone now from Britain. All that is left are a people who don’t know who they are, and are ashamed of what they think they are, and that is a people ripe for conquest.”
Amazingly, Robert Spencer accurately describes what is happening in the UK in regards to Islamization – in three sentences. Absolutely fantastic insight.
This description also tells me why this is not happening in other European countries like Poland and Hungary. These countries and their citizens are proud of their Christian heritage. Their governments are acutely aware of past totalitarian governments, and they do not want new overlords. Citizens know who they are, are proud of who they are, and will not be defeated.
And that is what makes all the difference.
Countries like Poland and Hungary will be free and prosper in the future.
Countries like the UK will decay and eventually become sharia compliant Islamic republics
Jay says
Great post James Lincoln! Thank you.
England is lost. And yes, Poland and Hungary are keeping their borders closed and protecting their
soverignity and their identities and nationality. Italy is trying as well, but has not been as successful,
especially with the one world order, phony pope that was illegally put in place ! Pope Francis is truly
a wolf in sheep’s clothing! I pray Italy stays strong! France and Germany are as lost as England, with the unfettered invasion of Muslims who never acclimate only demand! Pm Churchill is not resting easy today!
Only God can save the world now!!
James Lincoln says
Jay,
Much thanks for the reply.
IanB says
A realistic storyline would see him attending a mosque after conversion then returning with an AK47 and shooting up the whole cast of East Enders in the Queen Vic pub.