Saturday, August 06, 2005
THE BURGESS EFFECT
Doubt the power of blogging? Consider:
October 2004: Dilpazier Aslam is hired by The Guardian under its “diversity scheme”.
July 13, 2005: The Guardian publishes an opinion piece by Aslam in the wake of the London bombings; Aslam asserts that younger Muslims are “much sassier with our opinions” and don’t much care “if the boat rocks or not”.
July 13: Scott Burgess—an indoor-based blogger—uncovers Aslam’s support for a global Islamic state.
July 15: Burgess exposes Aslam’s membership of extremist Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir.
July 16: The Melbourne Age publishes Aslam’s comment piece.
July 17: The Independent reports: “The Guardian newspaper is refusing to sack one of its staff reporters despite confirming that he is a member of one of Britain’s most extreme Islamist groups.”
July 19: The Guardian fires Aslam, considering his membership of Hizb ut Tahrir to be “not compatible with being a Guardian trainee”.
July 22: An insanely bitchy and cowardly piece (“by a staff reporter”) in The Guardian claims Sassygate is “a demonstration of the way the ‘blogosphere’ can be used to mount obsessively personalised attacks at high speed”.
July 29: Albert Scardino, Guardian executive editor for news, resigns.
August 3: Mockery of The Guardian spreads.
August 5: Prime Minister Tony Blair bans Hizb ut Tahrir.