Finsbury Park mosque official complains to BBC over attack coverage

The chairman of Finsbury Park mosque has written to the BBC complaining that the terror attack on Muslim worshippers earlier this week was not discussed on BBC1’s Question Time on Thursday night.

Mohammed Kozbar said he was “seriously disappointed” that there were no questions from the audience about Monday’s deadly terror attack, which left one man dead and several injured.

“Members of my community and others across the UK who I have spoken to are outraged that this decision was made,” he wrote in a letter. “And many have understandably concluded that the BBC did not consider the lives of Muslims to be equal to those killed in other terror attacks.”

It is the second controversy to hit Question Time this week, after presenter David Dimbleby ejected a heckling audience member from the show.

Steve German, a former candidate for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), was asked to leave after repeatedly heckling the panel and shouting that the Tories had lost the general election. After repeated interjections for about 40 minutes, Dimbleby said: “Hang on, listen, I think you ought to leave you know.”

Each edition of Question Time features a panel of guests “from the worlds of politics and media” who debate questions from the audience.

Dimbleby chairs the discussion by calling on audience members to ask their question and then moderating the panel debate.

The questions are organised by the editorial team, including Dimbleby, in advance around what the audience would most like to discuss in the time available.

It is understood that Thursday’s programme, which was recorded in Plymouth, had planned to cover the Finsbury Park attack as the final question.

However, it is understood that when the show reached the point the question was to be asked it was felt there wasn’t enough time remaining to deal with such an important issue appropriately.

“The Finsbury Park attack received significant coverage across the BBC and while Question Time seeks to cover a range of important topics its audience would like asked in the time available, there will often be others worthy of discussion,” said a BBC spokesman.

“Our mosque is only two minutes away from where Muslim worshippers were killed or injured in a terror attack and many of the worshippers in our mosque were in the vicinity,” said Kozbar. “The prime minister thought it serious enough that the government’s emergency committee, Cobra, met and determined what the national response should be. The BBC is a national institution that is supposed to be for all citizens. Yesterday, I feel you failed us and the country.”

Thursday’s panel was made up of Conservative justice secretary David Lidington; Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth; Ian Blackford, the leader of the SNP in the House of Commons; Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne; and Gina Miller, the businesswoman who took the government to court over Brexit.

Kozbar said the incident raised numerous issues that the panel could have discussed which would not potentially prejudice a trial of Darren Osborne, who has been charged with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder following the attack.

“There are a number of important questions to raise, including the rise of the far right, the complicity of media in stoking up hatred against Muslims, the lack of fairness in counter-terror legislation and the targeting of Muslims – none of which were linked to the terror suspect,” said Kozbar. “Therefore, there is no potential to claim that such a discussion would risk being in breach of any law.”