The dog doesn't bark - again

The scene: Friday, 3rd September 2010. A peaceful procession in support of Palestinians on Al Quds Day in Quetta, Pakistan. Al-Quds Day is a yearly Shia event to demonstrate opposition to Israel's control of Jerusalem and show solidarity with Palestinian Muslims.

Suddenly....... mass slaughter of children, women and men - with (so far ) 65 dead.

Did the BBC report this on their news broadcasts - obsessively focussed on the Pakistan cricket scandal, even though the above event took place in Pakistan? No. No BBC broadcasts that I listened to included this "item". And of course, no report about the similar slaughter two days earlier in Lahore.

These were attacks by Sunni Muslims on Shia Muslims - and the three-figure death toll in the space of a couple of days represents only a tiny fraction of the ongoing slaughter.

In a previous blog(The dog that didn't bark) I commented on the significance of what the BBC chooses NOT to broadcast.

Why the reticence of the BBC regarding these events? Quite simply because it does not fit in with the Western world view, into which the BBC has totally bought, that all problems in the Middle East emanate from Arab hostility to Israel. This internecine killing is between Islamic factions whose hatred for one another far outweighs their love of the Palestinians.

So much for those who say that once we solve the "problem" of Israel all will be sunshine and light in that part of the world. The fact that this not the case may be categortized as an "opinion", a hypothesis not susceptible to proof in the near future, as no solution to the Israel-Palestine problem is going to happen in the near future.

But let us see what will happen in Iraq when the U.S. troops finally withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. I would not like to be a Sunni Iraqi after that date.
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For reports on the above events, see here, here and here.