Comments on: Breitbart Suffers Sense Of Humour Failure Over Nicky Campbell’s ‘Inshallah’.

By: Taking The Myth – 11 June 2016 Edition | Godless Spellchecker's Blog

Taking The Myth – 11 June 2016 Edition | Godless Spellchecker's Blog — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 12:09:52 +0000

[…] We talk about: The grandson of Hamas, Christopher Hitchens and ‘death bed conversions, Nicky Campbell, Ramadan, Noel Edmonds’s cancer claims, Prevent, European Commission on” ‘hate […]

By: Atrouser

Atrouser — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 07:28:41 +0000

Nicky’s also good at injecting off-the-cuff humour in at various moments. ‘Inshallah’ being an example of such.

By: pilky

pilky — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 09:09:41 +0000

In reply to Saul Sorrell-Till. I agree on all counts. Nicky is a formidable mediator/presenter, and the show itself is very important.

By: Saul Sorrell-Till

Saul Sorrell-Till — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 23:10:58 +0000

Thanks for this – I’ve written repeated, howling-in-the-wilderness paeans to the inherent brilliance of TBQ and every time felt like I was the only one who liked it. I posted the link to an utterly riveting episode, the one on ‘do British Muslims have a problem with apostasy?’, to Jerry Coyne at WEIT simply because it was such visceral TV. The fact that the far-left hate it and the Islamists/far-right supremacists hate it is a sign that it’s doing something right. Campbell’s an extremely good host, of a programme that frequently escalates quickly, and they rarely film an episode without at least one sensible, rational voice on each side of the various debates. It has its woolly episodes and questions of course, but they’re outnumbered by the baseline quality and the regular moments of genuinely honest, no bullshit, crux-of-the-matter debate. No other programme is as frank and open, as scornful of euphemism and blandishments. It’s no surprise the aforementioned groups dislike it.

Props for the article.

By: Nathaniel Walters

Nathaniel Walters — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 16:02:52 +0000

Oh man. I remember when he had Dawkins on the show and he told the evangelical lady that she was a bigot but didn’t care as long as she didn’t try and force her beliefs on him or into the government. He called it superstition and that it was all rubbish (love how he says it) with no proof at all. Most of the crowd was ready to string him up, and Campbell was just great. He knew they had to go to commercial and, while looking at the camera, said, “Do you agree with what’s been said? Do you disagree? Whatever you say, I’m going to defend your right to say it.” Then, when speaking about the devil in the sense that this being exists, said, “Some people say Richard Dawkins is the devil.” He even ended the show by saying, “May the Force be with you.” I mean, he’s the best tongue-in-cheek host I know of. He always does this.

Of course America’s religious right (and, to a smaller extent, England’s flailing Christian sects) want to attack this. They are falling fast and hard. They NEED to have this type of controversy because they can continue to yell loudly about how they’re persecuted and how the world is falling apart.

On another note, one religious person I follow on Twitter and mostly agree with socially: Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet. Dude is smart as a tack and seems to have a good set of values. He’s about as close to an atheist as one can get. Of course, so are many Jews. I learned of him from this same show.

By: Stephen Knight

Stephen Knight — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 15:13:15 +0000

In reply to kris. I understand what you're saying. This is the system that works best currently for me in regards to time management and comment volume. Were I to suddenly start receiving a huge increase in abusive messages, I'd definitely revisit my set up

By: Atrouser

Atrouser — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 01:37:18 +0000

In reply to kris. This and this.

By: kris

kris — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 01:31:22 +0000

In reply to Stephen Knight. Once you have been approved to comment, your future comments appear automatically? I would have thought that it was still necessary to vet stupid, abusive, unintelligible nonsense we see so often, which ruin so many internet sites and frankly make one despair of having a sensible discussion on anything. But I must say this site has some of the smarter contributors I have ever witnessed, but sadly not enough of them.

By: kris

kris — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 00:56:39 +0000

Its the old problem. Because its often the far right bigots who are the only ones with the stomach to stand up to Islamist nonsense, its very easy for the apologists to dismiss them. The only way to win this narrative is for the rational silent majority to use intelligent argument, humour, sarcasm and irony, instead of the usual excited, emotional rhetoric. Use this cool, calm measured strategy again and again to wear down the extremist elements on both sides. We often criticise the silent moderate Muslims who are themselves often cowed into submission but we have to stand up and be counted ourselves.

By: aljones909

aljones909 — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 23:27:49 +0000

Sheesh. A ridiculous non story. I agree that Nicky does a great job. He has to be even handed but he obviously has a healthy skepticism towards religion.