Storm Track Intimidation: UK Tabloid Pulls 'Burqa Babes' Page

There’s no joy in Mudville, um, Muslimville tonight.

The Daily Star newspaper yesterday pulled a page at the last minute that mocked Shariah law with a series of captions and pictures. The page, titled Daily Fatwa, included a 'Page 3 Burqa Babes Special' showing a fully covered woman as part of a feature called 'How your favourite paper would look under Muslim law', according to the Media Guardian. The whole feature was pulled after a newsroom revolt led to a stop work meeting by the Daily Star's National Union of Journalists chapel. A resolution condemning the page was produced, forcing management to respond. The Media Guardian reported that the page also contained a blank editorial stamped with the words "censored" and "Allah is great". The top of the page was stamped with the words "no news no goss no fun". A competition told readers to 'Burn a flag and win a Corsa' while a picture of the US president George Bush was captioned: "Death to Infidels".

Muslims just have to get a sense of humor. That’s funny stuff. But……

At the NUJ chapel meeting there was fear of violent reprisals and a motion was carried condemning the feature. It read: "This National Union of (Dhimmi) Journalists chapel expresses its deep concern at the content of page 6 in tomorrow's Daily Star which we consider to be deliberately offensive to Muslims. "The chapel fears that this editorial content poses a very serious risk of violent and dangerous reprisals from religious fanatics who may take offence at these articles. This may place the staff in great jeopardy. This chapel urges the management to remove the content immediately."

I suppose the UK journalists are hiding under their desks in response to the ‘noted tolerance’ of Muslims.