Loose Women star Saira Khan believes ‘Asian TV’ shows have contributed towards ‘radicalisation’ in the UK following the London Bridge attack last week.
The ITV presenter shared her thoughts on the tragic events of 29 November when convicted terrorist Usman Khan stabbed five people, killing two, after attending a conference on prisoner rehabilitation.
Saira, who is Muslim, said a crackdown needs to happen on certain Asian broadcasters in the UK airing dramas with themes such as violence towards women.
Speaking on Monday’s episode of Loose Women, Saira explained: ‘My mum watches Asian TV and I’ve gone in there a couple of times – this is digital TV accessible to anybody – and at 3pm… I’m watching women being abused, domestic abuse, violence against women, child marriage.
‘There’s a watershed and there are regulations for normal TV so why are these digital TVs going into people’s homes…
‘It’s dramas.’
Saira then went on to cite an Ofcom ruling in 2010 which found that an Islamic London-based broadcaster broke the code for ‘advocating marital rape and violence against women’.
The TV host continued: ‘And that station claims to have one million viewers daily and it reaches 59 percent of British Muslims.
‘Now if you are growing up in a home where you see this and nobody’s saying that’s wrong, we don’t do this in our country, then it becomes part of your lifestyle and you don’t see there’s anything wrong.’
She added: ‘It’s not political correctness, it’s ignorance. We need our schools to fight for the values of our children regardless of our faith.’
Jane Moore suggested: ‘I think schools would like to do that but they’re not allowed to and if you look at the story recently of the Muslims protesting outside the school about, as they saw it, teaching school children about homosexuality, the school had to go to court to sort that out.
‘The schools don’t have that kind of power.’
Stacey Solomon agreed: ‘Joe [her partner Joe Swash] has told me that he was at a school and next to the school was a mosque, and Abu Hamza used to preach there, and his friends from the school would go to the mosque and they would be able to leave classes early, go outside school for lunch to preach, and Joe was like sometimes I want to go to the mosque and see this guy because I want to get out of school.
‘And I know that sounds awful but those are the kind of kids they’re appealing to.’
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12pm on ITV.
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