Recent convert to Islam ‘Fat Nick’ Salvador cried out for ‘Allah’ and performed acts of worship as he killed in London last year – arguably relevant information the BBC tactfully decided to omit in their coverage of his court case this afternoon.
London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court heard the testimony of eye witnesses who told that he looked up to the sky “as if in an act of worship” while he beheaded two cats, and then 82-year-old London resident Palmira Silva. Salvador was a recent convert to Islam when he struck last year, having transformed quickly from “a really nice guy” to a delusional killer.
Even as he was arrested, after being tear-gassed and tazered six times by police he was still screaming “Allah!” as he was carried away.
Not that you’d know any of this if you had just read the BBC’s report this afternoon on his being declared insane and detained indefinitely – remarkably the words ‘Allah’, ‘Islam’, and ‘Muslim’ don’t appear even once between them anywhere.
In fact, most media outlets didn’t report it. The Daily Mail included the fact in paragraph 39 of its coverage, as a Google News search for ‘Salvador’ and ‘Allah’ reveals:
The reasons for this omission are not immediately clear – could it be that old favourite, ‘community cohesion’? Or that now the court has found him insane, the inspiration to use beheading as a specific form of execution for those he considered possessed by evil had become irrelevant. Or perhaps there is a political dimension – is is striking to note the Mail had the courage to mention his conversion to Islam once (but only in paragraph 39!), while the left wing Independent did not.
The BBC was contacted for comment and a spokesman had this to say:
“Our coverage focused on what was said in court today including the verdict and Salvador’s mental illness which was discussed in detail. We also focused on the effect on Palmira Silva’s family with an interview with her granddaughter and pieced together what happened with newly released police helicopter footage.”
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