&c1=usa&c2=(none)&c3=The+Observer&c4=BBC,Race+and+religion+(Media),Television+industry+(Media),Race+issues+(News),Media,UK+news,Observer&c5=&c6=David+Smith,+arts+and+media+correspondent&c7=2004_01_12){kind=small}
- The Observer,
- Sunday January 11, 2004
Robert Kilroy-Silk, the television presenter suspended after writing a savage newspaper polemic against Arabs, defied outraged protests last night to declare: 'I am not a racist.'
Despite BBC chiefs having shelved his daily chat show because of his explosive remarks, Kilroy-Silk insisted: 'If I am not allowed to say there are Arab states that are evil, despotic and treat women abominably, if I am not allowed to say that, which I know to be a fact, then what can I say?'
The presenter is under pressure from Muslims to issue a full apology for the Sunday Express article in which he branded Arabs 'suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women-repressors'. Kilroy-Silk said: 'Whatever else I am, I am not a racist. I have done more for race relations than the Commission for Racial Equality, empowering black people and presenting them in a positive light. I have gone out of my way to do that, sometimes I might have gone too far.'
The offending article, headlined 'We owe Arabs nothing', was almost word-for-word the same as a column he wrote last April. Kilroy-Silk explained: 'It was a cock-up and I blame my secretary.' Writing in today's Sunday Express, the former Labour MP said: 'I clearly do not believe all Arabs are suicide bombers etc. That would be stupid. As we all know, most are educated, civilised and urbane. The article was always intended to be a criticism of certain Arab regimes - never of Arab people in general.'
