A cricket presenter who branded Western leaders “racist” has accused the BBC of trying to silence him over the Gaza conflict.
Qasim Sheikh, a former Scotland international who worked as a pundit for the T20 World Cup in June, apologised for “any offence” after postings emerged early in the tournament of him sharing a picture that compared world leaders including Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler.
He had also referred to Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer as “genocide enablers”.
The BBC said at the time that it had spoken to Sheikh about the posts and, after issuing a statement on his behalf in which he described the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7 last year as “morally reprehensible”, he continued to work as a pundit.
In an open letter, more than 100 Jewish figures in the media and entertainment industry had condemned the BBC’s decision to stand by Sheikh during the T20 World Cup, noting how he had also written “don’t they [Palestine] have a right to defend themselves” in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks.
The letter accused BBC management of a “total absence of courage, morality and understanding” and highlighted what it called a “monumental double-standard” in suspending pundit Michael Vaughan when he was the subject of an investigation before being cleared of using racist language.
In a post on social media platform X last week, Sheikh now says that the BBC attempted to “push me into a corner” and that he was treated differently to other commentators during the tournament.
“There were a few stages during the World Cup that were also interesting,” Sheikh said. “BBC TMS [Test Match Special], every time they posted about a game, they were tagging all the commentators…I was never getting tagged on social media.
“I actually brought this to the attention of senior BBC leadership … saying, ‘why are you not tagging me – is there a reason for this?’ And it was just ignored. I know why it was. Basically what I was going through was getting to see first hand how you were silenced by the media. The BBC were doing all they could.”
After commentating on his first game, Sheikh says that he then re-posted graphic footage following bombing in Gaza.
“I retweeted that and I instantly got a message from BBC leadership to say to me, ‘You had agreed that you would not speak about the Gaza situation while you were commentating on the World Cup’. I didn’t agree, you were trying to silence me, and you were trying to push me into a corner.”
Sheikh also wrote last week that “the western leaders are racist, there is no other description for them”. Sheikh, who is a freelance presenter and commentator, has not been on air for the BBC since the T20 World Cup.
In its social media guidelines, the BBC says that freelancers are “not required to uphold the BBC’s impartiality through their actions on social media” but are “required to respect civility in public discourse and must not bring the BBC into disrepute”.
In relation to Sheikh’s status with the corporation going forward, the BBC said that it did not comment on individuals.
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