Julie Burchill makes 'full' apology for racist abuse of fellow writer
 

Writer and columnist Julie Burchill has issued a 600-word "unreserved" apology and agreed to pay substantial damages after a two-week campaign of abuse against journalist Ash Sarkar.

Ms Burchill accused Ms Sarkar on Twitter of condoning paedophilia, worshipping the Prophet Muhammad and supporting Islamist terrorism.

In her apology, The Telegraph columnist said: "I should not have sent these tweets, some of which included racist and misogynist comments regarding Ms Sarkar's appearance and her sex life."

She continued: "I was also wrong to have 'liked' other posts on Facebook and Twitter about her which were offensive, including one which called for her to kill herself, and another which speculated whether she had been a victim of FGM (female genital mutilation)."

The damages - the amount of which has not been revealed - were agreed in an out-of-court settlement.

Ms Sarkar, who is also a political activist, told the BBC: "The comments were shocking and incredibly upsetting, and they also kicked off a lot of abuse from other people on social media. People speculated [on] whether I'm really a woman, really a Muslim, and I was subjected to rape threats and threats of physical violence."

Ms Burchill's tweets began in December after Ms Sarkar posted a tweet referring to a Spectator article published in 2012 by Rod Liddle.

Ms Burchill has now said she regrets the way she reacted and "unreservedly and unconditionally" apologised for her "hurtful and unacceptable statements".

Ms Sarkar added: "The intensity of the abuse, along with Julie Burchill's continuing derogatory posts about me, severely impacted my mental health. I couldn't sleep, and had bouts of trembling and heart palpitations. For the first time in my life, I was prescribed anti-anxiety medication."

The tweets, which included poems and a reference to the Israeli Defence Force, have now been deleted.

Ms Burchill also said she "now understood" it is blasphemy to worship the Prophet Muhammad because he is not divine and equal to Allah.

Ms Sarkar continued: "I read multiple tweets from Burchill speculating about whether I'm any good in bed, and insults about me supposedly having a moustache. Strange poems popped up referring to me as 'Ashtray', portraying lurid sexual fantasies."

Ms Burchill also had her publishing deal for a book about cancel culture cancelled last year.

Before the tweets emerged, the publisher of Welcome to the Woke Trials said it had been inspired by the writer's experience of being "pursued by the outrage mob", and was her attempt to make a case for "progressive" politics and a "common humanity".

However, in the apology, Ms Burchill said Ms Sarkar was not responsible for the cancellation of her deal. Her publisher had in fact made the decision after seeing Ms Burchill's tweets.

In a statement issued in December, publisher Little Brown said: "While there is no legal definition of hate speech in the UK, we believe that Julie's comments on Islam are not defensible from a moral or intellectual standpoint, that they crossed a line with regard to race and religion, and that her book has now become inextricably linked with those views."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56407232

Sounds more like she's sorry she lost a book deal more than being actually sorry for what she said.

I'm not all for "cancel culture" or being "PC" but Burchill should've realised that she's damaging her career by making these Tweets.

And personally I just don't get why anyone would want to make tweets like that anyway.

Although it does create another weird yet wonderful thread on TIBB so at least there's that.:flutter:

Twitter is full of it, such a cesspit, full of threats of violence/rape etc towards women. Awful when it's a woman too that should know what it's like on the other end

Where's Twitter's Moderating team though? They should be punishing members that are clearly breaking the sites rules.

And I too am shocked that a woman would make violent threats towards another woman.

Twitter is disgusting in general, anyone with a brain should stay away from it.

I've not heard of Burchill, but there are very few cases where Sarkar is the "good guy" ...

No its Fast for International News
and Markets.
And Music News


Use it in a Professional Way



Burchill
made a Great Sky TV Documentary 2004
"Chavs"
She did a Great job.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...blishing.bskyb

Well sure, but it's a toxic environment for anything else. People seem to think it entitles them to say the most horrible ****, and nothing Good exclusively comes from it.

To be fair these are basically the same thing; worshipping a man who raped a nine year old is condoning paedophilia ... But as repellent as Sarkar is, some shots aren't worth taking, especially on twitter .

It's weird how she waged this campaign of hatred for two weeks+ but is now only sorry after losing a book deal. Also very funny that she wrote a book about being "pursued by the outrage mob" then got outraged at another person's religion, views and existence.

I think Twitter, like reddit, is fine, if you just stick to the fandoms that you like, and just stay away from wider Twitter.

I wouldn't say nothing good exclusively comes from Twitter. I feel Twitter gets called out super often on here, and that is likely because it seems to be the more left leaning platform following the Tumblr exodus.

Facebook has many, many, many problems too, and seems to be a breeding ground for misinformation, and more right leaning views.

Reddit also has many problems, though given the site is one of the most visited on the internet, it can have subreddits that are super far right, or super far left and everything in between.

4chan is...

well, its 4chan.

Yup, I don't believe her apology for a minute.

I don't use either but my impression is that reddit is somehow "better" ? In that you follow communities rather than people, so all I'd probably see is DC Comics, Dickens, and Pratchett stuff :joker: Rather than individual people?

Both sites let you curate what you want to see, for example, most of the people I follow are fans of games I play, or shows that I watch. Of course I see political stuff on trending, but I usually dont look. Reddit is the same, in that you can follow just the subreddits you want to see.

I'm just not a fan of social media in general. I do use Facebook but not for any groups or anything like that, I assumed it was generally favoured for just keeping in touch with friends and family? While twitter is for "public figures" and reddit is for communities?

And then 4chan is ... 4chan :joker:

Absolutely disgusting and I don’t for one second believe a word of it

But harry can change.

|"Ms Burchill also said she "now understood" it is blasphemy to worship the Prophet Muhammad because he is not divine and equal to Allah"

what BS is this?

:umm2:

I've never used Twitter, I've read comments on there sometimes. It definitely sounds like a cesspool of hate without proper monitoring.

Such a disingenuous argument and a strawman to boot.

There's a difference between learning lessons over a period of time and becoming a voice against racism after learning from mistakes like Harry, and waging a completely racist campaign against someone and suddenly apologising when the person in question loses a book deal.

A voice against racism!

Harry?

When on earth did that happen?

When he spoke out multiple times against racism in recent years. Pay attention.

Also, stop throwing the thread off topic, this is not a Harry and Meghan thread.

You ain't a mod so dont tell me what to do.

And dont reply to my off/on topic comment if you dont like topics straying from the original subject, it will only prolong the stray.

I will always point out the flaws in poorly thought out arguments.

Perhaps make that your next topic title and post it in general chat, rather than telling us in every thread. Which, BTW. Takes the thread off topic in the process by making it all about you.

Never apologise to people who don't have any forgiveness in them. They'll never accept your apology anyway, so what's the point in apologising?

What are your thoughts on what was actually said?