The BBC said it would remove the relevant voiceover from Dooley’s documentary before broadcast.  The BBC has apologized and amended a Panorama documentary presented by Stacey Dooley after she inadvertently described a Muslim prayer sign as a terrorist salute.

Stacey Meets the IS Brides, which is due to be shown on BBC One on Monday night, features the presenter travelling to camps in Syria to meet women who left their own countries to join Islamic State. In one scene, trailed on Sunday night’s News at Ten, Dooley described leaving a camp and watching “women raising their index finger in an IS salute” – without making it clear that the gesture also had another meaning. Isis fighters have often deployed the single-finger gesture in propaganda images but Tell MAMA, an organization which measures anti-Muslim attacks, pointed out that the symbol had a much wider use representing Muslims’ commitment to monotheism.

“Tawhid (Tawheed) is the defining doctrine of Islam, demonstrating the oneness of Allah (God),” they said. “To reduce such a fundamental and important concept to a mere ‘IS salute’ is grossly wrong, ignorant, and damaging. This again demonstrates the importance of having Muslim representation in media, and more broadly, improving religious literacy.”

Source: The Guardian