It's been a long-established BBC tradition that where a foreign national commits crimes in the UK, his nationality and immigration status should be downplayed or ignored entirely in their news reporting.
Hence we see the Algerian illegal immigrant transformed into a man from 'Shepherds Bush', the Moroccan drug dealer (obsessed with beheadings and al-Quaeda videos) who becomes a man 'from Lisson Grove, north-west London' (with no notable habits), the Somali 'of Small Heath, Birmingham', the Nigerian nationals and illegal immigrants who become 'South Londoners' (see next paragraph for the links).
There's one notable exception to this rule - if the foreign national is American the BBC goes to town on the story. Even if he's a naturalised British citizen he'll always be American to BBC news.
Yet BBC coverage of the latest UK terrorist attacks is going out of its way to emphasise the 'non-Britishness' of the attackers.
None of the suspects involved in the Glasgow attack and the foiled London car bombings are British in origin.
"British in origin" ? It's the "in origin" bit that gets me. Only a year or two back a politician using language like that would be getting the John Humphrys treatment on the Today programme. Are they channelling Norman Tebbit here, or Nick Griffin ?
'Terrorist' suspects 'not Scots' : Mr MacAskill said the suspects were not "born or bred" here but had lived in Scotland for a "period of time".
[July 02, 2007 Amazing BBC volte-facel]
Terrorist suspects "Not Scots!" Well, I could have told you that. What they mean is that they're not Muslims who live in Scotland, like the Kelvinbridge Muslims that Brenda Walker reported were trying to stop Scots from drinking on patios because drinking alcohol outdoors was "offensive". to the Glasgow Muslim community. That is to say, not the people the local politicians feel the need to appease. The business about them not being Scots is a response to this inane statement by a Scottish Government official:
Scottish chief defends Muslim ties after Glasgow attackAgence France-Presse 07/01/2007
GLASGOW—The two men who rammed a blazing car into Glasgow airport were not from Scotland, the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said Sunday, while denying that ties with the Muslim community may suffer.
Salmond, speaking after touring the airport a day after the attack, described it as a "very serious incident," also said no community should feel "scapegoated" by it.
"As far as we can tell at the present moment the people involved in this incident had not been in Scotland for any length of time," he told reporters, declining to give any further details.
Some eyewitness accounts of the attack Saturday described the two men as being of "Asian" appearance, while one witness cited by television recounted that one of them shouted "Allah, Allah" before being overcome by police....
"We have hugely strong community relations in Scotland. Our Muslim community is part of the fabric of Scottish society," he said. "It's hugely important to our economy, to our social life, and these community bonds will remain strong."
And he added: "No community in Scotland should feel in any way scapegoated by this incident."...
