A weekly newspaper columnist has apologised after making comments suggesting that British Muslims ‘celebrate’ mass murder.

Dewsbury Press writer Danny Lockwood said that if Cumbrian mass-killer Derrick Bird had been carrying a copy of the Qur’an, “he would have been celebrated as a hero by tens of thousands of so-called British Muslims.”

The column, written in the aftermath of the Cumbrian shootings, led to angry protests outside the local police station and calls to boycott the independently-owned paper.

Complaints were also made to West Yorkshire Police, saying the columnist should be prosecuted for stirring up religious hatred, although the Crown Prosecution Service has since decided against this.

The comments were written as part of Danny’s Ed Lines column in which he hit out at the Home Office’s decision to allow Muslim preacher Zakir Naik into the county.

In the following week’s column, Danny, a co-founder of the paper, apologised for what he had written, saying he was “about as wide off the mark as I can recall being for quite some time.”

He added: “No excuses. A couple of explanations maybe, but I don’t mind saying sorry to a lot of honest, decent people who were offended by my comments in relation to mass killer Derrick Bird and Islamic radicals.”

Editor Martin Shaw, who is also a director at the newspaper, said Danny’s apology had been well-received and has been accepted by the local community.

“Danny Lockwood’s column is both challenging and controversial and he has every right to express his views in a forthright manner,” he said.

“However, on this occasion Danny’s remarks caused offence to some of our many friends in the Muslim community. This was not his intention and both he and I quickly apologised.”

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police confirmed they had received a number of complaints and there was a demonstration at the local police station but the CPS had made the decision not to seek a prosecution.

Comments

NL (30/06/2010 13:15:50)
Danny Lockwood’s comments were disgusting and shameful, and remiscent of 1930’s Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda.
There ahs been a rise in Anti-Islamic feelings in the UK, and elsewhere, and this is worrying. Blaming the vast majority of peaceful Muslims for the actions of a few extremists – present in all communities – is both wrong and dangerous.
As a white Western European I would be mortified if the actions of people such as nailbomber David Copeland, bombmaker Martin Gilleard and other far right extremists were taken as representative of myself and normal everyday Europeans, as, I suspect, would the vast majority of Islamophobes.
People need to remember that every community has its idiots and we it is unfair, and detrimental to us all, to print such idiotic remarks only serves to inflame tensions and reinforce the negative and innacurate stereotypes that do so much damage.

Flem007 (30/06/2010 13:22:04)
I have just read Danny Lockwood’s column and while I question his timing I actually agree with his central point. But I would just quantify that statement by adding that I thing thousands of British Catholics were sympathetic to the cause when the IRA were killing and maiming. I also believe that deep down we are all still slightly fearful of those those do not look like us. It is the great unspoken issue of our time. If we are all honest about our deepest fears maybe we could move on a bit. We are still tribal beings I am afraid. We might live in a smaller world but evolutionary our minds have not caught up

horatio (30/06/2010 16:17:07)
Clearly Danny Lockwood thinks he’s a big fish in a big pond and forgets that real people occassionally read the below par Dewsbury Press rather than use it to clear up after the dog.
An example of why local journalism is seen as quaint or a laughing stock

horatio (30/06/2010 16:21:13)
Clearly Danny Lockwood thinks he’s a big fish in a big pond and that he’s made it by getting a column in a below par paper that’s only use is to look for second hand fridges.
He should resign – simple as that. People like that forget that they have a duty of care to their readers, probably too busy foaming at the mouth in excitement at what he thought was a brilliant bit of proze. An example of why local journalists should know their place.

Nick Rudd (02/07/2010 12:39:11)
Danny Lockwood is more than just ‘a writer’ – he has long been an editor and publisher of note, and I am so appalled by these remarks that when it comes down to a choice between his Rugby League weekly paper and the rival RL Express, it will now be the Express every time. I am white with Irish roots and was raised a Catholic, by the way, so have no vested interest, only in decent standards of comment.