Dogwash

Poking idly around the Web this morning, I came upon this brief post on Pickled Politics. Digging further, it seems that a serious and highly damaging fire, sufficient to render the building unusable, took place on 16 March at the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat, a major Sikh temple in the Mile End area of East London. The fire is believed to have been started deliberately and indeed the suspected arsonist intruder is reported to have been spotted and challenged by worshippers, but made his escape before the fire itself was discovered.

Sikh, Punjabi and general Indian news sources are reporting this as a racially-motivated arson attack. Yet I can find no mention of it in the British national MSM. I mean, guys, a racist arson attack on a major Sikh temple in London. That's worth at least a mensh on the BBC, in the Guardian or in the Indie, surely. Of necessity it is reported briefly in the East London Advertiser and it also, bizarrely, apparently cropped up in the Worthing Herald. (I say 'apparently' because the Google News link no longer works.)

So, what's going on?

Then I came across this report in the London Evening Standard, a paper which, whatever its faults, is pretty straight in reporting 'racially tinged' matters in London. The Standard writes

Witnesses today said a man had been run [presumably "been seen running" - don't they have subeditors any more?] into the temple during a women-only prayer session then escaped just before flames were first seen.

Having spotted the intruder, the 10 women quickly discovered the fire, which had taken hold in one of the holiest parts of the temple. They tried to put it out but were beaten back by the flames.

Witnesses described the suspected arsonist as being black or mixed-race.

Most of the temple's roof collapsed and worshippers fear all but one of its eight holy books were destroyed.

Let's look at that third para again: "Witnesses described the suspected arsonist as being black or mixed-race."

Ah!