I join the email-the-biased-Beeb club.

Yup, I did it. I wrote a response in one of their feedback sections (not 'Have Your Say'- this was something I wanted to be read). Ok, it may be a bit over-written, but I needed to say something about the Beeb's behaviour towards this Al-Qaradhawi bloke, who was banned from America with good reason way back in 1999. I think I could have done it better but it's difficult writing coherently in those cramped boxes and without preview (or did I miss something?). Anyway here it is as it was wrote:

Dear Beeb, [I've tacked this on- needed an intro I think]

I am writing to complain about persistently misleading BBC reporting concerning Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi.

Consider these words of Al-Qaradhawi, reported in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a London based paper (obtained from Memri):

'" First of all, due to the colonialist, occupying, racist, and [plundering] nature of Israeli society, it is, in fact, a military society. Anyone past childhood, man or woman, is drafted into the Israeli army. Every Israeli is a soldier in the army, either in practical terms or because he is a reservist soldier who can be summoned at any time for war. This fact needs no proof. Those they call 'civilians' are in effect 'soldiers' in the army of the sons of Zion.

" Second , Israeli society has a unique trait that makes it different from the other human societies, and that is that as far as the people of Palestine are concerned, it is a 'society of invaders' who came from outside the region – from Russia or America, from Europe or from the lands of the Orient – to occupy Palestine and settle in it…

"Those who are invaded have the right to fight the invaders with all means at their disposal in order to remove [the invaders] from their homes and send them back to the homes from whence they came… This is a Jihad of necessity, as the clerics call it, and not Jihad of choice… Even if an innocent child is killed as a result of this Jihad – it was not intended, but rather due to the necessities of the war… Even with the passage of time, these [Israeli] so-called 'civilians' do not stop being invaders, evil, tyrants, and oppressors…"

In the BBC2 NewsNight interview with Al-Qaradhawi the translator said that suicide bombings were legitimated because Israeli women were 'militarised'. This reflects Al-Qaradhawi's views fairly, although it ought to be explained that he means that the Israelis en masse are invaders- a fact he considers obvious when the nature of the IDF is considered- and therefore collectively fair targets. You, however, in the Online report, quoted him from the same interview saying '"an Israeli woman is not like women in our societies, because she is a soldier."' This much narrower definition- which sounds superficially less rational that his actual opinion- does not account for suicide bombings by our normal definitions, since many Israeli women in fact do not serve, and we would not consider children, old men or old women (and that you could argue meant 45+) to be in any sense 'combatants'- yet Qaradhawi would consider these targets legitimate.

The fact that Israeli women are conscripted (though many are exempted) is only a fraction of the story. The term 'militarised' much more fully reflects his views. I feel your organisation has changed his words from a natural and valid translation to make them less incendiary- moreover, diminishing them by comparison with other on-the-record statements. Since this man was supposed to be under 'close surveillance' during his stay in Britain, and since for many British people this interview and reports based on it were their 'introduction' to a man revered by groups that support Al Qaeda I regard this a matter of some gravity.

Furthermore, in your article Analysis: Interpreting Islam , you compound your misinformation by saying 'Sheikh Al-Qaradawi believes, for example, that it is right to target Israeli women, because they are army reservists who can be summoned to active duty at any time - an argument that is also used by Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas to justify suicide attacks.'

In fact Al-Qaradhawi's remarks relate to justifying suicide bombings against Israelis period. How does the fact that women can technically be called into the Israeli army justify killing children?
The point is that he has a wider justification for all of this, which you ignore: Al-Qaradhawi advocates (quite clearly) the expulsion of the Jews from the Middle East. He wants to send them back to the countries they came from, and will regard them as aggressors until they have gone.

You simply don't do Al-Qaradhawi's views justice. He's a clever and very influential man with some views that many 'culturally unaware' people would object to. You'd prefer to shield them from that reality: please desist from dissembling and tell it like it is.