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UPDATE: The BBC has confirmed that Stacey Dooley’s ‘IS salute’ claim has been removed from tonight’s edition of Panorama.

Stacey Dooley has been criticised for calling a Muslim prayer gesture ‘an IS salute’ in her Panorama documentary on IS brides.

The reigning Strictly Come Dancing champion visited camps in Northern Syria, home to alleged radicalised IS brides and supporters, for Panorama: Stacey Meets The IS Brides.

And a clip released from the documentary sees Dooley claim that as she and her crew left the al-Hawl camp – home to 70,000, including 11,000 ‘foreign women, IS brides and their children’ – they ‘saw women raising their index finger in an IS salute’.




However, many people have criticised this statement, as the index finger salute is commonly used in Muslim prayer as a symbol of tawhid, the belief in the oneness of God, although has been adopted in recent years by Islamic State supporters in propaganda images.

BBC journalist Anisa Subedar tweeted: ‘This issue raised by @OzKaterji and others needs to be addressed before tonight’s #Panorama is aired. Raising the finger is NOT an IS salute.

‘Does #StaceyDooley know us Muslims raise it everytime we pray (that’s 5 times a day) to remind us of the oneness of God?

Stacey fronts the latest edition of Panorama (Picture: BBC)

‘Islam is a monotheistic faith. One of the five pillars – the declaration of faith – states there is only one God. Raising the index finger is a manifestation of that. It has nothing to do with IS.

Ms Subedar added: ‘This is what happens when you pass over real journalists to cover these kinds of stories – those that require cultural sensitivity and compassion.

‘What happened here is insulting and offensive to Muslims and journalists.Imagine being a Muslim journalist.’

The prayer gesture has been adopted by some IS supporters (Picture: BBC)

Journalist Oz Katerji had previously tweeted: ‘There is simply no excuse for ignorance like this’, and said he was submitting a complaint to Ofcom reading: ‘Stacey Dooley, while visiting an internment camp in Al-Hawl, Syria, describes meeting female former IS members. During the VT, one of the women raises her finger, this finger raising gesture is an Orthodox Sunni Muslim practice.

‘Stacey Dooley refers to this gesture as an “ISIS Salute”, which is both ignorant and offensive to adherents of Sunni Islam. The gesture has been adopted by ISIS members, but it does not belong to them, and referring to it as such is beneath a news broadcast.’

However, some defended Dooley, saying that in the context of the documentary, the women may have been using it as an IS gesture.

Others also corrected a claim made by Dooley in the documentary, when she said: ‘We have to be chaperoned the entire time. Before we arrived, there was an incident where one of the female guards was stabbed to death.’

A recent report stated that a male guard was stabbed; he recovered from his injury.

Stacey, 32, made a name for herself with documentaries on BBC Three, although became a household name by winning Strictly in 2018 with now-boyfriend Kevin Clifton.



Speaking to The Big Issue about the IS brides documentary, she said: ‘Certainly with Panorama it’s much more about getting the facts out. Perhaps there’s less opinion and emotion from me. I said to them, I don’t want to turn into a sanitised, straight current affairs war reporter because that’s not what I am.

‘They’ve obviously asked me to do it because they wanted it to have a bit of me in it I suppose. I’ve watched Panorama for a long time, but I think they’ll be the first to say they struggle with the younger audience, so it was a nice collaboration.’

Stacey is the reigning Strictly champ (Picture: BBC)

The star, who received an MBE last year for services to broadcasting, was previously branded a ‘white saviour’ after she visited Uganda for a Comic Relief film.

Before the footage aired, Stacey took a picture with a young Ugandan boy and captioned it on Instagram: ‘OB.SESSSSSSSSSSED.’

Stacey defended herself against people claiming she was using the boy as an accessory, hitting back: ‘I’ve had numerous photos with children from Europe. Last year I was with Roma kids in Hungary and no one had any issue with these photos. Similarly, there’s pics of me on here with Iraqi kids living in a refugee camp. Again, no one seemed to mind these.

‘We have verbal and written consent from their guardians to use their images and only if we’ve spent time filming with them do we ask. The Ugandan families also asked to take pictures with us. The suggestion that I would stroll up to a child I don’t know or have an existing relationship with, and would force them to have a selfie is ridiculous. I’ve been working in Africa for nearly 12 years, I ask the locals and NGOs how I should behave. None of them here are upset with this photo.


‘The little lad was perfectly happy. His grandad joked he’s often grumpy.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted Stacey and Panorama for comment.

Panorama: Stacey Meets The IS Brides airs at BBC One tonight on 8.30pm and on iPlayer.

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