Martin Derek Bright (born 5 June 1966) is a British journalist. He worked for the
BBC World Service and ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' before becoming ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
's'' education correspondent and then home affairs editor. From 2005 to 2009, he was the political editor of ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
.'' He had a blog for ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
,'' and was ''
The Jewish Chronicle
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
's'' political editor from September 2009 to March 2013. In 2014 he took a position at the
Tony Blair Faith Foundation
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation was an interfaith charitable foundation established in May 2008 by former British prime minister Tony Blair. Since December 2016 its work has been continued by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Launch ...
, but resigned after five months over a lack of editorial autonomy.
Since the late twentieth century, he has particularly covered the rise of Muslim extremism, terrorist attacks in Britain and abroad, and aspects of British governmental relations with the Muslim community in the United Kingdom.
In 2009 Bright founded
New Deal of the Mind, a charitable company to promote employment in creative fields and working with organisations, government and all political parties.
Career
In 2001, Bright wrote "The Great
Koran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...
Con Trick", an article in the ''New Statesman'' about the work of the Orientationalist scholars
John Wansbrough
John Edward Wansbrough (February 19, 1928 – June 10, 2002) was an American historian who taught at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he was vice chancellor from 1985 to 1992.
Wansbrough is credit ...
,
Michael Cook,
Patricia Crone
Patricia Crone (March 28, 1945July 11, 2015) was a Danish historian specializing in early Islamic history. Crone was a member of the Revisionist school of Islamic studies and questioned the historicity of the Islamic traditions about the beginni ...
,
Andrew Rippin and
Gerald Hawting, associated in the 1970s with the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
's
School of Oriental and African Studies
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...
(SOAS).
[Martin Bright, Special Report: "The Great Koran Con Trick"](_blank)
''The New Statesman'', 10 December 2001 He reported the work of the scholars as "revisionist history" of Islam. They have developed new techniques of analysis, in some cases adopting methods from earlier biblical studies and using a wider range of sources, including non-Muslim, non-Arabic texts. Their conclusions have included:
*little is known about the life of the Muslim prophet Mohammad;
*rapid expansion of the religion could be due to its appeal "of conquest and jihad for the tribes of the Arabian peninsula";
*the Koran as known was likely compiled, or written long after Mohammad's death in 632 AD.
*Arabs and Jews were allied against Christianity in the earliest days of Islam;
and
*some scholars have suggested that Islam, like Christianity, may be considered a "heretical branch of rabbinical Judaism."
Bright’s arguments were ridiculed and debunked by the very scholars—including his own former SOAS tutor, Professor Gerald Hawting—whose work he drew upon to support his cover story. Three of these scholars wrote to the ''New Statesman'' raising objections to the article with one commenting that the "spurious air of conspiracy and censorship conjured up in Martin Bright‘s article is nonsense".
New archeological finds, such as scraps of manuscript at the
Great Mosque of Sana'a
The Great Mosque of Sana'a (, ) is an ancient mosque in Sana'a, Yemen, and one of the oldest mosques in the world. The mosque is said to have been founded in the early Islamic period, suggested to be in 633. While the precise date of construction ...
in
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
, have supported suggestions of the development of the Koran over time.
Some of the scholars reportedly disagreed with Bright's characterization of their work. The article was considered controversial among traditionalist Muslims. The Muslim intellectual
Ziauddin Sardar
Ziauddin Sardar ( ur, ضیاء الدین سردار; born 31 October 1951) is a British-Pakistani scholar, award-winning writer, cultural critic and public intellectual who specialises in Muslim thought, the future of Islam, futurology and s ...
argued the SOAS scholars approached the material from a Eurocentric point of view.
In a documentary, ''Who Speaks for Muslims?'' (2002), and ''When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries: The British State's flirtation with radical Islamism'' (2006), a report for the Policy Exchange, Bright has examined issues of the contemporary Muslim community in the United Kingdom and the government's relationship with its constituencies. This has been a focus of his journalism.
Bright left the ''New Statesman'' in January 2009, and began writing a blog, "The Bright Stuff – Dispatches from Enemy Territory," for ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
''.
In January 2009, Bright formed
New Deal of the Mind, a coalition of artists, entrepreneurs, academics and opinion formers working to boost employment in Britain's creative sector during the recession. The organisation was launched formally at
Number 11 Downing Street on 24 March 2009. The launch seminar was attended by more than 60 of Britain's leading creative industry figures, as well as several ministers and politicians from across the political spectrum.
In September 2009, Bright joined ''
The Jewish Chronicle
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' as political editor. He left the publication in March 2013,
but returned as a columnist, remaining until January, 2014.
[
In January, 2014, he took a position at the ]Tony Blair Faith Foundation
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation was an interfaith charitable foundation established in May 2008 by former British prime minister Tony Blair. Since December 2016 its work has been continued by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Launch ...
as editor of a new website on religion and globalisation produced in conjunction with the Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...
. He resigned after five months, feeling Blair did not give him the autonomy he needed.
Marriage and family
Bright is married to Vanessa Thorpe Vanessa may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Vanessa'' (Millais painting), an 1868 painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais
* ''Vanessa'', a 1933 novel by Hugh Walpole
* ''Vanessa'', a 1952 instrumental song written by Bernie W ...
, the arts correspondent of ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
''; the couple have two children.
Works
*He was presenter of Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
's ''30 Minutes'' documentary, ''Who Speaks For Muslims?'' (2002), about the Muslim community in the United Kingdom. The Muslim Council of Britain
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is a national umbrella body with over 500 mosques and educational and charitable associations affiliated to it. It includes national, regional, local, and specialist Muslim organisations and institutions fro ...
sent a letter to Channel 4 protesting what it described as several errors in the documentary, as well as a generally negative tone suggesting it supported radical Islam.[Letter of 21 March 2002 to Channel 4 TV, on ''Who Speaks for Muslims?''](_blank)
Muslim Council of Britain, accessed 6 March 2013
*Bright wrote ''When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries: The British State's flirtation with radical Islamism'' (2006), a report exploring British state funding of political Islam
Political Islam is any interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It can refer to a wide range of individuals and/or groups who advocate the formation of state and society according to their understanding of Islamic pri ...
and Foreign Office overtures to radical groups. It was published by Policy Exchange
Policy Exchange is a British conservative think tank based in London. In 2007 it was described in ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right". ''The Washington Post'' said Policy Exchange's re ...
, which Bright described as a centre-right thinktank.Martin Bright, "Right showing left the way on radical Islam"
''The Observer'', 29 July 2013, accessed 6 March 2013
* Martin presented the documentary ''Vanished: the Surrey Schoolgirl'' about an
unsolved missing person case he reported on in the mid-1990s.
Legacy and honours
*2009, Bright was on the journalism long list for the
Orwell Prize
The Orwell Prize, based at University College London, is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a boa ...
.
*Bright’s ''Observer'' article on whistleblower
Katharine Gun
Katharine Teresa Gun (''née'' Harwood) (born 1974) is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). In 2003, she leaked top-secret information to ''The Observer'', concerning a request by ...
features prominently in the film ''
Official Secrets'', where Bright is played by
Matt Smith
Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor in the BBC series '' Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Daemon Targaryen in the HBO series '' House of the Dr ...
.
References
External links
Martin Bright, "The great Koran con trick" ''The New Statesman'', 10 December 2001
Martin Bright, "Vanished: the Surrey schoolgirl" ''Real Stories'', 27 April 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Martin
Living people
1966 births
British male journalists
British bloggers
British critics of Islam
Online journalists
People educated at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, Bristol
Male bloggers