The Infidel

David Baddiel: leftist hypocrite and self-hating Jew

A number of friends have asked me to go and see the stage production of David Baddiel's 'The Infidel'. To understand why I will not go to see this (I saw the film incidentally and it was pretty poor) here is the relevant self-explanatory snippet from a blog posting I wrote back in 2010 about anti-semitism ingrained in the world of  'the arts':

To give another flavour of this same argument, I found something very illuminating in the latest issue of the Jewish Chronicle magazine. There is an interview there with the Jewish comedian David Baddiel about his new film "The Infidel" (about a Muslim who discovers that he is Jewish). One question asks:

What can the film teach audiences? 

Baddiel answers: "The main Muslim characters in the film are not suicide bombers or fundamentalists, they are just ordinary people and the film tries to show them as such".

OK, but the very next question is: 

What does being Jewish mean to you religiously and culturally?

Baddiel answers: "Probably the key speech in the film is when the rabbi, played by Matt Lucas, doesn't let Mahmud in to see his father, who is dying, because he can't say the Shema. That is the definition of Judaism."

Obviously Baddiel does not see the irony of his determination to portray Muslims as 'just like us', but to portray Jews as religious fanatics.

It is also worth pointing out that Baddiel - whose TV career effectively ended several years ago when he stopped being funny - tried to get himself some much needed publicity last year; he was the person who led the ludicrous campaign to stop Spurs fans calling themselves 'Yids' - a campaign that was fiercely opposed by 97% of Spurs Jewish supporters (and 91% of all Spurs supporters). Baddiel is a Chelsea supporter who has never campaigned to stop the genuine anti-semitism that Chelsea fans always direct at Spurs (the gas hissing sounds, Hitler salutes etc).

6 April 2017 Update: David Baddiel did not like me criticizing him ..