{"id":3590,"date":"2009-01-12T13:43:14","date_gmt":"2009-01-12T13:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2009\/01\/12\/pm-defends-prince-harry-as-race-row-grows\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T11:29:42","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T11:29:42","slug":"pm-defends-prince-harry-as-race-row-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2009\/01\/12\/pm-defends-prince-harry-as-race-row-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"PM defends Prince Harry as race row grows"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Apology was \u201cgenuine\u201d, says PM<\/h3>\n
GORDON Brown spoke out in defence of Prince Harry today over footage which showed him calling a fellow soldier a \u2018Paki\u2019.<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The incident, which has caused great embarrassment to the Royal family, was made public in an exclusive by The News of the World yesterday. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The film, which was made in 2006, was shot during Prince Harry\u2019s final year of officer training. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

As the prince pans the camera around a room containing his 30-strong platoon he stops on the face of Asian cadet Ahmed Raza Khan.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He is then heard whispering: \u201cAnybody else here? Ah, our little Paki friend … Ahmed.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Later in the film he calls a fellow soldier a \u201craghead\u201d commenting on his camouflage head covering. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

While the prince issued an immediate apology, the incident prompted furious comments by political and leading members of Britain\u2019s ethnic minority community. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Musician and political activist Aki Nawaz called his comments \u201cabsolutely disgusting\u201d, adding, \u201cWe don’t accept these things, we’ve had to live with this for 40 years.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Conservative leader David Cameron added: “It’s obviously a completely unacceptable thing to say and it’s right that he has apologised. I think it’s important that in the great institutions we root out attitudes like that.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Appearing on GMTV, PM Gordon Brown said he believed the princes\u2019 apology was \u201cgenuine\u201d

\n‘I think Prince Harry knows that these comments aren’t acceptable. I think he’s made an apology. I think it is a genuine apology. I think the sincereness of his apology cannot be doubted,\u201d Mr Brown said. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s made his admission of that and once he’s made his apology … I think the British people are good enough to give him the benefit of the doubt.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But speaking to the Daily Mail newspaper, the family of Ahmed Raza Khan said they were \u201churt\u201d by the prince\u2019s comments. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Captain Khan’s father Muhammad Yaqoob Khan Abbasi told the newspaper: \u201cWhen I saw the video I was very, very hurt.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly condemn the disgraceful fact that Prince Harry used that language against my son. That word he used is a hate word, and should never be used against any Pakistani. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cPrince Harry should apologise to the Pakistani Army and to the Pakistani government for this. I cannot accept his apology unless they first accept his apology.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The incident is not the first time Prince Harry has found himself embroiled in a race row. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2005 he apologised to the Jewish community after he was pictured wearing a swastika armband to a party.\u00a0<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apology was \u201cgenuine\u201d, says PM GORDON Brown spoke out in defence of Prince Harry today over footage which showed him calling a fellow soldier a \u2018Paki\u2019. The incident, which has caused great embarrassment to the Royal family, was made public in an exclusive by The News of the World yesterday. The film, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}