OK, so whom do you want to criticise? The Church of England? Fine - go ahead and insult any parson or lay person you fancy.

Maybe you'd like to have a go at freemasons, or foxhunters, or wearers of fur coats; or Tories, Americans, Israelis - oh feel especially free to criticise Jews.

But what if you want to make a few points against the Arabs. Oh come off it. No chance. Make any critical remarks about the Arabs and you will likely lose your job.

If you don't believe me, ask Robert Kilroy-Silk.

Now why should a man be censured for speaking the plain truth? Most Arab states are totalitarian, undemocratic with appalling records on human rights and particularly nasty to their own women folk. What I am saying here is not controversial. What Kilroy-Silk said is not controversial either: it is the plain truth. So why does the BBC censor the plain truth?

Listen to this: "I fully support Robert Kilroy-Silk and salute him as an advocate of freedom of expression. I would like to voice my solidarity with him and with all those who face the censorship of such a basic human right as free speech." Who said that then - some Israeli warlord or American deep south fascist? Not at all. It was said by Ibrahim Nawar, an Egyptian, Muslim and Head of the Board of Management of Arab Press Freedom Watch. I just hope that Ibrahim doesn't lose his job as well.

Compare and contrast, as they used to say on my school examination papers. The poet Tom Paulin continues to be a regular contributor to Newsnight on BBC2 despite his having said: "Israelis living in the occupied territories are Nazis and should be shot dead." Why don't they sack him for this blatant example of racism?

The BBC and the left-wing press operate a double standard. If anyone or any organisation in English civil society treated women or religious minorities in the despicable way these people are treated in most Arab and Muslim countries, papers such as The Guardian, The Independent and The Observer - and the BBC of course - would be tireless in their outrage.

And yet they won't hear a word said against the intolerant, harsh, primitive, shambolic totalitarian despotisms that make up most of the Arab world. In England we let Muslims build imposing mosques in prominent parts of the country such as Regent's Park. I'm glad we do. This shows tolerance and a degree of fair-mindedness unknown throughout the Arab world. You would be imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for wearing a crucifix or saying the Lord's Prayer in the street. Is this the sort of regime the BBC wants to champion?

Isn't it about time that the so-called "principled" Left in this country woke up to its own bias, admitted its institutional racism, its hatred of all things Jewish, American - or simply plainly English traditional? You can say anything you like against any aspect of traditional English society and nobody in those horrible newspapers or the BBC will raise an eyebrow. But criticise - ever so mildly - the disgraceful tyrannical Arab world and you'll be called worse than the devil. Bah. Humbug!

* Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange.