Kate Garraway, 58, sparks outrage as ‘disgraceful’ interview with 7/7 London survivor resurfaces in Netflix documentary
Kate Garraway has faced calls to issue a public apology after an interview conducted with a survivor of the 7/7 London bombings emerged in a new Netflix documentary.
The GMTV interview, which was broadcast less than 24 hours after Islamist terrorists carried out a series of coordinated attacks on the capital, featured Garraway interviewing survivor Mustafa Kurtuldu about the horrific ordeal.
In the Netflix documentary, Attack on London: Hunting The 7/7 Bombers, Kurtuldu, along with other survivors and authority figures, provide insider accounts from that fateful 2005 day.
In the first episode, Kurtuldu claimed that anti-Islam sentiment was rife soon after the attack, given the fact that it was only a few years after 9/11 devastated New York City.
According to Kurtuldu, this led to a targeted search of his belongings by police once he’d managed to escape the bomb site and make his way outside Aldgate Station.
“I don’t remember searching anyone else, but after 9/11, it was almost like a red flag when they saw the name Mustafa,” he claimed.
Less than 24 hours after the attacks, Kurtuldu appeared on ITV’s GMTV to discuss the ordeal, with Garraway conducting the interview.
“Hello there, good to see you this morning,” she began. “Now, the realities of those devastating attacks are, of course, the personal stories so many people went through yesterday. And Mustafa, a passenger on the train between Liverpool Street and Aldgate…”
The documentary cut from the 2005 interview to Kurtuldu today, in which he explained his state of mind. “The breakfast morning show contacted me, saying, ‘Would you like to be interviewed. I’m a bit confused still, I’m very dazed.”
In the footage from the July 8, 2005, interview, Garraway asked Kurtuldu: “Mustafa, you feel like you had a very near-miss, didn’t you? What happened? What was your experience?”
“I was about a carriage or two away from the actual blast. We were all on our normal day, and then suddenly a flash of light,” Kurtuldu replied.
“Terrifying,” Garraway said before her line of questioning took an abrupt change of tone. “Mustafa, what do you feel about this? Do you mind if I ask you if you’re a Muslim?”
“Yes, I am a practicing Muslim,” Kurtuldu promptly answered. As the documentary then cut to present-day, he explained further: “Kate Garraway goes, ‘Okay, Mustafa, are you a Muslim?’ I was like, ‘Erm, yes, I am a Muslim.’ She’s like, ‘How does it feel to be a Muslim?'”
Footage of that moment then played out on-screen. Garraway asked him: “How do you feel about terrorists who claim they do – and we don’t know the truth about who’s behind this yet – who claim they do carry out attacks in the name of Islam? That they put your religion to such atrocities?”
At the time, Kurtuldu defended himself: “Do we… do we know they’re Muslim? I mean, a state of paranoia takes hold of you, we don’t know anything.”
“Not necessarily this attack, but I mean generally,” Garraway probed further.
Reflecting on the tone of the interview and his struggle with the line of questioning, Kurtuldu told Netflix viewers: “I was 24 years old.
“I’d just seen a bunch of people die in front of me, I was in shell-shock, and you’re asking me to explain that I’m not one of the bad guys.”
During the interview, Kurtuldu also expressed apprehension for how he would be treated in public as a result of the attacks and the anti-Muslim sentiment he feared would surface.
Despite the interview taking place two decades ago, its resurfacing in Netflix’s documentary series has prompted fury towards Garraway for a seeming lack of compassion towards Kurtuldu and the ordeal he and others had been through the previous day.
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Following the series’ release, social media users have taken to X to express their anger at Garraway’s manner, with many calling for an apology and branding it “inappropriate” and “a disgrace”.
One X user fumed: “Watching Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombings on Netflix. Kate Garraway race-baiting a 24-year-old who was a victim of the bombings is something I do not remember, but always felt she was nasty piece of work.”
“Watching Netflix’s #attackonlondon. Has #KateGarraway apologised to the victim she ambushed on live TV with questions about radicalising young men the day after he was nearly killed in the 7/7 attacks?” a second raged.
Elsewhere, a third was in disbelief: “Did Kate Garraway really ask a survivor fresh from nearing being bombed to death on national tv if he is a Muslim?? #attackonlondon…
“I was so shocked! What an inappropriate question to ask someone. Especially as he was just surrounded by dead bodies!”
A fourth weighed in: “That was such a nasty thing she did and I hope deep down it keeps her up at night.”
The complaints kept coming from a fifth who hit out: “On the @netflix 7/7 #attackonlondon doc #KateGarraway… on what was the 2005 version of @GMB asking a bombing victim to explain himself as a Muslim & answer for Islamic extremists… I do hope there’s an apology for that disgrace of an interview.”
And a sixth plainly put: “@kategarraway disgusting… interview of Mustafa Kurtuldu after the London attacks is infuriating.” (sic)
GBNews.com has contacted Garraway’s representatives for comment on the backlash.