Why are comments disabled for the Rushie stabbing story on BBC?

I would suspect because of risk of anti-islamic sentiment.

It's my understanding that many news outlets that still allow comments often choose to suppress them whenever they feel the story would promote the wrong kind of comments.

I read the BBC news website frequently and I can't recall that comments are ever a feature for any story. Can you show me an example that does allow comments? Here's the current Rushdie page https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62528689 and here's another un-contentious story also, at least for me, with no comments https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62517372 .

Comments are a liability for most news organisations: they're generally low quality and give visibility more to those who care a great deal than those with something interesting to say.

This goes double for the UK, where we have stricter libel laws and a weaker liability shield than s.230 CDA. And treble for a story where the comments are likely to feature more heat than light.

I reckon Mitchell & Webb have a good take on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQnd5ilKx2Y

I was able to pst a comment (then deleted it).