Channel Four and Islam

Fr Tim Finigan writes:

Fr Ray Blake has posted Eheu! Channel 4 about a documentary showing this evening on Channel 4 that seeks to show that St Peter did not die in Rome but in Palestine. Clerical Whispers has an article about the programme which was first shown at Easter (The Secrets of the 12 Disciples). It is a sort of Dan Brown style conspiracy theory which finds secret codes in the Bible to show that various Catholic traditions are nefarious invention. It also claims that St Peter was buried in Palestine and that the evidence for his burial in Rome is worthless.

Fr Ray has also published an email pointing out that:

The Commissioning Editor for religious broadcasting at Channel 4 is Aaquil Ahmed, a Muslim. I have long noticed that the only coverage Christianity gets on Channel 4 is in the form of programmes that seeks to undermine the authority of the Church,our traditions and our scripture. Religious programmes concerning Islam (Dispatches does not come into this category) are always propaganda for Islam.

Examples of the latter:

Shariah TV, a series of discussions between young Muslims and experts on Islamic affairs.

"Muslims have brought a wealth of cultural and religious traditions to Britain, and are finding new and creative ways to..."

Osama Loves where Farrah and Masood search for 500 people called Osama. Farrah says:

"Meeting Muslims from cultural backgrounds hugely different from my own has reconnected me with some of the more beautiful and unifying aspects of the faith itself."

Compare the website's summaries of Christianity and Islam.

Samples from the Christianity page:

Attempts to enforce obedience to the Roman Catholic church became increasingly aggressive, particularly in Spain, where the Inquisition tortured 'heretics' into submission. In many countries Protestants were persecuted and driven out.

(C4 tends to go for Catholics and Evangelicals mainly.)

Christians believe in a single god who encompasses three elements, known as the Holy Trinity:

(Oh just scribble down anything - it's a nonsense belief anyway.)

Samples from the Islam page:

Born in 570AD in Mecca, in the country now called Saudi Arabia, at the age of 40, Muhammed had visions in which the Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) taught him to recite the teachings of the one true god, Allah. The words were recorded as the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book.

(This is given in the "history" section, not the "beliefs" section.)

For Muslims, faith and action are interwoven – religion is a way of life
(Just "for Muslims"?)

And finally - take a look at The Hajj "Hajj is finished but not forgotton in the hearts of millions... Watch our exclusive video from Mecca... Take the Virtual Hajj. It's the closest thing to being there."

My point in posting all this is not to denigrate Islam but rather to draw attention to the kind of treatment that can be given to Religion and how far it is from the customary treatment given to beliefs and practices that are sacred to Christians.

Imagine if coverage of the World Youth Day included a special series that showed how "Meeting Christians from cultural backgrounds hugely different from my own has reconnected me with some of the more beautiful and unifying aspects of the faith itself."

Fr Ray Blake adds:

The Commissioning Editor for religious broadcasting at Channel 4 is Aaquil Ahmed, a Muslim. I have long noticed that the only coverage Christianity gets on Channel 4 is in the form of programmes that seeks to undermine the authority of the Church,our traditions and our scripture. Religious programmes concerning Islam (Dispatches does not come into this category) are always propaganda for Islam.I can't access the Channel 4 webpages at the moment, but the last time I looked the pages about Christianity described Christian teachings under the heading "Belief" in the terms of "Christians believe that..." and Islamic claims came under "History" eg that the Koran was received by Mohammed through an angel. I don't know what we can do about this.

Can anyone else?