Channel 4 is well known for gimmickry. Its latest trick is to have a month-long daily broadcast of the Muslim call to prayer. Does
this cheer you up? Does it make you think what a happy, tolerant,
multi-cultural society Britain has become? Or does Channel 4’s move
nauseate you, as it does me? Does it make you think that new depths of
bad taste have been plumbed?
Why
do I dislike the idea so much? Because I think it is deeply divisive.
Because far from making Muslims feel part of the community, it is
actually using a sacred custom as a cheap device for cocking a snook at
the rest of us.
Deeply divisive: Channel 4's latest trick is to have a month-long daily broadcast of the Muslim call to prayer
Next Tuesday, July 9, is the
first day of Ramadan. It is the month of the year when Muslims fast.
From sunrise to sundown they are not allowed to swallow food.
It
is similar to the Christian season of Lent, in which the faithful are
supposed to focus their thoughts more sharply on God and the things of
the spirit by an ethos of discipline.
There
is nothing wrong with that! And for the 2.8 million Muslims living in
Britain, it is a serious time. Very many of them will be observing the
fast.
For the 60 million
(or so) who are not Muslim, of course, the season would have passed
largely unnoticed were it not for the fact that Channel 4 — gesturing
wildly to remind the rest of us how controversial it is — has decided
that it will broadcast the first call to prayer of the day.
Muslims are, in fact, called to prayer five times a day, every day of the year.
But during Ramadan it is of especial importance for them to observe this discipline.
In
Islamic countries it is customary for a man from the local mosque to go
round an hour before sunrise with a big drum, waking the people and
enabling them to eat breakfast before the day-long fast begins.
Channel
4 is omitting this part of the routine. It is employing the musician
Hassen Rasool to call the faithful to prayer — but only for the first
call, at sunrise.
This alone is quite enough to show us — whether we are Muslim or not — that what Channel 4 is doing is pure tokenism.
Muslims are, in fact, called to prayer five
times a day, every day of the year. But during Ramadan it is of especial
importance for them to observe this discipline
If it were being serious, it
would broadcast all five calls to prayer, interrupting daytime
transmissions of soap operas, cricket matches and news bulletins where
necessary.
Also, as a gesture to Islam, it would refuse to carry advertisements for alcohol during the holy season.
Was Channel 4 asked by any Muslim organisation to broadcast a prayer call? Or did it just do it of its own accord?
Because it is not, of course, really interested in providing a service to Muslims.
It is simply trying to be provocative — and in so doing, it actually insults Muslims.
Ralph
Lee, head of factual programming at Channel 4, has written in the Radio
Times: ‘No doubt Channel 4 will be criticised for focusing attention on
a “minority” religion, but that’s what we’re here to do — provide a
voice to the under-represented.’
Ralph Lee's comparison of the numbers of Britons
who observe Ramadan and those who watched the Queen's coronation
commemoration is cheap and obnoxious
He claims that five per cent of the
population will be observing Ramadan, adding: ‘Can we say the same of
other national events that have received blanket coverage on television
such as the Queen’s coronation anniversary?’
This
cluster of weasel words betrays Channel 4’s real attitude and purpose,
and reveals just how insidious — indeed wicked — it is being in
broadcasting the call to prayer in this way.
First,
we have the claim that Channel 4 will be criticised. That is, he hopes
they will be criticised. He hopes to attract controversy.
And
here I am, gratifying his hope by denouncing him. But I am not
denouncing him for the reasons he so arrogantly dictates. Of course,
like any other decent person in this country, I defend the right of
minorities to follow their faith.
What possible harm could come from a devout man or woman arising before dawn to fast and pray?
But
it is difficult to think of any Muslim needing a TV channel to assist
them in doing this. There are such things as alarm clocks, and in
neighbourhoods near to the mosque, there will be the traditional calls
to prayer.
Ralph Lee’s
comparison of the numbers of Britons who observe Ramadan and those
who watched the Queen’s coronation commemoration is cheap and
obnoxious.
By doing this,
he declares — or heavily implies — that he does not think any Muslims
feel sufficiently British to have had an interest in the Queen’s
coronation. This is a patronising insult to the many British Muslims who
feel as loyal to the Queen as I do.
It
is also a manipulation of statistics. Many British people did not
actually watch TV during the anniversary of the coronation.
I did not, but I count myself to be a loyal subject.
The
fact that we did or did not watch the service on TV does not mean very
much. There are millions upon millions of Britons, deeply loyal to the
Queen and passionately royalist, who happened to be at work or not to
watch this particular TV programme.
Was Channel 4 asked by any Muslim organisation
to broadcast a prayer call? Or did it just do it of its own accord?
Because it is not, of course, really interested in providing a service
to Muslims
It is absurd to suggest on the strength of one statistic that there are more practising Muslims than there are monarchists.
I
have perhaps said enough to indicate that Channel 4 is quite obviously
more interested in attracting attention than they are in supporting a
religious minority.
But it is also so revealing that it has chosen to support this particular minority.
Are
we sure that by broadcasting a call to prayer in this way that it wants
to help Muslims? Or is it — much more likely in my opinion — yet
another case of the liberal establishment, of which Channel 4 is, of
course, the mouthpiece, sticking its fingers in the eye of
Christianity?
In so doing,
by using Islam as a deliberate provocation, it is being socially
divisive and possibly making Muslims a target for extreme
Right-wing vitriol.
Further to that, it is all part of the anti-Christian bias of the intellectual establishment.
Just as with Anjem Choudary, Channel 4 will get
away with another revolting gimmick - dressed up as a serious piece of
programming that caters for minorities
Supposing you went to the head of Channel 4 and said that most church-going Christians in Britain were Roman Catholics.
Could
we please therefore broadcast the Angelus prayer, in which Catholics
commemorate God taking human flesh, just as it is in Ireland?
You can imagine how Channel 4 would respond. It would not even consider it.
Suppose you suggested that, in common with BBC Radio 3, it broadcasts a beautiful choral evensong every week? Forget it.
The
fact that this is still a country in which the huge majority of people,
when questioned, still claim to be some sort of Christian counts for
nothing in the eyes of the secular liberals who control most of our
media.
They will, in fact,
do anything to undermine religion. If that means setting Muslims
against Christians in this essentially subversive gesture, so be it.
They are using a sacred Muslim custom as a weapon, not of religious inclusiveness, but of secularism disguised as friendship.
Channel 4 has done very little to raise public awareness of mainstream Muslim opinion.
It
prefers gestures and controversialism — witness its decision to give
air-time to Anjem Choudary, former head of the banned Islamist
organisation Al Muhajiroun, who refused to denounce the murder of
Drummer Rigby in Woolwich earlier this summer.
A nice quiet imam telling viewers not to forget their prayers would not raise the viewing figures. It wouldn’t be ‘edgy’.
If
I were a Muslim, I would be disgusted that an anti-religious
organisation such as Channel 4 has hijacked my prayers for the purposes
of seeming hip, cool and trendy.
Channel
4 is a public service broadcaster with specific responsibilities to the
taxpayers who own it. If I were a TV regulator, I would stop the
company from proceeding with this divisive and publicity-seeking
gesture.
But then our toothless TV regulators are cut from exactly the same secular liberal cloth as the channel’s producers.
So,
just as with Anjem Choudary, Channel 4 will get away with another
revolting gimmick — dressed up as a serious piece of programming that
caters for minorities.
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