Posted on 05/12/2009 9:21:05 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Aaqil Ahmed, the innovative and interesting programmer responsible for Channel 4's recent Christianity: A History series, has been appointed the first Muslim head of religion at the BBC, as we report today.
The Church of England could have been a little warmer in its welcome. The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, said: 'The Church of England takes a close interest in the way Christianity, and other faiths, are portrayed by the BBC across all its programming. We are also interested in its specifically religious output, in light of this country's Judeo-Christian heritage. It is the quality and quantity of that output that matters. Changes to the structure and personnel of the Religion and Ethics department will clearly impact religious output across the Corporation and the BBC has assured us the effect will be to strengthen that output. We very much hope this is the case, and will be monitoring the situation closely.'
In contrast to the Anglican clergyman who heads religion over at The Daily Telegraph, I want to say publicly what a fantastic appointment this is. When I hear of a religious programme coming up on the BBC, this appointment means I will no longer reach immediately for the 'off' button on my television and wireles and switch to Classic FM.
For why, read Aaqil's own blog on his Christianity series.You can also watch his own response to criticisms on YouTube.
So why, apart from the fact that he is handsome, should we welcome him? Archbishop Cranmer has it about right:
'The marginalisation of the state religion has been systemic and inexorable. It is not only that ‘Jerry Springer - the Opera’ was broadcast on their watch, but a Sikh was appointed to produce ‘Songs of Praise’, minority faiths are treated more respectfully than that of the majority, an atheist has been appointed to the board which oversees religious output, and the Church of England has been sidelined to the point of irrelevance.
'The corporation has been guilty of religious cleansing on a scale comparable with that of the Balkans. The BBC’s spiritual war machine has reduced Christianity to a harmless and toothless myth which can do nothing but suck at the pervasive ecumenical pantheism which genuflects ever so slightly to Islam. Under ‘Christian’ leadership, the BBC has become a secular humanist organisation which now propagates its own objective worldview through its own biased history and its own version of truth. It has a self-styled mission to inculcate the ignorant masses with the Gaia spirituality of the New Age, and it has embraced the pseudo-gospel of environmentalism to that end.
'If religious broadcasting under ‘Christians’ has become such a secular joke, why should a Muslim not be given a chance to redeem the situation? He might even prove to be more respectful of Christianity, the Bible and Jesus than the ‘Christians’ have hitherto been. He might feel compelled to make some hard-hitting programmes about the Islamic world – the treatment of Muslim women, the persecution of non-Muslims, the human rights breaches, the destruction of churches, the cleansing of Christians from Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Israel...'
A while ago I blogged the programme he made with Howard Jacobson. Another one in the Christianity series was presented by Cherie Blair. On Cherie's own blog he writes: 'Two examples of Christianity's impact on our modern world are the Reformation and the Crusades. Without the Reformation we may not have become a Protestant nation with many of the characteristics, language and structures we take for granted today. And the Crusades? One of our presenters, Rageh Omar, argues in his film that we've forgotten its importance in the west, but that in the Muslim world, the brutality of the Crusades still resonates in the hearts of many Muslims and in the rhetoric of Al Qaeda.
'So, Christianity: A History is not just another television series - for me it's more important than that, it's a lesson about today's world and an attempt to shed light on the history of a faith that continues to shape the destiny of all of us in some way or other. We hope it does that and that it makes just a few of us think about how we got to where we are today.'
He also commissioned a well-received series on the Koran.
Good for the BBC in having the courage to go against decades of broadcast tradition and give us all something stimulatin to think about. We can rely on Aaqil Ahmed to do the same.
And the Crusades? One of our presenters, Rageh Omar, argues in his film that we've forgotten its importance in the west, but that in the Muslim world, the brutality of the Crusades still resonates in the hearts of many Muslims and in the rhetoric of Al Qaeda.
muslims tried to overrun Europe in an orgy of conquest. Christians fought back and kicked some muslim butt. Boo-hoo for muslims...not.
Britain is lost...
When are the British soccer rowdies going to say, “enough is enough”?
Will Britain finally have the last laugh in a war lost long ago?
All the stories have been told
Of kings and days of old,
But there’s no England now.
All the wars that were won and lost
Somehow don’t seem to matter very much anymore.
“Aaqil Ahmed, the innovative and interesting programmer responsible for Channel 4’s recent Christianity: A History series, has been appointed the first Muslim head of religion at the BBC, as we report today.”
Well, the BBC is just trying to be “sensitive” to the majority religion in formerly Great Britain. The same kind of “sensitivity” to Jacqui Smith’s attempts to banish Michael Savage.
It’s a very sad day for this once Christian nation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.