Aaqil Ahmed, head of BBC\u2019s religion and ethics department, has filed a report with the company\u2019s director general, Lord Hall, describing the imbalance in the BBC\u2019s religious output, The Sunday Times reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristianity remains the cornerstone of our output and there are more hours dedicated to it than there are to other faiths,<\/em>\u201d Ahmed told the daily, adding that the output in this area is not static and that Muslim, Hindu and Sikh programming should be increased.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe do look at the number of hours we produce, and measure that against the religious make-up of society. We also carry out checks to give us a better understanding of how we represent the different faiths across the various BBC channels and services.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n The religious makeup he mentions has changed substantially in the past decade, with the number of Muslims, for instance, hitting the three million milestone for the first time in January this year. The religious minority represents one in 20 people across the country, according to an analysis<\/a>\u00a0by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which also found that in some parts of London nearly half the population is now Muslim.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taking these figures into account, it should not have come as a surprise that the newly elected mayor of the UK capital is also Muslim. Sadiq Khan, a Labour MP of British-Pakistani origin gained 57 percent of the vote on May 6, becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city.<\/p>\n The BBC\u2019s religion department head is also Muslim. Ahmed moved to the corporation from Channel Four, where he apparently impressed his current employers with his series\u2019 on Christianity and Islam. Controversies, however, surrounded his appointment due to allegations that he had displayed pro-Islam bias and had been \u201ctrivializing religion<\/em>\u201d in his previous position, the Telegraph reported <\/a>at the time.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Ahmed\u2019s report is now being considered by Lord Hall, who is to decide how to deal with the apparently problematic findings.<\/p>\n Some religious figures have already commented on the possible changes to BBC content, with Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, saying the prospect of increased coverage of other faiths might be considered insulting for Britain\u2019s historic religion.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think our liberal establishment appreciates what Christianity has done for the nation, and how much of a bedrock it is for democracy and the values we believe in.<\/em><\/p>\n There is a real feeling by Christians of being let down by the Establishment. Christianity is fighting for its life in Western countries,<\/em>\u201d Lord Carey has said, as quoted <\/a>by The Sunday Times.<\/p>\n Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, was more enthusiastic, suggesting the broadcaster might televise Friday prayers from mosques and cover Eid, a holiday similar to Christian Easter, as it does with Christian holidays. He noted, however, that \u201cwe [Muslims] would not wish Christians to have any less exposure<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, asked about the impact the findings could have on the amount of Christian programs, a BBC spokesman said it was too early to tell.<\/p>\n \u201cWe […] are actually intending to do more programming around Christianity and more on other faiths as well, so there is absolutely no question of an ‘either or’ on our output,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he stressed.<\/p>\n BBC\u2019s televised religion obviously amounts<\/a>\u00a0to mostly Christian content, including the flagship Songs of Praise, Sunday Morning Live and Thought for the Day on Radio Four\u2019s Today program. An edition of Songs of Praise was even filmed at The Jungle, a migrant camp in the French port-town of Calais, where thousands of asylum seekers, mostly Muslim, wait for a chance to find a permanent home in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An internal review within the BBC has concluded that the network is too Christian in terms of its religious output and should diversify in order to fit \u2018the religious make-up\u2019 of British society, in which the number of Muslims has doubled in the past decade. Aaqil Ahmed, head of BBC\u2019s religion and ethics department, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-243752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"Sadiq](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.05\/thumbnail\/572cbdc6c36188cc738b45d1.jpg\")
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n
\n ![\"Britain's](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.05\/thumbnail\/5734594ac3618870738b457c.jpg\")
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n