Aaqil Ahmed the BBC’s head of religion has accused the Church of England of “living in the past” and said that the corporation should not give Christianity preferential treatment.
The BBC nailed its colours to the mast when it appointed a Muslim head of religion (Aaqil Ahmed) last year and caused much disquiet in some quarters of the Christian world. This move was perceived by some Christians to be a ‘slap in the face’ and to be frank it was never going to be an easy road.
Aaqil Ahmed moved from Channel 4, where he caused some controversy as their ‘head of religion’ and was accused of a pro-Islamic bias.
Interestingly it was only last November that Aaqil Ahmed stated that, “Christianity is still the BBC schedule’s cornerstone”. How things can change in such a short period of time.
Aaqil Ahmed, a controversial executive whose appointment last year prompted more than 100 complaints, said: “I think all the faiths should be treated in the same way. I don’t believe in treating any faith differently.”
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Mr Ahmed’s comment that Christianity should not receive preferential treatment comes despite nearly three-quarters of the population describing themselves as Christian in the last census.
Now we all know that the census is rubbish and the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the UK population are not Christian and that Christians are now a tiny minority group in this country.
Aaqil Ahmed’s comments relating to the Church of England ‘living in the past’ are accurate and I find it extraordinary that there will be a debate at the General Synod, the Church’s parliament, over the BBC’s treatment of Christianity. The Church of England is lamenting a loss of a privileged status in the UK more than anything else and is still trying to come to terms with this reality.
The BBC has to cater for a plethora of diversity and sadly Christianity is just one very small part of that diversity in the UK today.
The Biased BBC blog has quite a scathing comment on all of this and they do bring up a salient point, relating to the fact that no matter what direction the BBC take, we are still legally obliged to fund it and this is the real issue.
As for me, I rather enjoyed ‘A History of Christianity’, which was presented by the Oxford historian Diarmuid McCulloch and was commissioned by Aaqil Ahmed.
UPDATE
L Grove – Aaqil Ahmed did not commission BBC FOUR’s A History of Christianity. The series was already in post production when Mr Ahmed was appointed Head of Religion & Ethics at the BBC. A History of Christianity was commissioned by Adam Kemp the BBC’s commissioning editor for Arts, Religion and Music in 2008.
Cranmer has now commented on this and also Jihad Watch, amongst others.
If you have stumbled onto this blog and are not a Christian, get yourself a hot drink, pull up a comfy chair and then tuck into the following article written by one of the best in the business:- All Of Grace by Charles Spurgeon
Tags: Christianity, Media
February 7th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Forgive the pedantry. Aaqil Ahmed did not commission BBC FOUR’s A History of Christianity. The series was already in post production when Mr Ahmed was appointed Head of Religion & Ethics at the BBC. A History of Christianity was commissioned by Adam Kemp the BBC’s commissioning editor for Arts, Religion and Music in 2008.
February 7th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Hi L Grove,
That’s not pedantry, but highly informative, thanks for the clarification.
February 7th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Most gracious of you Webmaster. I thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a lot from A History of Christianity and found Diarmaid MacCulloch an excellent guide. Surprisingly this was his first foray into television.