Songs of Displeasure

So the answer to the question, 'Who exactly at the BBC decided to broadcast parts of Songs of Praise from the illegal migrant camp in Calais?, turns out to be the BBC's head of religion Aaqil Ahmed. 

He's written a blogpost defending his decision. In it, Mr Ahmed describes how he himself first thought up the idea and reveals that he himself also went to the camp on behalf of Songs of Praise.

His blogpost, however, appears to be proving almost as controversial as the original decision - at least if some of the this morning's newspaper headlines are anything to go by:

Here's the bit where Aaqil Ahmed compares the Calais migrants to the flight of Joseph, Mary and Jesus from King Herod:

In churches up and down the country the subject is an important one.  For centuries Christians have related to the vivid image of the Holy family becoming refugees themselves when Joseph, Mary and their baby son had to flee persecution from King Herod and escape to Egypt. The Gospels themselves are full of stories and teachings of Jesus to help those in need, to find the dispossessed and vulnerable and to love your neighbour as yourself, whether that’s close to home or in a global context. There is also another powerful concept in Christian thought that comes from the occasion when Jesus said to his followers that when two or three were gathered in his name, he would be among them. The knowledge that the migrants had built a makeshift Church is exactly the kind of action that Christian communities everywhere will relate to.

There will be two items on tomorrow's Songs of Praise about it, according to Mr Ahmed. The first will focus on the make-shift church, talking to a priest and one of his fellow Christian migrants. The second will involve interviews with Christian volunteers from the UK and France. 

The BBC head of religion insists none of this will be political:

The programme is looking at how people express their faith, it is not a political statement on the situation or a judgement on migration, and to suggest so is wrong. Songs of Praise is simply reflecting the conversations going on in many churches and Christian households around the country. 

The dialogue in that Church was one of faith - not politics; and that's why a show like Songs of Praise is still important.

Presumably, therefore, the initial rumours that Giles Fraser was scheduled to feature on the programme were untrue, given that Giles's presence (and likely statements) would automatically disprove Aaqil Ahmed's point. (Aaqil doesn't mention him in his post).

However, if the first item only shows a couple of benign Christians (in what most reports portray as a predominantly Muslim camp), perhaps telling their tales of suffering and the second items features nothing but Christian volunteers describing how right it is to help these people in need (i.e. with no counterbalancing Christian voices suggesting that tougher action is needed), then it's surely very hard not to see the programme as making a political intervention.