Friday prayers on the BBC?

Daily Express headline

Back in May the Sunday Times, under the headline BBC says it is too Christian and must diversify, reported that Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC’s (Muslim) head of religion and ethics, had written a report for Lord Hall "that would answer criticisms from non-Christian faiths that they were underserved". 

In that article, Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, was reported as saying that the BBC might televise Friday prayers from a mosque, cover Eid and show children attending madrasahs after school for Koranic instruction.

Fast forward to today and the Times, under the headline BBC revamp will counter Christian ‘bias’, is reporting that Lord Hall is now acting on Mr Ahmed's internal report and that the BBC will, indeed, diversify its religious output in the interests of multiculturalism:

The BBC will increase its coverage of more religions and could broadcast Friday prayers after complaints that it was too Christian, The Times has learnt.

Ibrahim and Justin

That article quotes Shaykh Ibrahim of the MCB again:

Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that the BBC could televise Friday prayers from a mosque, cover Eid, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, or children attending Koranic lessons.

I'm still not sure, even after reading all the articles about it, whether the Friday prayers call actually derives from a BBC source or whether it's merely the newspapers hyping the MCB's wishful thinking for the sake of a dramatic angle/headline...

...but, regardless of that, the direction of travel at the BBC has been very clear for some time. 

The journey is now well underway and the accelerator is being applied ever more strongly. 

And I suspect that Shaykh Ibrahim's prayers will be answered and that Muslim Friday prayers will be broadcast by the BBC in the not too distant future.