UK Islam Channel slammed for advocating domestic violence

The pro-Islamist satellite TV channel breached UK Broadcasting Code by advocating marital rape and calling women who wore perfume "prostitutes."

By JONNY PAUL
islam channel 58 (photo credit: Courtesy)
islam channel 58
(photo credit: Courtesy)
LONDON – British Islamic television channel has been reprimanded by the UK’s media regulator for justifying violence against women, condoning marital rape and for maintaining an anti-Israel and anti- Palestinian Authority bias in its reporting.
Ofcom, the UK’s broadcasting watchdog, ruled this week that the Islam Channel, Britain’s pro-Islamist satellite TV channel, breached the UK Broadcasting Code after presenters on the channel advocated marital rape, justified violence against women and described women who wore perfume as “prostitutes.”
It ruled the channel breached broadcasting standards in five programs between May 2008 and October 2009.
The media regulator’s findings were based on material in a report from counter-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation, titled “Re-Programming British Muslims,” which looked at the Islam Channel’s output and published its findings earlier this year.
The channel was found by the media regulator to have an anti-Israel and anti-Palestinian Authority bias, and a favoritism for Hamas: Ofcom heavily criticized the Islam Channel’s coverage of international affairs, and of the Middle East conflict in particular, for violating rules on impartiality.
The Ummah Talk program, hosted by Azad Ali, who had previously praised the Hamas leadership, was ruled to have “failed to present or seek to explain” the views of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, an outspoken opponent of Hamas.
The Politics and Beyond program – hosted by Anas al-Tikriti, said to be Muslim Brotherhood supporter – was also found guilty of similar violations in relation to the Middle East conflict. The Muslimah Dilemma program, hosted by Nazreen Nawaz, was found to condone marital rape.
The author of the Quilliam report, Talal Rajab, an outreach officer at the London-based foundation, said that Islam Channel’s promotion of “a fringe and intolerant form of Islam at the expense of more mainstream voices risks having a negative affect not only on British Muslim communities, but also on relations between Muslims and non-Muslims.”