London: Channel 4 is to air the Muslim call to prayer live every morning during the month of Ramadan.
The broadcaster said it was an act of “deliberate provocation” aimed at viewers who might associate Islam with extremism.
The headline-grabbing move will see Channel 4 broadcast the three-minute call to prayer at about 3am for 30 days from the start of Ramadan on July 9.
In addition, on the first day of Ramadan, Channel 4 will interrupt programming four times during the day — to mark subsequent calls to prayer — with a 20-second film to remind viewers of the approaching prayer time.
After that date, the channel will air the 3am call to prayer on live TV, while the other four prayer times will be broadcast on its website.
Ralph Lee, Channel 4’s head of factual programming, said: “The calls to prayer prompt Muslims to carry out quiet moments of worship, but hopefully they’ll also make other viewers sit up and notice that this event is taking place.
“Observing the adhan on Channel 4 will act as a nationwide tannoy system, a deliberate ‘provocation’ to all our viewers in the very real sense of the word.”
Defending the decision to broadcast the prayer, Ralph Lee, the broadcaster’s head of factual programming, said that 2.8 million Britons will fast for the month of Ramadan starting next week. The move was part of plans to appeal to young Muslims.
Lee said he expected the channel to receive criticism for doing so, but added: “Nearly five per cent of the country will actively engage in Ramadan this month; can we say the same of other national events that have received blanket coverage on television, such as the Queen’s coronation anniversary?”
The BBC’s broadcast of the coronation anniversary service in Westminster Abbey on June 4 had 1.15 million viewers.
Lee said Ramadan was “carried out every year, by increasing numbers of committed Muslims, yet the vast majority of people in Britain won’t even be aware of its existence. Not surprising when you consider its near invisibility on mainstream TV”.
He added: “Contrast this with the way most Muslims are represented on television: nearly always appearing in contexts related to extremism or terrorism.
“Even when moderate Muslims do appear, it’s often only to provide a counterpoint to these issues. Following the horrific events in Woolwich and subsequent reprisals against British Muslims, there has surely never been a more pressing need to give a voice to the moderate mainstream majority.”
The call to prayer will be recorded by Hassen Rasool, a muezzin, or person appointed to lead the prayer, and broadcast every morning at the same time as mosques around London make theirs.
Writing in the Radio Times, Lee said: “No doubt Channel 4 will be criticised for focusing attention on a ‘minority’ religion but that’s what we’re here to do: provide space for the alternative and a voice to the under–represented. Let’s not forget that Islam is one of the few religions that’s flourishing in the UK.”
