UK: BBC accused of pro-Muslim bias

[hiputian]

Hindu and Sikh leaders have accused the BBC of pandering to Britain's
Muslim community by making a disproportionate number of programmes on
Islam at the expense of covering other Asian religions.


A breakdown of programming from the BBC's Religion and Ethics
department, seen by The Independent, reveals that since 2001, the BBC
made 41 faith programmes on Islam, compared with just five on Hinduism
and one on Sikhism.


Critics say the disproportionate amount of programming is part of an
apparent bias within the BBC towards Islam since the attacks of 11
September 2001, which has placed an often uncomfortable media
spotlight on Britain's Muslims.


Ashish Joshi, the chairman of the Network of Sikh Organisation's (NSO)
media monitoring group, which obtained the numbers, said many Hindu
and Sikh licence-fee payers felt cheated. "People in our communities
are shocked," he said. "We are licence-fee payers and we want to know
why this has happened. The bias towards Islam at the expense of Hindus
and particularly Sikhs is overwhelming and appears to be a part of BBC
policy."


Indarjit Singh, the editor of the Sikh Messenger and a regular
contributor to BBC Radio4's Thought for the Day, said that the public
broadcaster was focusing too much attention on Islam at the expense of
other religious communities.


"I think it's probably unthinking, or inadvertent, but the bias is
there," he said. "I do know that within the Sikh community especially
there is a feeling of concern over the lack of portrayal of their
religion on television. There is a feeling of being brushed aside."


He added: "The wider community is missing out on what the different
religions have to offer society. Of course it is important to educate
non-Muslims about Islam but it is also important to provide
informative, open and respectful programming on all religions."