TV station to broadcast Muslim call to prayer

by: Bob Unruh 

An announcement by a television station in the United Kingdom that it will broadcast the Muslim call to prayer daily during the month-long religious observation called Ramadan has sparked concerns by those who point out that the nation’s constitution recognizes God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and “in any other age” the action “would have been regarded as treason.”
The announcement comes from Channel 4, which, according to spokesman Ralph Lee, is responding to factors that are pressing in society.

“Following the horrific events in Woolwich [where a British soldier was beheaded by two Islamists] and the subsequent reprisals against British Muslims, there has surely never been a more pressing need to give a voice to the moderate mainstream majority,” he said.
But that’s not what is happening, according to a statement from Christian Voice, a ministry for Christians “who are fed up with the way things are, who have had enough of secularist politicians imposing wickedness on the rest of us and who are not satisfied with trying to get ‘Christian influence in a secular world.’”
“It would be more honest to say: ‘Following the atrocity in Woolwich, it’s a good time to shove Islam down ordinary people’s throats and whip up anti-Islamic sentiment,” blogger Stephen Green said in a posting on the Christian Voice site.
According to Channel 4, it will become the first mainstream British TV channel to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer live each morning throughout Ramadan.

“The call to prayer will be preceded by a short film, Ramadan Reflections, featuring a range of voices, from imams to architects, feminists to a former rock chick, each providing some serious Ramadan food for thought,” the station said.
The television station said, “The atmospheric and evocative three-minute call to prayer (adhan) will be beamed live each morning on television to mark the start of the day’s fast for Muslims. Programs in the schedule will be cut to accommodate the adhan, as it has to be broadcast at the correct time each day.”
The feature also will be online, “where the video of the call to prayer will automatically play, not just in the morning, but throughout the day, observing each adhan throughout Ramadan at the times set out by the unified prayer timetable.”
“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,” said Lee.
Wrote Green, “The adhan is there to drum the tenets of Islam into the hearts. This is because the adhan sums up the shahada, the statement of faith: ‘There is no god but Allah, and Mohammad is the messenger of Allah.’”

He continued, “The British Constitution holds that there is no God but the Almighty God and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords. So every day during this Islamic festival, a terrestrial broadcaster in the UK will be broadcasting what in any other age would have been regarded as treason.”
He added, “There is another spiritual point to make, and it is to do with the power of proclamation, or confession. Five times a day from mosques all over the world, an imam declares that Allah is the only deity and Mohammad the only true prophet. We can thank God that loudspeakers have not to date been permitted in Britain, but nevertheless, the adhan is still being announced.
“Would that Christians would proclaim with equal confidence; ‘Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,’” he said.
WND has reported that in a March 2007 during an interview with the New York Times’ Nicholas D. Kristof, President Barack Obama talked about the Muslim prayers.
Kristof wrote, “Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as ‘one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.’”