.... Let us be clear about what is going on here: this is Channel 4 simply facilitating Islamic worship. By sounding the adhan, they are fulfilling the function of a muezzin in a mosque. Ralph Lee says: "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."
The objective is clear: it is proselytism.
Amidst all the media coverage and widespread comment this story is attracting, there has been absolutely no religious analysis at all. And it is only in the religio-political realm that the significance of this decision can be understood.
Firstly, let us dismiss the notion that the call to prayer is somehow the the Islamic equivalent of bell-ringing. Church spires with pealing bells are a British cultural manifestation with a thousand years of history, and the sound is theologically neutral. Indeed, it is merely audible symbolism.
But the adhan belongs to quite a different culture: it is an unequivocally insensitive theological declaration with profoundly political implications, and is invasively ‘in-your-face’ and ‘down-your-throat’ (or whatever the audial equivalent be). It includes the words: [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more
