Reports: Allegations against Islam Channel

The Islam Channel has been accused of promoting extremist groups and broadcasting a show backing ‘marital rape’ by a Muslim think-tank in the Daily Mail.

An inquiry by the Islamic think-tank, the Quilliam Foundation found that programmes broadcast on the popular Islam Channel have told women they should not refuse to have sex with their husbands or leave home without their permission.

The channel has regularly acted as a propaganda platform for Hizb ut-Tahrir, the fundamentalist organisation that Tony Blair wanted to ban after the 2005 London bombings. It has also promoted hate preachers, a report said.

The think-tank also claims that the channel is also trying to sow hatred between different Muslim groups by promoting a single strand of hardline theology.

The think-tank has now called on media regulator, Ofcom to investigate the channel’s output.

An Ofcom spokesman said, “This report raises some serious allegations. We will investigate where our rules may have been broken.”

Report author Talal Rajab said; “One programme featured remarks instructing women that ‘the idea that a woman, even if married, can refuse relations with her husband because of individual choice was part of the Western culture.’

It was necessary for ‘maintaining a strong marriage’ that a woman should submit to a man, viewers were told.

Under English law, a husband who forces his wife to have sex is guilty of rape.

Women who wear perfume in public have been labeled prostitutes.”

A spokesman for the Islam Channel, told ANI last night that it “promotes the role of women in society and that is why almost half of those working at Islam Channel are women.”

“We strongly reject all forms of extremism. We condemn unreservedly all forms of violence and the killing of innocent people regardless of their faith and ethnicity.”