I have to say, i like Melvyn Bragg, in fact, i have always found him to be a very honest and likable person and his shows can be very informative. So when was i reminded, in a spate of text messages (that i am sure was played across every Muslim household across the UK) that a programme about Jesus (as) was to be aired by Melvyn Bragg..and that Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, amongst others, would be speaking on, i got very excited. Not least because finally we were going to get someone with knowledge on television speaking about Islam sensibly rather than some puppet Muslim who utters the kind of rubbish we are so accustomed to listening to on TV.
I tuned in (i must admit to sending a few text messages myself) and i really enjoyed it, i felt that they could have expanded on a few of the issues raised though, for example, they could have gone into much more detail about the second coming Of Jesus Christ (as) as this is an event that is so important to both Christians and Muslims. What we got was a glossing over of information about the second coming and so we never really got stuck into the ‘nitty gritty’ of it, unfortunately.
It was the first time i was watching something on TV that was presenting the Muslim understanding of things and i hope…i really hope it wont be the last.
It was also good in the sense that the issues that fundamentally divide Christians and Muslims were raised too. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf said:
“In the Christian narrative the most central and fundamental point of Christianity is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ but Islam basically denies that. The Qur’an states that it was made to appear that Jesus was crucified as when the Romans captured Jesus God organised a rescue operation.”
and that really did say it all as it is this issue alone that divides these two religions.
Melvyn Bragg interviewed a couple of Christians about the Qur’an stories and the stories of the hadith regarding Prophet Jesus (as) and i was not surprised to hear them refer to it as fairy tales and made up stories from the periods after Prophet Jesus (as). However, i was very surprised to hear them go down the route of authenticity in their defense of the Bible narrative. They claimed that the bible is rigorously authentic…which is absolute nonsense - Christianity does not have sanad which establishes authenticity for their Bilble like the Muslims do for the Hadith or the Jews did (at some point in their history) for the Torah - the Christians have actually no idea at all who wrote the Bible and who witnessed what event and moreover, they use a translation of a translation, of a translation, of a translation, of a translation, of a translation that was made many many years after the time of Prophet Jesus (as). The authenticity of the Bible passages are in total question…as apposed to the Hadiths where Muslims themselves have imposed the tightest and most rigorous quality and authenticity tests…
..anyway i digress..
Obviously, we are going to get uneducated idiot apostates like Patrick Sookhdeo, an Anglican canon, who said of the program: “How would the Muslim community respond if ITV made a program challenging Muhammad as the last prophet?” and we are going to get Christians, in retaliation, insulting Prophet Muhammad 
like they love to do.
But those of us, Christian or Muslim should be happy that we finally had some honest television about Islam and Christianity and the tenants of faith because, let’s be fair; we haven’t had much we could smile about on TV have we?
It could have been better though, i was not 100% happy because i felt that if some of the issues were discussed in more detail the Christians may have realised that they need to actually start to think more about what they believe.
tag: muslim, religion, doctrine, christianity, jesus, isa, Islam, Quran, hadith, melvyn bragg, ITV, the Muslim Jesus
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