Islamic Training

BBC Radio 4's "Crossing Continents" series has a programme on State Training For Europe's Imams, in which its presenter, Tim Whewell, visits Islamic communities in Ireland, the Netherlands and France with a view to investigating the practicalities of state intervention by European governments in the promulgation and teaching of Islam in Europe.

I found the general tone of the programme quite strange: while exploring regions of intolerance, hatred and religious bigotry that make little pretence at concealing themselves, Whewell adopted the same quiet and reverent tone that used to characterize his investigations of Yeltsin's Russia - the facts and statements being unearthed might strike even a casual listener as being so appalling as to make comment almost superfluous, yet the tone of the presenter's commentary persists in a kind of calm, easy-going yet respectful acceptance that makes one wonder if he is really serious - confirmation of the latter being upheld only in the last result by the programme's "serious" focus on issues of extreme social and political concern. For some fairly extended portions of the 30 minute documentary in which he is present at Islamic religious events, Whewell speaks his commentary in a hushed voice, meant to inspire the listener with the same kind of reverence that might be felt, for example, at a Roman Catholic service. This parallelism is extended to the discussion of the issues: when Miriam Sterk, a legislator from the Dutch Christian Democrat Party, says she thinks that the Dutch government needs to have some say in the training of imams, Whewell responds with the "objection" that the Vatican would be outraged were the Dutch government to demand a similar intervention in the training of Roman Catholic clerics - surely this is religious discrimination? Sterk's riposte - that it is Islam, not Roman Catholicism, that's causing the problems to Dutch society - is left hanging in the air, unanswered, and apparently unaccepted.

Some trenchant points do come across quite clearly in the programme: as, for example, when Aihan Tunja, a Turkish Muslim leader, makes it plain that imams trained in West European countries can by no means be relied upon to be more "moderate" than thpse trained in Saudi Arabia or other Arab countries. And perhaps the most graphic moment of all - and one where radio really comes into its own - is when we hear a supporter of Tariq Ramadan warming up a crowd in Marseilles with an Islamic prayer sung to the melody of the Internationale...

I think that the BBC does deserve some credit for bringing these issues to the attention of its listeners. But it's the attitude, the manner in which the material is presented that seems more than slightly odd - as though the programme were saying: "Yes, we know that this is a serious crisis, and these extremists pose a real threat to Western values and the political stability of our countries, but this is the BBC, and we must always bear in mind that not only does the opposing viewpoint deserve an airing - it is very possibly correct and justified in the terms of its own cultural background, and it's us Europeans who are failing to get the point."

Or something of that sort. Incidentally, the programme can be heard worldwide on RealPlayer at this URL.