“Boycott Channel 4!” “Is this a Muslim country?” “Last one to leave, turn out the lights.”
And that was just me.
Seriously, there have been many knee-jerk reactions — with emphasis on the “jerk” — to the news that Channel 4 is broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer every morning at 3am during Ramadan.
The likes of Anjem Choudary are quoted as saying this is good. Of course he is. AC is the go-to authority these days; moderate Muslims can go to hell.
But Choudary aside, once I had calmed down I asked myself: Will the sky fall down if Channel 4 broadcast a call to prayer for three minutes at 3am?
The call to prayer, the azaan, is led by the imam and lasts roughly a minute. Anyone who has holidayed in a Muslim country such as Turkey or Morocco will have heard it.
It is not being blasted out from British mosques. Just on a mainstream channel in the middle of the night.
Surely the only people awake at that time will be drunks rolling in from a night out? Ironic, huh?
And believe me, no Muslim is going to be tuning in to Channel 4 for the azaan.
We already have a plethora of Islamic channels to guide us during this special month. Some very observant Muslims even refuse to watch any TV during the holy month.
“That’s not the point,” the naysayers cry. “The fabric of Britishness is being eroded. This is a Christian country.”
They said the same things when Channel 4 broadcast an alternative Queen’s Speech featuring a woman in a niqab back in 2006.
People say Muslim countries wouldn’t do the same for Christians — but this isn’t true either.
Go to Muslim countries in the Middle East at Christmas and shops will be decked out in baubles.
Church bells ring across parts of mega-conservative Pakistan every Sunday morning.
Three minutes in the middle of the night hardly signifies a death knell for Britain.
So, do I agree with it? Not at all.
According to Ralph Lee, Channel 4’s head of factual programming, the broadcast is an act of deliberate “provocation”. Ain’t that the truth.
This is the channel that recently aired Dogging Tales and The Man With The 10-Stone Testicles.
And the channel that gave us The Untold Story last August — a documentary pouring scorn on the belief that Muhammad was a prophet of God — prompting 1,200 complaints.
Channel 4 doesn’t worship Islam, it worships controversy.
With the killing of soldier Lee Rigby and a number of retaliatory attacks on mosques across the country, this is the sort of provocation we can all do without.
The world doesn’t need more provocation, it needs more understanding.
And I say: Amen to that.