Channel 4 is to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer every day for a month during the Islamic festival of Ramadan.
In what the station called an act of “deliberate provocation”, it will play the “adhan” chant to mark the start of the day’s fasting from next Tuesday.
Broadcasting the prayer, which will be heard for three minutes from 3am, has raised concerns over religious tensions following the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby last month.
Yesterday a Ukip spokesman said: “The channel knows people will be angered by this and it can’t be good for community relations.
“Religious Muslims do not need a TV broadcast to remind them to fast.”
Ralph Lee, Channel 4’s head of factual programming, said: “Observing the adhan on Channel 4 will act as a nationwide tannoy system, a deliberate provocation, to all our viewers in the very real sense of the word.”