Religion and the BBC

I have been looking around the BBC website again, I am a glutton for punishment, and found their religion section. A fascinating place to look for bias...

There is a list of world religions and each has its own section complete with a short introducing/summarising section. Let's have a look at these opening statements:

Christianity - "Christianity is the world's biggest religion, with about 2.1 billion followers worldwide. It is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ who lived in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago."

Hinduism - "Hinduism originated over 3000 years ago. Hinduism claims to have many founders, teachers and prophets who claim first hand experience of God."

Islam - "Islam began in Arabia and was revealed to humanity by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Those who follow Islam are called Muslims."

Judaism - "Jews believe that God appointed the Jews to be his chosen people in order to set an example of holiness and ethical behaviour to the world."

Sikhism - "Sikhism was founded in the Punjab by Guru Nanak and is a monotheistic religion."

There are other religions listed and detailed on the website but I have stuck to what I believe are the most relevant to the UK.

Let's compare the above sections, starting with Judaism and Islam. The statement on Islam is presented as fact, "and was revealed to humanity by the Prophet...", and the Prophet Muhammad is also a fact as he is given a capital 'P', also there is the "peace be upon him" which follows the usage of the Prophet Muhammad, a convention of Islam. Let's look at the section on Judaism, "Jews believe...", not a fact and the subtext is "Jews believe, but we know better", the rest of the opening section looks at one part of Judaism, nit even the main tenet and one that presents Judaism as a more self-righteous religion than it is "his chosen people...".
Maybe explaining that Judaism is a monotheistic religion might be a start, it was after all the first monotheistic religion. Jews never write the name of God, whether in Hebrew or any other language, in English the convention is to write G-d, the BBC ignore this convention whilst accepting the Islamic convention regarding following every mention of the Prophet Muhammad with the phrase "peace be upon him". I am not offended by either approach, following the religious sensibilities of the religion being explained makes sense and is respectful, but ignoring both makes a sort of sense as well.

Let's take a look at the section on Christianity, Jesus Christ is not described as the Messiah or the son of God. Sikhism is described as monotheistic unlike the others apart from Islam.

Interestingly, one other religion does mention the word prophet in the summary, that is for Zoroastrianism - "Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions. It was founded by the prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran approximately 3500 years ago." Poor Zoroaster is just the "prophet", whilst Muhammad is the "Prophet".

There is also the subject of the geographical source of the religion. Christianity comes from the "Holy Land", Islam from "Arabia", Hinduism from no stated place in the summary but "India" on the front page for all religions, Sikhism from the "Punjab", Zoroastrianism from "ancient Iran" and Judaism from ... no place mentioned. Does anyone else see an agenda rearing its head here?

The BBC really should take a look at the words they use or don't use when "explaining" religions to us. This site is meant as a resource, not a propaganda tool.


I have just seen the forums for each religion, I feel I may be posting about them soon...