Ummah Channel
| Ummah Channel | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 12 August 2009[1] |
| Language | Urdu, Gujarati, Bengali |
| Broadcast area | Studio |
| Replaced | 9X |
| Sister channel(s) | Muslim Ummah |
| Website | Official website |
Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| Sky | Channel 820 |
| Eutelsat 28A | 11222 H 27500 2/3 |
Ummah Channel is an Islamic TV Channel based in the United Kingdom. In 11 November 2015 Ummah Channel have brought Muslim Ummah TV Channel.
Channels
Maria TV
Maria TV launched on 19 July 2012 on the first day of Ramadan. The channel’s name comes from Maria al-Qibtiyya, an enslaved Coptic Christian from Egypt who became one of the wives of the prophet Muhammad.[2] According to Islam Ahmed Abdallah, Chief Executive of Ummah TV, says the name represents "transferring from slavery to freedom, from Christianity to Islam."[3] The channel features only women who wear the niqab, including those who work behind the camera. Men are not allowed to work for the channel or call into its shows.[4]
The channel does not want to impose the niqab on female viewers; rather it wants to stress that women who are fully veiled can still succeed in a professional work environment. Several women who work at the channel previously experienced prejudice against them for wearing the niqab, even in industries other than media, and they want to demonstrate that they can convey emotion and messages on television without displaying their bodies.[5]
Maria TV airs for 6 hours each day and shows programming about beauty, medicine, marriage, satire, and more.[6] It also shows programming to educate Muslim women about their religion and Sunna practices of the Prophet Muhammad.[7]
Criticism
In 2010, in the wake of the May 2010 attacks on two Ahmadiyya mosques in Lahore, Pakistan, members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community living in the UK were threatened and intimidated. In October 2010 Ofcom criticised the UK-based Ummah Channel for broadcasting three interactive television programmes before and after the Lahore massacre of Ahmadi Muslims in May 2010, in which religious leaders and callers alike said that Ahmadis should be killed. These programmes were repeated several times. Ofcom stated that the programme's abusive treatment of the religious views and beliefs of members of the Ahmadiyya community breached UK broadcasting regulations.[8]
In September 2011, Ahmed Abdallah, the owner of Maria TV, and his son and the channel's chief executive, Islam, burned a copy of the Bible during a protest in Cairo.[9]
References
- ↑ "Ummah Channel replaces 9X on Sky EPG". Biz Asia. 12 August 2009.
- ↑ Schull, Henry (3 October 2012). "Egypt’s Maria TV pitches strict vision of Islam". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
- ↑ Schull, Henry (3 October 2012). "Egypt’s Maria TV pitches strict vision of Islam". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
- ↑ Mail Foreign Service (20 July 2012). "TV studio in Egypt staffed exclusively by veiled women". Daily Mail. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ↑ Hesham, Heba (31 July 2012). "Maria TV: Exclusive for niqab". The Egypt Monocle.
- ↑ Batrawy, Aya (24 July 2012). "Islamic TV: Egyptian Channel, Maria TV, Caters To Fully Veiled Women". Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ↑ Ahram Online (5 July 2012). "New Egyptian TV channel to only feature fully face-veiled women". Ahram Online. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ↑ Taylor, Jerome (21 October 2010). "Hardliners call for deaths of Surrey Muslims". The Independent. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
- ↑ Schull, Henry (3 October 2012). "Egypt’s Maria TV pitches strict vision of Islam". Washington Post. Retrieved 27 May 2013.