Islam Documentary on U.K.'s Channel 4 Draws Complaints

LONDON - A controversial TV documentary about the origins of Islam on Britain's Channel 4 has drawn about 1,200 complaints within a week of its broadcast last week.

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Islam: The Untold Story from historian Tom Holland argued that there was little contemporary evidence about the Prophet Mohammed, among other things.

Around 1,000 complaints have directly reached Channel 4, while about 200 people have filed complaints with U.K. media regulator Ofcom, the Independent reported.

The portrayal of Islam has been a hot-button issue in the British TV industry as of late. Last week, new BBC comedy Citizen Khan about a British-Pakistani family also drew complaints, with some viewers saying the first episode used Muslim stereotypes and insulted Islam.

Criticism about some points made in the Channel 4 Islam documentary was expressed on Twitter. "This fool Tom Holland who made this program also created a book about Islam saying it was a religion made up by people over the years," one viewer tweeted after the airing.

"This history program was commissioned as part of Channel 4's remit to support and stimulate well-informed debate on a wide range of issues by providing access to information and perspectives from around the world and by challenging established views," Channel 4 said in a statement.

Holland also defended the documentary. On the Channel 4 web site, he wrote: "We were, of course, aware when making the program that we were touching deeply-held sensitivities and went to every effort to ensure that the moral and civilizational power of Islam was acknowledged in our film, and the perspective of Muslim faith represented."

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai