Songs of Praise is to remain Christian despite calls for it to be turned it into a multifaith programme, the BBC’s first Muslim head of religion has pledged. Aaqil Ahmed said that it was vital that religious programming promoted “diversity” but insisted that Songs of Praise would always remain Christian.
Can you say a little about your background, and in particular the way it helped to shape your thinking?
I was born in 1953 and grew up in St John’s Wood in London, with two older sisters and one younger. My father was a doctor who trained as a psychiatrist and then as a psychoanalyst; and my mother also trained as a psychoanalyst, though she gave up work after we came along. I think they would have been described at that time as ‘progressive’ (a word that has since been hijacked and horribly misused by New Labour). My father was a great fan of Bertrand Russell, and they both read a great deal.
At school, I was what most people would call ‘thick’. I failed the entrance exam the first time, and then I failed an internal exam and dropped down a year; and so it went on. Then, when I was 16, my dad said to me: ‘Look, if you carry on like this you are going to have to get a job in the City and become a stockbroker’ (which in our family culture was a bit like saying ‘You’ll become a guard at a concentration camp’). ‘Or’, he said, ‘you can leave school altogether now and go and work on the railways.’
‘Or’, thirdly, ‘you can go to Cambridge. 'Which was a very strange thing to say, given that the occasion for this conversation was the fact that my housemaster had told him it was very unlikely I was going to get more than six or seven O-levels – and they would be very bad grades. As, indeed, was the case.
But strangest thing of all was that, having been given these three options, I just said, ‘OK, I’ll go to Cambridge.’ I suddenly started working flat out, and have really been working flat out ever since.
Theos - The public theology think tank
Clear thinking on religion and society
hello@theosthinktank.co.uk@theosthinktank020 7828 7777
Reports
Multiculturalism
Jonathan Chaplin argues that multiculturalism still has indispensable contribution to realising a just society.
Media Monitoring
A multifaith Songs of Praise? Not on my watch says BBC religion chief
Songs of Praise is to remain Christian despite calls for it to be turned it into a multifaith programme, the BBC’s first Muslim head of religion has pledged. Aaqil Ahmed said that it was vital that religious programming promoted “diversity” but insisted that Songs of Praise would always remain Christian.
Interviews
Some progress
3rd December 2009
Can you say a little about your background, and in particular the way it helped to shape your thinking?
I was born in 1953 and grew up in St John’s Wood in London, with two older sisters and one younger. My father was a doctor who trained as a psychiatrist and then as a psychoanalyst; and my mother also trained as a psychoanalyst, though she gave up work after we came along. I think they would have been described at that time as ‘progressive’ (a word that has since been hijacked and horribly misused by New Labour). My father was a great fan of Bertrand Russell, and they both read a great deal.
At school, I was what most people would call ‘thick’. I failed the entrance exam the first time, and then I failed an internal exam and dropped down a year; and so it went on. Then, when I was 16, my dad said to me: ‘Look, if you carry on like this you are going to have to get a job in the City and become a stockbroker’ (which in our family culture was a bit like saying ‘You’ll become a guard at a concentration camp’). ‘Or’, he said, ‘you can leave school altogether now and go and work on the railways.’
‘Or’, thirdly, ‘you can go to Cambridge. 'Which was a very strange thing to say, given that the occasion for this conversation was the fact that my housemaster had told him it was very unlikely I was going to get more than six or seven O-levels – and they would be very bad grades. As, indeed, was the case.
But strangest thing of all was that, having been given these three options, I just said, ‘OK, I’ll go to Cambridge.’ I suddenly started working flat out, and have really been working flat out ever since.
To read this article in full, click here.