As someone with a long term hobbyist interest in radio, often as an Short/Medium Wave listener, my attention has been grabbed by the various cases of Islamic community radio stations who have misbehaved and abused their broadcasting licence privileges. Some of the failings and abuses that these Islamic radio stations have been involved in are frankly monstrous.

One station Iman FM in Sheffield was shut down by the UK radio spectrum regulator OFCOM for broadcasting 25 hours of an Al-Qaida supporting Islamic preacher. Another station, Radio Dawn in Nottingham was also warned by OFCOM about their on air content which included broadcasting a hymn of praise for the Taliban.

Now it seems that Radio Dawn is in trouble with OFCOM again although not for promoting terrorists this time (which makes a change) but instead telling its listeners to not take any notice of non Muslim doctors with regards to diabetics fasting during Ramadan. This dangerous advice was given out over the airwaves by a non medically qualified Islamic scholar and a member of the public who heard this was so angered by the false information that they complained to OFCOM.

According to the Daily Mail, the scholar hosting Radio Dawn’s ‘Mufti’ feature told listeners not to go to non Muslim doctors for advice about fasting during Ramadan, advice that is both dangerous and offensive to non Muslim doctors.

The Daily Mail said:

An Muslim radio station has been attacked by broadcast watchdogs after it gave ‘potentially harmful and offensive advice’ to people with diabetes. 

Radio Dawn, which is a community radio station based in Nottingham, was criticised over a segment where an Islamic scholar called ‘The Mufti’ advised listeners to ignore the advice of non-Muslim doctors when it comes to fasting over Ramadan. 

A caller to the show asked whether it was permissible for a Muslim suffering from Type I diabetes to complete their Ramadan fast over the winter when there is less daylight. 

A member of the the public made a complaint to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom who launched an investigation which found the show was in breach of its codes.  

 The Mufti responded: ‘Look, if the doctor is a Muslim and a religious person, then his advice carries weight. But if he is not a Muslim. Well, a non-Muslim Doctor will tell you to stop fasting even if you have a minor headache. 

We should be concerned not just at the medically dangerous advice that this ‘scholar’ is dishing out to Radio Dawn’s listeners but also the supremacist and discriminatory way that they are referring to non Muslim doctors. If a non Muslim radio station or newspaper or celebrity put out a message that Muslim doctors were not to be trusted then I would expect, knowing the political and policing climate in Britain at the moment, that the person who gave out such advice would probably be languishing in a prison cell for their comments. Somehow I doubt that this will be the outcome in this case.

The Daily Mail continued:

The Mufti, who his not medically qualified then suggested: ‘If you have mild diabetes, then it is not permitted to give up fasting in that situation. And where it’s not a doctor [giving advice], or if it is a non-Muslim doctor who is giving the advice, well their advice carries no weight. It has no importance whatsoever.’

There is no such thing as ‘mild’ diabetes. There are people suffering from pre diabetic conditions which can be ameliorated with lifestyle changes, but diabetes itself is a black and white condition you have either got it or you haven’t and ‘mild’ versions of this illness do not exist. The radio station also tried to spout out the taqiyya and lies in order to wriggle out of censure by OFCOM. They denied that the ‘Mufti’ had said don’t trust non Muslim doctors which OFCOM seem to think was a falsehood.

The Daily Mail added:

However, Ofcom said the Mufti’s advice was to seek and trust advice offered by a Muslim doctor with ‘Islamic knowledge’.  

Ofcom’s report into the investigation also said the advice given on the show could have prompted listeners with diabetes to disregard advice given to them from a non-Muslim doctor, which could cause potential harm. 

Radio Dawn has been criticised by OFCOM for their dangerous and discriminatory broadcast which also crossed loads of ethical boundaries that exist around the issue of giving out medical advice to Radio Dawn’s listeners. Personally I think that they’ve been very lucky to get away with a mere note of criticism from OFCOM because this offence, coupled with the previous incident where they broadcast a pro Taliban song, is pretty grave. People could have died because they listened to this ignorant savage ‘scholar’s’ wibblings about diabetes.

If an extremist Christian or Jewish community group running as a community or Restricted Service Licence (RSL) broadcaster had hosted some quack doctor telling listeners to not visit doctors who were gay or who practise idolatry or some other factor, then the likelihood would be that their broadcasting privileges would be suspended for a time or permanently removed. It’s fair to say that in this case suspension or licence revocation is justified in the case of Radio Dawn. This station has abused the privileges granted to it to use the public broadcast frequencies by both this incident with the Islamic quack and by having a cavalier attitude to taste and decency standards by transmitting a pro Taliban song.

The broadcast radio spectrum, especially the spectrum used for analogue broadcasting is a finite and valuable resource. Those who are given licensed access to it have a responsibility to use their facility wisely and sadly that is not the case with Radio Dawn. OFCOM should grab the bull by the horns and shut down Radio Dawn and many of the other small sub-25 watt community stations that are run by Muslim groups because the danger of abuse of the airwaves by them is so high. Two Islamic stations this year to my knowledge have been targeted by OFCOM because of licence condition breaches and one of them Iman FM was permanently shut down. I’ve little doubt that other Islamic stations may also be either breaching their licensing conditions or sailing very close to the wind regarding them. At best these Islamic community and RSL stations appear to be incompetently run even taking into account that these are volunteer run stations and at worst they seem to have no problem with deliberately broadcasting incitement to violence.

It is both wasteful of RF spectrum and dangerous to societal cohesion for these Islamic radio stations to continue to occupy airspace. The frequencies used for non commercial community radio are valuable resources and therefore should be licensed to those who will use them for the benefit of the wider community and not merely for Muslims to transmit terrorist speeches, Taliban songs or dispense dangerous and false medical advice.

Addendum

According to some ‘radio anoraks’ I was reading on a bulletin board, the Jihad promoting Iman FM were favoured by OFCOM at the licence application process stage because Iman FM ticked the right ‘diversity’ boxes. OFCOM granted a licence to Iman FM despite there being other applicants for the 101.3MHz slot who may have provided a better service for more people and indeed done more good with the frequency.

https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2017/08/04/more-on-the-jihad-promoting-imam-fm/