News

Duplication

Original version

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Online

Crossing Continents

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: Travel

Series focusing on foreign affairs issues

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 LW

Crossing Continents: Conversion Wars

Conversion Wars

05/08/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Crossing Continents, Conversion Wars

The controversy around Muslims converting to Christianity in the Arab World.

In the Arab world, converting from Islam to Christianity is one of the biggest taboos. Omar Abdel-Razak explores the hidden world of converts, from Egypt and Morocco to the USA.

Crossing Continents encounters converts in Egypt who live in constant fear. We meet 'Mariam', a convert to Christianity who is secretly married to a Christian and who lives in hiding as her family have threatened to kill her. She is now pregnant, and says that she will never be allowed to officially marry her husband and that her child will have to be raised without official papers.

But there is also a group of Christian TV channels, mostly based in the USA and run by converts, who are targeting the region's Muslims. The programme gains rare access to one of these channels, where they discover converts using shocking language to attack Islam. The largest of these channels, called Al-Hayat, claims to have millions of viewers in the Arab World. Its most prominent preacher, Father Zakaria Boutros, is famous for his incendiary attacks on Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Father Boutros lives in hiding after receiving numerous death threats. He has inspired a new generation of preachers who are deliberately attacking Islam as a method to convert Muslims to Christianity. His brand of 'shock' preaching has spread across the airwaves and the internet.
We track down the Al-Hayat channel to the USA, and find that it is a 'vital partner' of one the USA's most prominent TV evangelists. Joyce Meyer Ministries (JMM) receives tens of millions of dollars a year in donations, and much of it is spent on 'Christian outreach.' While JMM deny any editorial control over the station, the BBC finds they helped to launch it and they buy airtime. A spokesman for JMM eventually sends an email saying that Father Boutros will no longer be hosting a show on Al Hayat. 
The programme is written and reported by Omar Abdel-Razak of the BBC Arabic Service and narrated by Hugh Levinson.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Crossing Continents

Conversion Wars

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service