Islam: The Untold Story

Channel 4 History of Islam Sparks Flood of Complaints and Presenter Tom Holland Subjected to Torrent of Abusive Tweets

MAIL ON SUNDAY: Channel 4 is at the centre of a storm over a programme it broadcast on the history of Islam.

Islam: The Untold Story has triggered nearly 550 complaints to both the television regulator Ofcom and Channel 4 itself.

It has also sparked a bitter war of words on Twitter involving leading historians and Islamic scholars.

Since it was screened last week, presenter Tom Holland, a historian with a double first from Cambridge, has been subjected to a torrent of abusive tweets, some of which have included physical threats.

He is accused of distorting the history of Islam by claiming the Koran makes little or no reference to the religious city of Mecca.

One Twitter user accused Mr Holland of trying to destroy Islamic history while another called him a ‘fool’ for suggesting Islam is a ‘made-up religion’. » | Robert Verkaik | Sunday, September 02, 2012

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Islam: The Untold Story
Historian Tom Holland explores how a new religion - Islam - emerged from the seedbed of the ancient world, and asks what we really know for certain about its rise. The result is an extraordinary detective story.