Ummah Channel was an

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

television channel based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It launched in August 2009 by replacing 9X's former Sky EPG slot on Sky Digital. It was closed down at the end of 31 July 2017 and is no longer broadcasting.

Channels

Maria TV

Maria TV launched on 19 July 2012 on the first day of Ramadan. The channel’s name comes from

Maria al-Qibtiyya , better known as or (), or Maria the Copt, died 637, was an Egyptian woman who, along with her sister Sirin bint Shamun, was given as a slave to the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 628 by Al-Muqawqis, a Christian governor of Alexandria, during ...

, an enslaved Coptic Christian from Egypt who became one of the wives of Muhammad. According to Islam Ahmed Abdallah, Chief Executive of Ummah TV, says the name represents "transferring from slavery to freedom, from Christianity to Islam". Maria TV’s staff includes 30 volunteers and a few dozen women who work there occasionally. Maria TV aired for six hours of programming on Ummah TV, which showed only fully veiled women. Guests who choose not to wear the

Niqab A niqāb, niqab, or niqaab (; ), also known as a ruband () or rubandah (), is a long garment worn by some Muslim women in order to cover their entire body and face, excluding their eyes. It is an interpretation in Islam of the concept of ...

had their features blurred out.

Criticism

In 2010, in the wake of the May 2010 attacks on two

Ahmadiyya Ahmadiyya, officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ), is an Islamic messianic movement originating in British India in the late 19th century. It was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), who said he had been divinely appointed a ...

Mosques in Lahore, Pakistan, members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community living in the UK were threatened and intimidated. In October 2010 Ofcom criticised the UK-based Ummah Channel for broadcasting three interactive television programmes before and after the Lahore massacre on Ahmadis in May 2010, in which religious leaders and callers alike said that Ahmadis should be killed. These programmes were repeated several times. Ofcom stated that the programme's abusive treatment of the religious views and beliefs of members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community breached UK broadcasting regulations. In September 2012, Ahmed Abdallah, the owner of Maria TV, and his son and the channel's chief executive, Islam, were arrested for burning a copy of the Bible during a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

Closure

The channel closed on 31 July 2017 after apparent financial difficulty. Ummah Channel failed to attract an audience wider than its usual

Barelvi The Barelvi movement, also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement that generally adheres to the Hanafi school, Hanafi and Shafi'i school, Shafi'i schools of jurisprudenc ...

Sect (Islam).

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Television channels and stations established in 2009 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2017 Television channels in the United Kingdom Islamic television networks