Channel 4 cancels Islam documentary screening after presenter threatened

From the Telegraph:

Historian Tom Holland's Channel 4 film Islam: The Untold Story sparked more than 1,000 complaints when it was broadcast.

Holland was threatened online with a torrent of abusive messages on Twitter.

A Channel 4 spokeswoman said: "Having taken security advice, we have reluctantly cancelled a planned screening of the programme Islam: The Untold Story. We remain extremely proud of the film which is still available to view on 4oD."

The private screening was due to take place at the broadcaster's London headquarters on Thursday before an audience of historians and "opinion formers".

The documentary is due to be repeated late on Thursday night and can be viewed online.

The investigation into the origins of the religion claimed that there is little written contemporary evidence about the prophet Mohammed.

It examined claims that rather than Islam's doctrine emerging fully-formed in a single text, the religion instead developed gradually over many years with the expansion of Arabic empires.

Holland, the writer of best-sellers Rubicon and Persian Fire, said that Islam is "a legitimate subject of historical inquiry".

The Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA) accused him of making "baseless assumptions" and engaging in "selective scholarship".

Iranian state media suggested the broadcast was an "insult" to Islam.

One message sent to Holland read: "You might be a target in the streets. You may recruit some bodyguards, for your own safety."

Writing on the Channel 4 website after complaints to both the channel and watchdog Ofcom, Holland said: "We were of course aware when making the programme that we were touching deeply held sensitivities and went to every effort to ensure that the moral and civilizational power of Islam was acknowledged in our film, and the perspective of Muslim faith represented, both in the persons of ordinary Bedouin in the desert, and one of the greatest modern scholars of Islam, Seyyed Hossein Nasr."

Holland was defended by Dr Jenny Taylor who runs the charity Lapido Media which encourages better understanding and reporting of religion in the media.

"He's shown all of us that Islam is interesting enough to be taken seriously. He's refused to stick his head in the sand and play blind about the problems or internal tensions that all thinking Muslims know are there," she said.

"He's not trammelled the sacred heart of an ancient mystery but found hints of an even greater and more awesome reality that is tantalisingly beyond our grasp at the moment, but could just be the key to a shared past and shared future."