Re: WEVD (was WFAN New York)

[Rob Landry <umar@wcrb.com>]

On Sun, 3 Aug 1997, Donna Halper wrote:

> The fasting growing religion in the USA is Islam, and other than the
> Farrakhan folks who do a truly hate-mongering show (I've heard it on a
> couple of college stations and I cringed at some of what was said...),
> American Moslems have been slow to grasp the possibilities of radio.

Historically, Islam has not recognized anything analogous to the
separation of church and state.  A Muslim community was supposed to
establish an Islamic state, and the state took on the responsibility for
supporting and upholding Islam and its values.  Because of this tradition,
you'll find that most Islamic religious radio programs in the world are
produced by governments (e.g. Egypt's Holy Qur'an Program, Saudi Arabia's
Call of Islam).

In fact, I don't know of a single private Islamic broadcasting
organization anywhere in the world.  That will eventually change, I
suspect, given the growing number of Muslims living in non-Muslim
countries such as India, the U.K., and the U.S.

> But you raise a good point-- given that most religious radio is owned or
> done by Christians, would any of these stations allow a Moslem or a
> Jewish or a Buddhist programme, even if it were potentially profitable? 

Can a commercial broadcaster like Salem legally discriminate against Jews
or other non-Christians looking to buy time?  If so, that's yet another
reason (in my humble opinion) to discourage this sort of thing on the
public airwaves.

Rob Landry
umar@wcrb.com

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