“In my article earlier this year (19 July 2005), I questioned the BBC’s persistence in keeping the anti-Muslim Melanie Phillips on the panel of the Radio Four programme, The Moral Maze. Four months on and her poisonous spin continues to fill the airwaves twice a week…. She utilises every opportunity on air to pour scorn on Islam and Muslims. The BBC shoulders the blame for promoting Ms Phillips at a time when the need for community cohesion and sincere dialogue has never been more pronounced….

“In order to understand the absurdity of the BBC’s persistence in this matter, it would be instructive for the producers for one moment to consider what they would do if it became clear that a permanent panellist on one of their high profile programmes was also a hard-line ‘fundamentalist’ who routinely used the opportunity to ridicule Jews and Judaism?”

Shaykh Riyad Nadwi on the OCCRi website, 14 November 2005