OTTAWA – Ottawa radio host Lowell Green was found by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council to have violated Canadian Broadcast Standards thanks to a mistaken quote the broadcaster thought was from Islam’s holy book the Koran, or Qur’an.
While the CBSC supported Green’s CFRA program generally for tackling the issue of apostasy and the case of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan who had been condemned to death for converting from Islam to Christianity, it condemned his error.
"’Kill him who changes his religion’", a quote Green read as fact from the Qur’an which was actually in a letter to the editor in the National Post, "is not to be found in the Qur’an at all," says the CBSC release. "The result was that the broadcaster was in breach of the CAB Code of Ethics… The broadcaster had its own obligation to be certain, at material times, of the accuracy of the material on which it was relying."
The Ontario Regional Panel also objected to Green’s treatment of some callers, saying: "the tactics used by Lowell Green in dealing with the callers and the subject of the meaning of the Qur’anic ayah on which he was relying to have been unfair and improper. The host was entitled to make his point about apostasy and had every opportunity to do so. It was not necessary for him to resort to that provision of the Qur’an. He chose that route. That was his option.
"Then, having invited Muslims to call the program on the basis that they could explain their fundamental religious document to him and CFRA’s listeners, he disregarded their explanations of the very nature of the Qur’an, as well as their arguments about the context of the ayah he had quoted. When one of the Muslims even explained that the Arabic, that is, the original and definitive, version of the Qur’an, which he had before him, did not contain the words the host relied on, Green changed the subject," reads the decision.
CHUM-owned CFRA must announce the decision, in the following terms, once during peak listening hours within three days following the release of this decision and once more within seven days following the release of this decision during the time period in which the Lowell Green Show is broadcast; within the fourteen days following the broadcasts of the announcements, to provide written confirmation of the airing of the statement to the complainant who filed the Ruling Request; and at that time, to provide the CBSC with a copy of that written confirmation and with air check copies of the broadcasts of the two announcements which must be made by CFRA.
