I do a fair number of interviews these days – television, radio, podcasts, panels, my own interview series – across several countries and formats, mostly on subjects I also write about here or elsewhere. Back when old-fashioned media was king, more of that work was traditional broadcast, and the BBC was the king of kings. They used to call on me semi-regularly, usually to talk about Israel or about Jews. Then, almost exactly on 7 October 2023, it stopped. The very topics they had liked me for became the biggest international story in a generation, and the phone went quiet. No explanation was offered and none is owed. It is entirely their prerogative.

It’s not like the Muslim Council of Britain is some neutral registry of British Muslim opinion

It’s not like the Muslim Council of Britain is some neutral registry of British Muslim opinion

So when a BBC producer does ring these days, I take the call with a certain curiosity, partly because it has become a rare event, and partly because of how the last few have gone. Our national broadcaster seems to possess an inbuilt tendency to do the dirty on me. I am far too reasonable to call it a conspiracy, so I assume it is groupthink, or ideological monoculture, or simply something in the water at Portland Place and Salford. Whatever it is, it is administered with a haughtiness rather unearned by an organisation of such steadily dwindling importance in the information business.

The latest instalment arrived at the weekend. I had never been on Radio 4’s Sunday before, so I was glad to hear the programme had been reading this magazine and was taken with my piece on Britain’s multi-faith prayer rooms. Perfect for the show, the producer said. We spoke at length about what the discussion might cover: the collapse of Christian observance, the confidence of Muslim prayer, the plasterboard architecture of the anonymous little room. He then asked for a second long conversation........

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