THE BBC should guarantee that Britain's religious life was fully acknowledged, a group of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh leaders told the House of Lords Select Committee on the BBC's Charter Review on Wednesday.

The Bishop of Southwark, Dr Tom Butler; the director of the Evangelical Alliance, the Revd Joel Edwards; and four other faith leaders said that the BBC' s output reflected "the metropolitan liberal and secular élite".

"It may have surprised some broadcasters that at the last census, 71.5 per cent of the UK population voluntarily and in the privacy of their own home declared positively that they were Christian," they said.

The BBC treated religion "patchily" and "cursorily". The BBC had not understood the attacks on the churches in Iraq or given an account of the different traditions of Islam in the country.

"The Agreement that accompanies the new Charter should guarantee that the religious dimension . . . is fully acknowledged, and lay down some criteria to ensure that all faiths are faithfully, knowledgeably, and fairly portrayed across the output, not just in religious broadcasting, and that worship is accorded an appropriate place."