TODAY THE BBC launched its weekly broadcast of Islamic prayers and reflections.

The decision to introduce the Islamic reflections, which air across BBC Local Radio stations, comes at a time when Muslims are unable to visit their mosques due to the coronavirus crisis.

Qari Asim, a senior imam at a mosque in Leeds and chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, was the first to lead reflections on the current coronavirus crisis across 14 stations at 5.50am today.

This Friday slot will be led by a different imam each week.

Chris Burns, head of BBC Local Radio, said: “Many Muslims will feel a void in their lives where prayers used to be – a feeling the will be magnified as we approach Ramadan.

“Local radio is all about connecting communities and we hope these weekly reflections will go some way to helping Muslims feel a sense of community while they are isolating.”

As the slot was introduced, listeners were given the option to continuing listening to the usual programming and directed to retune if they wanted to do so.

The stations broadcasting the reflections are:

• Leeds
• Sheffield
• Lancashire
• Manchester
• WM
• Leicester
• Stoke
• Derby
• Nottingham
• Coventry and Warwickshire
• Three Counties
• London
• Merseyside
• Berkshire

The reflections are available to listen to afterwards on BBC Sounds.

A Christian service is being broadcast each Sunday at 8am on all 39 BBC local radio stations.