LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's television watchdog on Thursday cleared a BBC spy drama of being Islamophobic over a storyline centering on a suicide bomb school at a mosque that sparked protests from the country's Muslims.
The episode of "Spooks," a thriller about British MI5 secret agents, focused on a mosque in Birmingham, central England, which had been taken over by extremists planning suicide attacks.
British Muslim groups appealed in vain for the BBC not to show the program which was aired in June, saying they feared it would encourage attacks on Muslims.
The Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) said it had received 43 complaints from viewers who said it contained racial stereotypes and was likely to incite violence and racial hatred.
The BBC said it had consulted with the Muslim community and had carried out extensive research before making the episode.
The BSC ruled that for some Muslims the program would appear to be "an affront to their faith and dignity." However it dismissed the complaints, saying the show was clearly a drama and not a factual account.
"The commission accordingly did not consider that the program was calculated to encourage Islamophobia, or suggested that followers of Islam were prepared to resort to violence to further their own ends," the BSC said.
In a separate ruling the watchdog did uphold complaints against cult drama "Buffy the Vampire Slayer