The BBC has appointed its first Muslim head of religion.

Aaqil Ahmed, who is to become jointly head of Religion and Ethics and commissioning editor for Religion TV, has made his name at Channel 4 where is he currently commissioning editor for Religion and Multicultural.

His biggest project at Channel 4 was the recent Christianity: A History series, which included programmes presented by Howard Jacobson and Cherie Blair. On his blog, Ahmed wrote: "It’s almost unheard of for a mainstream broadcaster to dedicate eight hours of prime time television to Christianity in this way. I think it’s fair to say that it’s a big risk, but a risk I really wanted to take."

Ahmed, who is known for making difficult and potentially dull religious subjects lively and accessible and is also not afraid to ask the hard questions, also commissioned Channel 4's The Qur’an and the BAFTA winning Saving Africa’s Witch Children.

When commenters on his blog criticised the series on Christianity as a hatchet job and accused him of error, he posted a video in response. Earlier, he explained his broadcasting creed: "About a year ago, both the head of Channel 4 and I talked about ways of making the channel’s religious output feel special and stand out from the norm," he wrote. "The best way forward, I felt, was to bunch things together and make big statement projects, creating 'must watch' moments; the kind of projects you just don’t see anywhere else."

The first efforts in this new era were The Qur’an and The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World.

He said the series on Christianity demonstrated "just how seriously we take the subject of religion at Channel 4, and I believe it is exactly the sort of grown up and inquisitive programming our audience both asks for and deserves."

Ahmed's appointment is only the second time that a non-Christian has been made head of religion. The first was Alan Bookbinder, an agnostic, who was appointed in 2001.

Lambeth Palace has denied reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, had told the Corporation's director general Mark Thompson, a Roman Catholic, that Ahmed's appointment should not lead to religion being downplayed.

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