"THE MIRACLES WERE REVOLUTIONARY"

Rageh Omaar became well known as the BBC's correspondent in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He is the presenter of the BBC's The Miracles of Jesus series, which screen on BBC One on 6th, 13th and 20th August.

"I grew up as a Muslim, but I always knew who Jesus was, not least because in Islam, Jesus is considered to be one of God's prophets. But my image of Jesus was that of a serene holy man – humble, wise and a model of love and goodness – an image in which his miracles stand out as supreme acts of kindness to the poor and the sick.

But when I went to the Holy Land, I realised how easy it is to see Jesus through western eyes and detach him from his true environment and where he came from – the Middle East.

The Middle East made the early Christians men of action. They were political, they were provocative and they were subversive, not least because the Roman occupation at the time was a breeding ground for rebels – like Jesus. But what I discovered in the making of this series is that Jesus' chief weapon was not the sword, but his miracles. And they proved to be far more revolutionary."