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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 13, June 05-June 18, 2009

Religious TV Spurs Tensions

Religious satellite TV stations are gaining ground in the Middle East, often reflecting political and religious tensions, such as in Egypt between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, remark Nathan Field and Ahmed Hamam for Arab Media Society.

While religious television is not new in Egypt, since 2006, several new stations have been founded which focus on preaching from a more puritanical perspective that does not emphasize politics. Experts believe these to be the most watched channels in Egypt.

Field and Haman point out that, “NileSat, Egypt’s main satellite broadcaster, currently carries at least twelve stations that give significant airtime to Salafi programming.” Notably, Al-Nass and al-Rahma are the most popular stations due to the star power of their main preachers.

Al-Nass was revamped in 2006 by a Saudi investor who invited three prominent Salafi clerics to host religious programming. Since that time the station has been dominated by Salafi-oriented preaching. Founded in 2007, Al-Rahma (Mercy) is owned by Mohamad Hassan, considered by many to be the most influential Salafi preacher in Egypt. Since the station is owned by clerics, they have control over programming and therefore doctrine, not market concerns, determines its content.

The near total exclusion of women from the airwaves reflects Salafism’s more rigid views on gender relations – a clear distinction from non-Salafi media, argue the authors. Another feature of Salafi networks is an unwillingness to give platforms to non-Salafi viewpoints.

Field and Haman explain that Egyptians are not becoming more conservative because Salafi networks appeared in 2006. “People do not embrace rigid ideas because they read them in a book or heard them on TV. Rather their social environment determines how they interpret the words of the Qur’an – perhaps rigidly, to come to grips with the realities they experience on a daily basis,” notes Rafiq Habib, an expert in the field.

The cultural dimension, especially the rampant spread of Western influence in the media, explains Salafism’s appeal to more affluent Egyptians. Field and Hamam continue, “On a daily basis, the average Muslim is bombarded with messages that implicitly or quite explicitly challenge basic tenets of their Islamic identity.”

They also point to the political dimension of the victory of the Brotherhood in 2005 in the Parliament, which may have awoken a youth expecting them to focus more on preaching at the expense of politics.

Religious channels may also heighten sectarian tensions, bringing a Sunni satellite television station based out of the Gulf to attack Shiites during its broadcasts, reports Faris Harram for Iraq Oil Report.

The channel, named "Al-Khalijiyah," has quickly become notorious for its attacks on Shiite Muslims and their religious authorities. In Najaf, the holy Shiite city, local residents say the channel has become a source of provocation.

“If I have ten nuclear bombs, I would use one against Christians and Jews, and the remaining nine against Shiites,” proclaimed a recently-broadcast slogan. Another declared, “oh God… humiliate the Shiites and those who support them; count them all, without skipping any of them, and kill them all.”

Residents in Iraq and in the region fear a renewal of sectarian violence that would be fueled by such programming. Many Shiites are disturbed by the fact that the channel has not been shut down.

Kathim, an architect, believes that dialogue over Islamic sects and their beliefs should be exclusively initiated by Islamic scholars. “It is wrong to see that dialogue taking the form of sectarian and violent rhetoric, and it is wrong to allow those who are not specialists in this topic to discuss it,” he said.

Then, a few weeks ago, the channel launched an offensive against the Shiite community, namely in Iraq. A daily program entitled, “The prevention of Sedition,” now airs, and some people have called in asking for the “needed support to exterminate the Shiites in Iraq.”

The proclamations aired by al-Khalijiyah come at the same time as continuing protests in Najaf against statements directed at BBC Arabic by Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani, the Imam of the Holy Mosque in Saudi Arabia in which he explicitly calls Shiite scientists infidels. These statements provoked a wave of protests in Iraq, the Islamic world and Saudi Arabia itself.

Yet, even as the controversy flares, others are calm and dismiss the channel as insignificant, concludes Harram.

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