Since the appearance 11 years ago of the “Iqraa” channel, Salafists have entered the satellite television scene with around 30 Sunni religious channels from Saudi Arabia and the Arab World, Al-Watan newspaper reported earlier this month. The ART-owned Iqraa, which started out in October 1998 as a channel with a tendency toward the Muslim Brotherhood school of thought to later end up within in Sufist sphere, was followed by the Salafi trend in Saudi Arabia, and three years later – and two months after Sept. 11 – the “Al-Majd” channel emerged in under the reins of a group of Salafist sheikhs. In March 2006, Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal's Kingdom Holding Company announced the launch of “Al-Risaala” headed by prominent Brotherhood leader in Kuwait Dr. Tariq Al-Suweidan, after which the ball really got rolling with religious satellite channels “Al-Nas”, “Rawa'i”, “Al-Bidaya”, “Al-Hikma”, “Al-Rahma”, “Al-Huda” - in English - “Al-Hafidh”, “Makkah”, “Safa”, “Al-Umma”, “Al-Afasi”, “Al-Khaleejiya” and others, with the vast majority of them featuring sermonizing and religious guidance. Salafi finance Saudi Salafi finance has contributed greatly to most of these channels, according to academic and media researcher Dr. Malik Al-Ahmed, a Saudi Islamic media theorist who spoke to Al-Watan. “Two basic trends control the Islamic satellite channels, the first following the Muslim Brotherhood current of thought, the other the Salafist school, while keeping the areas of extremism and conservatism and openness in both the trends.” Al-Ahmed believes that the Saudi Salafist camp is probably better represented in terms of channel numbers, possibly due to many channel owners being Saudi figures in Salafism, but the Salafist sheikhs, he says, also have a greater audience than the Muslim Brotherhood because of the formers' avoidance of politics, giving them greater acceptance in Saudi Arabia particularly but also in the wider Arab World. This, Al-Ahmed believes, is only a temporary victory due to the absence of what he calls “television culture.” Hassam Tamam, a researcher in Islamic movements, says in a 2007 study looking at the resistance of Salafist channels to secularization that recent years have seen a rapid multiplication of Salafist channels making them “extremely prominent on the new Arab media scene.” Tamam cites channels such as Al-Majd, Al-Hikma, Al-Rahma, Al-Hifadh, and Al-Nas as one of the most influential sectors, “representing the most important key to understanding the Salafi satellite channel scene.” “Most of the Salafi channels harbor a certain ideology representative of certain Salafi organizations and movements,” Tamam told Al-Watan, “and they are all broadcast by the Egyptian satellite Nile Sat, with legal and political factors putting them under restrictions leading them to being predominantly sermonizing, unlike other Salafi channels which go into politics or issues of public affairs, or jihadist Salafi trends.” “You could argue that the Salafi channels came in response to the dissipation of the Muslim Brotherhood channels and that they are trying to bring back a conservative stance on which the new religious discourse had encroached, through breaking the religious tradition in their readings of Shariah texts, in explanations or in the language of its discourse, or in breaking its religious identity which is subject to encroachments from the style of religious callers and their guises, and their agenda as regards subjects of discussion which may vary from development to self-management to dialogue with others and living with others… subjects which are virtually free from religious sermons.” Passive audience Al-Watan wrote that perhaps the most important observation of Tamam's study is that the Salafist discourse is governed by the sheikh and not his audience, who serve only to proffer questions and offer gratitude and support, with no say in religious responses. The sheikhs would appear to be aware of this and stick to the principle that the audience is there to “receive and not take part”, imposing their views on the channels, including banning music and the appearance of women on the screen or even working in any capacity at the channels. Al-Ahmed says that the sheikhs and their views reflect the desires of the viewers, and that there is a lack of “television culture” and “strategic planning in channels”, something which cultural researcher Mustafa Ashour agrees with. “Programmers rarely try to use enlightening methods in presenting their Islamic media content, and most schedules are openly taken over by programs talking about religion, leaving satellite channels repetitive and formulaic in both style and in the sheikhs and scholars who address the audience by sermonizing, issuing fatwas and advice,” Ashour told Al-Watan. “Channel bosses rarely consider tackling the living reality of audiences with programs of developmental and human interest from a deep Islamic perspective in order for the guidance and sermons to have a more beneficial effect. There is also a noticeable absence of drama.” __
