In recent months, religious broadcasting has become one the fastest growing programming segments in the Arab World. And it appears that the battle for hearts and minds is only heating up.

According to market research by Arab Advisors Group, piety now shares the spotlight with pop culture as both religious and music video channels grew at a rate of some 60 percent last year. Today, there are at least eight Islamic channels broadcasting via regional satellite providers Arabsat and Nilesat, and around six Arabic-language Christian broadcasters transmitting over European-owned provider Hotbird; this is in addition to an increasing number of religious programs present on almost every major Arab station. In a bid to avoid tensions, most channels say they steer away from controversial subjects that highlight the differences between Christianity and Islam and the sects of Islam itself. Yet strip away the surface of niceties, and deep divisions emerge, not only in content, but also in securing the rights to satellite space.      

Eye of the beholder

One of the newest religious broadcasters is Al Resalah, owned by Saudi billionaire and media tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who also owns Arab music video giant Rotana in addition to substantial shares in Time Warner and News Corporation.
“We are offering the world an Islamic Arabic language channel to present true Islam,” Bin Talal said during the station’s launch in March.
Al Resalah’s website features a list of fatwas by Egypt’s famous preacher Dr. Yusuf Al Qaradawi approving everything from hosting non-veiled women on its shows, to music videos and SMS chatting.
The channel has a special program featuring young and rising Muslim pop stars like Sami Yusuf singing grace to God and the Prophet Muhammed.
Its social and women’s programs have discussed normally taboo subjects in the Arab world like sex education for children, rape, and religious minorities. It even has a Q&A program hosted by Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa.
On the other end of the spectrum is Al Majd, a six channel Saudi-based religious network, which does not broadcast any music at all. 
Al Majd used digital technology to develop music alternatives by combining naturally occurring sounds like that of traffic and wind for use with its programs and ads.
According to Mohamed Al Hudaif, the director of media research at Al Majd, the channel now has a database of 150,000 music alternatives, since music is forbidden in Islam, according to him. Running a healthy
business, on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable. 
Hudaif said that the channel became profitable in just three years, earning around $80 million by selling 150,000 of its decoders for about $534 each. He said the network also generates around $3 million in advertising revenues each month.
Al Majd, which consists of two free-to-air channels and four subscription channels owned by a group of Saudi investors, started out around three years ago and now has a 900,000-strong subscriber base, 95 percent of them in the Kingdom.
Hudaif said he did not know exactly what the running cost of the channel was, but pointed out that the network currently has 900 staff on
its payroll.
Al Majd announced recently that it had inked a deal with Saudi Telecom, the biggest telecom company in the Kingdom, to offer its content via mobile phone. Al Majd said this is the first such deal for an Arab satellite channel although it did not disclose how much it was worth.

Agreeing to Disagree

For Al Manar, the Lebanese channel funded by Shiite militant group Hezballah, the main goal is to promote the unity of all Muslims, a “religious duty” said Hassan Sayed, the channel’s director of religious programming.
In the spirit of coexistence, Al Manar recently halted the broadcasting of a $700,000 series on the story of Ashura, the ten-day commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D. in Iraq.
The station said that it did not want to pour fuel on to an already sensitive situation between Sunnis and Shiites in the country.
“In our broadcasting, we rely on certain moral guidelines which emphasize the unity of Muslims, regardless of which sect they follow and avoid any type of conflict or confrontation with other religions,” Sayed said. 
“For example, we won’t host a Christian guest on our show to discuss a subject where there is deep disagreement between Christians and Muslims,” he added. “Instead, we focus on what is common and there is a lot of that.”
In the same vein, Al Majd, which broadcasts mainly to a Sunni majority in Saudi Arabia, said it does not mention or host Shiites or non-Muslims in its programs in order to prevent controversy all together.
“Our broadcast motto is to never cause any religious stirs when we talk about Islam,” said Al Hudaif.  “We don’t attack Christianity and we don’t mention Shiites. We’re a middle-of-the-road Sunni channel.”

Late in coming

For Ahmad Abu Haiba, the director of Al Resalah’s Cairo bureau, there is nothing radical about the rise in Islamic channels, contrary to what some might say. “If anything, it has been late in coming.”
Abu Haiba pointed to the rise in everything Islamic in Arab society from banking to cell phones. “Today, we have Islamic banking, Islamic press, Islamic thought – all this contributed to the need for Islamic broadcasters.”
Another channel executive goes even further, linking the increase of such channels to a religious awakening, in addition to political developments in the region. “There is a return to faith and Arab families are growing more conservative, opting for more moral discipline…Take as an example Hamas’s latest victory in the Palestinian elections,” Hudaif said.
But one executive offers a different explanation. Dia Diaddine, the executive director of the Kuwait-based Shiite channel Al Anwar, attributes the increase in religious TV stations to “the more open air of diversity and freedom in the Arab world.”
“The state of freedoms in the Arab World is clearly better than it was before. Political regimes in the Arab world no longer view Islamic media as an opponent, which is why it was quelled before,” Diaddine said.

Religious Discrimination?

Some Christian broadcasters in the Arab world say they face an even greater uphill battle than their Islamic counterparts.
Naji Daoud, the director of SAT7, said Christian channels “are not allowed to broadcast via the Egypt-owned Nilesat or Saudi-based Arabsat.” He said that this is why Christian channels can only be seen via Hotbird. “This is their policy. Nilesat could change their position soon due to the presence of a large Coptic community in Egypt,” Daoud told MEB Journal.
In October 2005, Egypt’s Copts got their first satellite channel via Telestar 12, a US-operated satellite.
Dr. Antoine Saad, secretary-general of the Lebanon-based Tele Lumiere and Noursat channels, agrees with Daoud.
“We wish we could broadcast via those satellites, but so far they have not accepted. There have been previous talks with them and this was their response,” Saad said. “These (Christian) channels broadcast in Arabic and for the Arab World and promote dialogue between faiths. Nilesat and Arabsat should help broadcast these channels because they are not missionary. We are not so narrow-minded as to try to convert Muslims into Christians,” he said. Saad claimed that renting space on European providers was much more expensive than the Arab providers.
Arabsat denied that there was any discrimination on what content is broadcast on any channel provided they are licensed by their country of origin. Nilesat could not be reached for comment.
“Of all these channels, only Tele Lumiere broadcasts from Lebanon (an Arab country). Usually the others broadcast from Europe and have messages that do not serve either the Muslims or the Christians,” said Mohammed Nour Mehyar, senior group product manager of broadcast services for Arabsat. “Still no one seriously approached us about it and as far as I know we never rejected an application because of this type of broadcasting.”
Sat7 and Tele Lumiere (and Noursat, its sister satellite channel), like most of the Christian broadcasters available, are non-profit and rely on outside donations to secure operating costs.
Sat7 said that its annual operating costs run at $9 million and that it is partially supported by the Middle East Council of Churches.
Saad said Tele Lumiere and Noursat need about $200,000 every month to cover operating costs, adding that because they are non-profit and religious, most of the staff offer their expertise for free, which slashes costs.
As to how much politics plays into their programming, Daoud was quick to assert: “We are 100 percent
non-political and non-denominational,” he said.
“We avoid politics because it’s quite a big trap and it’s not our objective.”