Mustafa El-Minshawy wonders if Al-Azhar is serious about launching its own satellite channel A year ago, Al-Azhar officials came up with a plan to launch a satellite channel to stem the flow of what the highest institution of Sunni Islam has termed a global "smear campaign" against Islam. The planned channel was to serve also as a counterbalance to the felt prevalence of radical Islamic thought on Arabic satellite TV. The idea originated with Abdel-Rahman El-Adawi, a member of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy's (IRA) follow-up committee. It took until May 2004 for the committee to approve the idea in principle. Although the proposal should have then been presented to the IRA's council for approval, it was not. According to El-Adawi, financing was the major problem. "Al-Azhar did not have enough money for this multi-million pound project to see the light," confirmed IRA General Director Saber Taalab. While some had hoped for the government's backing, Taalab told Al- Ahram Weekly, "some [important] officials were not sufficiently convinced of the project's viability" to help finance it. As the planned channel's fate cotinues to hang in the balance, a debate has emerged over its possible tone and content, if it ever came to light. Veteran Islamist journalist Mohamed Abdel-Quddous was by no means optimistic that the channel would be independent enough to be credible. "With the emergency law and other government restrictions in place, I don't think the channel, if launched, would discuss issues like social justice and democracy, or Islam's views on politics and economy" in a way that differed from official government policy, Abdel-Quddous told the Weekly. That dynamic would dilute any serious message the channel would purportedly be sending, he said. Others hoped for an Al-Azhar satellite channel that would enlighten the growing numbers of Muslim converts around the world who speak English, German, Spanish and other languages -- a costly endeavour Adli Abu Hajjar, secretary general of the European Islamic Conference (EIC), doubted could be affordable. Speaking to the Weekly from Sweden, where the EIC brings together Muslim representatives from 33 countries, Hajjar said another major challenge would be finding ways to make the channel's content interesting for Muslims aboard. The IRA's El- Adawi suggested that the channel could be hosted on one of the state-owned satellite channels, with Al- Azhar scholars serving as guests in interactive and fatwa - related programmes. But would this be enough to compete with other Islamic satellite channels, the most popular of which might be Iqraa, which features prominent Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled? Although Iqraa does not delve into sensitive political issues, it has built up an audience with its mix of feel- good, hard-hitting religious programming. While questions regarding the look and feel of Al-Azhar's channel remain, Islamist MP Ali Laban and other advocates are pushing parliament to get the ball rolling again. Laban is a member of parliament's religious committee, which in May 2003 called for the channel's launch as an "urgent necessity" to both battle the views of Islamist extremists and highlight the moderate nature of Islam. Laban was unconvinced by claims of financial constraints stalling the project, suggesting the current freeze was actually caused by a combination of foreign and domestic pressures "to limit Al-Azhar's role". "The United States does not want this to happen," Laban told the Weekly. "It wants its culture to prevail." Laban said an agreement signed between the US government and Egypt in July 2003 provided $32 million in aid to "be allocated for overhauling the education system in general and the Azharite in particular". The agreement also stipulated, Laban claimed, that Egypt "shall turn Azharite institutes, where numerous Islamic subjects are extensively studied, into public schools". The US Embassy and Al-Azhar have consistently denied any intervention in Egypt's religious and educational curriculums. Critics have suggested otherwise, citing US Ambassador David Welch's reported visits to Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi after a member of Al-Azhar's fatwa committee issued an edict urging Arab and Islamic countries to boycott the Iraqi governing council. Although Tantawi retracted the fatwa after Welch's visit, he denied that the US was meddling in Al- Azhar's affairs. A previous turnaround by Tantawi regarding another edict had also made the news. That fatwa, announced in the run up to the Iraq invasion, called for jihad against countries invading the region -- and triggered a hue and cry in Washington, with one US politician even calling for Al- Azhar to be put on the list of terrorism- sponsoring organisations. These issues, as well as the channel idea, likely reflect "an internal conflict between reformists and hardliners" within Al-Azhar itself, said Mohamed El-Sayed Said of Al- Ahram's Political and Strategic Studies Centre. "Where are the guarantees that the channel won't be run by the latter?" he asked. Said did not rule out the proposed channel being used to instigate violence or attack other religions. As such, it would do nothing to improve the image of Islam.
