“Promoting tolerance and the moderate Islam are the first steps towards fighting extremism,” says Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb. “And television will be the best tool to prevent millions of young Egyptians and Arabs from being recruited by radical groups.” Against a backdrop of increasing numbers of terror attacks following the overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi in July Al-Azhar has decided to launch its own satellite channel promoting moderate Islam. The channel is scheduled to begin broadcasting in April and will feature social, cultural and history programmes alongside core religious content, says Al-Tayeb. It will broadcast in Arabic, English, French and German in a bid to reach Muslims worldwide. The state-run Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) will provide technical assistance to help launch the channel. The new channel is part of a wider strategy to promote a moderate version of Islamic Sharia. Al-Azhar is already training preachers in communities in Upper Egypt and North Sinai to combat the influence of extremist versions of Islam. Speaking to representatives of student unions last week Al-Tayeb said Al-Azhar also intends to confront terrorism by arranging nationwide convoys in cooperation with the Ministry of Endowments, and by revising the curricula of its schools and universities. “The convoys will encourage young people to participate in the political process and civic activities and raise general awareness so they are no longer prey to radical groups,” he said. There have been growing calls for a channel supervised by Al-Azhar authority to combat the growing number of Islamic channels spouting extremist rhetoric. Infamous for derogatory language, such channels are accused of delivering politically motivated fatwas and launching smear campaigns against their opponents. Last year Abu Islam, a virulent tele-preacher, issued a fatwa calling for the murder of anyone opposed to the 2012 Muslim Brotherhood constitution. Several preachers on Al-Nas and Al-Hafez religious channels, which were shut down on 3 July, have been convicted of defamation. Khaled Abdallah used to present a talk show on Al-Nas. In May last year he was fined LE10,000 after being found guilty of slandering actress Hala Fakher. Abdallah Badr, another acid-tongued preacher, was handed a one-year sentence in December 2012 for libelling actress Elham Shahin on Al-Hafez religious channel. The two preachers, who regularly used their talk shows to promote jihad, notoriously declared a period of mourning following the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Al-Azhar has a “golden opportunity” following the shutdown of many ultraconservative Islamist channels to show how Islam can help in establishing a modern civil state and motivate young people to actively participate in the political process of their country, says media expert Yasser Abdel-Aziz. “The new channel must not adopt a sectarian rhetoric or incite violence against any religious group. It must promote unity and inclusion.” The first step in countering the propaganda of Al-Qaeda affiliates such as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, says Abdel-Aziz, is to use the media to promote an alternative vision of Islam and thus pull the carpet from these groups' ability to recruit the young and impressionable. Religious channels are watched by a majority of Egyptians. In a recent study conducted by the Faculty of Mass Communication at Cairo University, 70 per cent of respondents said they regularly watched religious programmes. Yet amid the plethora of religious programming Al-Azhar's voice has so far been absent. The Sunni world's most august religious institution has decades of experience fighting extremism through education and preaching. Every year the religious institution sends hundreds of preachers around the globe to help millions of Muslims understand moderate Islam. Since 9/11 Al-Azhar has helped religious and political leaders in many countries to issue fatwas that ban Muslims from using violence. In March 2010 leading Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mohamed Tahir-ul-Qadri issued a 600-page fatwa on terrorism and suicide bombings endorsed by Al-Azhar. The fatwa prohibited the killing of Muslim and non-Muslim civilians and the destruction of property and places of worship. It also affirmed the unlawfulness of imposing Islam on others and stated that the only permissible way to change a government in Islam is through peaceful and legal means.
