The holy fasting month of Ramadan is the month Muslims believe the Qur’an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad more than 1400 years ago. In this month, Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking and having sex from dawn to dusk. It is also highly commendable for Muslims to allocate more time to the recitation of the Qur’an, to show more benevolence, and to perform Tarawih (additional nightly) prayers at mosques. This had been the image of Ramadan in the minds of Arab Muslims until satellite broadcasting made its debut in the Arab world in the 1990s. Since then, a massive number of free-to-air Arab satellite channels have been launched, the majority of which are music and entertainment channels. Every year, these satellite stations, as well as local ones, target the Arab viewers with a heavy dosage of soap operas and other entertainment programmes, leaving a very little room for religious shows. Ramadan has become the most competitive period throughout the year for TV production companies which aim to make the highest possible revenues during the holy month. TV channels scramble to buy dramas and other programmes, hoping to achieve as much profits as possible through advertisements. The average advertising rate for a free-to-air satellite TV channel in the Arab world is $3,362 for a 30-second advertisement during peak time. This year, Egypt alone has produced 50 TV serials, at an estimated cost of one billion Egyptian pounds. In Ramadan, many people now get glued to TV screens, spending hours and hours tuning between channels to follow as many soaps as possible. It seems it has become part of the culture that people wait for Ramadan not because it is a month of piety, contemplation, benevolence, and introspection, but because it has become a month of TV soaps and entertainment programming. This seems to have undermined the original, sublime meaning of the holy month. In an article in the daily Al-Shourouk, Salama Ahmad Salama gave a very accurate description of the situation. “Ramadan has been hijacked by the TV serials,†Salama wrote. “It is no longer as it was a few years ago,†he added. This situation seems to have raised the ire of faithful Muslims who urged people, on internet forums and Facebook, to “boycott†the TV serials broadcast during Ramadan, hoping to help restore to the holy month the original meaning it has lost. **Hamza is a regular contributor to Bikya Masr. BM
