Mystery Tribute Channel to Saddam Hussein Launched
BBC: A television channel dedicated to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has appeared on Arab satellite networks.

Its launch came on the third anniversary, on the Islamic calendar, of the former president's execution.

It is not clear who is behind the channel which broadcasts the speeches, images and even poetry of Saddam Hussein, backed with patriotic music.

It is broadcast from outside Iraq and some analysts suspect his former political supporters of bankrolling it.

Saddam Hussein's family and some exiled members of the Baath party he once headed have denied any connection to it.

The Associated Press news agency said it contacted a man called Mohammed Jarboua who claimed to be the channel's chairman, in the Syrian capital Damascus. However, his claim can not be verified. 'Glorification of a tyrant' >>> | Monday, November 30, 2009

Moderate Islam Takes to the Airwaves
THE MEDIA LINE: A new channel is paving the way for a new generation of Islamic TV.

[Cairo, Egypt] The man on the television appears enraged, talking fast, yelling and demanding Muslims to follow the “right path of faith.” Not too far, at a nearby table, two young Egyptian girls, shrouded in their colorful hijabs – headscarves - watch the white clad sheikh speak. They turn to each other and their glances say it all: this is not what they are looking for in Islamic television.

The café, with its Islamic preachers blaring on most Fridays and often at other times during the week, have become more commonplace in an Egypt growing progressively more conservative by the day, but there are many who are fighting against this current, especially young veiled women.

Heba is a 22-year-old recent college graduate who studied media. She has worn the veil since she was 18-years-old, but these diatribes of elderly preachers is too much, she says, highlighting the growing gulf that exists in Egypt.

“I just don’t like how angry they sound and how judgmental they have become,” she told The Media Line, asking the waiter to change the channel. Her friend Sara nodded in agreement.

Both are part of the growing trend among 20-something Egyptian women looking for a more restrained approach to Islamic television. >>> Joseph Mayton | Monday, September 28, 2009