Al-Azhar on Air

Al-Azhar University is studying the possibility of launching a new religious satellite channel sometime in the near future. The channel's purpose, University President Ahmed Omar Hashem told Al-Ahram Weekly, would be "to refute people's misconceptions about Islam and confront the unrelenting Western campaigns aiming to tarnish Islam". Basically, the channel would convey "the true and peaceful message of Islam as a religion", explained Hashem, who is also a prominent religious scholar.

According to Hashem, the new channel would feature plenty of room for groundbreaking debates about controversial modern topics like organ transplants, cloning, and sex change operations. "The new channel will not only deal with traditional religious issues," Hashem said, "but will also include talk shows, and special programmes tackling women's and children's issues as well." A large portion of the programming would also be reserved for straightforward educational shows meant to help non-Muslims understand Islamic law, the Qur'an, and the Hadith (Prophet Mohamed's sayings).

The idea for the new channel seems to fit snugly into the framework of increased government interest in promoting a modern and tolerant Islamic discourse, as well as controlling messages conveyed through religious channels. Some media pundits, however, were sceptical of the project's chances of success. Hassan Wagih, an expert on cross-cultural communications at Al-Azhar University, said, "Arab countries have over 4,800 information offices all over the world. Before we think of the time and money involved in launching a new channel to convey an Islamic message, we should make sure it will add value to the already existing channels." Otherwise, Wagih said, "it will be just another case of a blind man describing an elephant."

According to Wagih, "the real question is how to deliver the message to the Western world. In order to undertake this job properly, we will need to have very specialised teams. We need preachers who speak foreign languages and are trained in special skills such as debate, negotiation and discourse analysis."

There have also been questions about whether the new channel will seek out the help of either the Ministry of Information or the Ministry of Higher Education. "So far, we have not decided on this matter," Hashem said.

Pundits have also been wondering whether the new channel would simply become a governmental mouthpiece on critical issues such as the "Islamic economic system" and the legality, under Shari'a, of such things as bank interest. Wagih said, "the new channel should be established as an independent entity with a wide margin of freedom in order to gain credibility." Wagih is concerned that the new channel will metamorphose into a vehicle for conservative thought delivered by aging Al- Azhar scholars using an antiquated style of presentation.

In any case, the channel would join the ranks of Iqra' and Al-Majd, two Arab-based channels with much the same agenda. Sally Seif El-Nasr, a housewife who spends long hours watching Iqra', said she was worried about the new channel merely adopting the government's point of view on controversial issues. "That would bring on a crisis," she said, "because most viewers will accept the channel's perspective simply because of Al- Azhar's historical role."

According to Cairo University mass communications professor Safwat El-Alem, there are already too many government-owned channels on air. Al-Azhar University, he suggested, should make use of existing satellite channels such as Nile TV and Al-Tanweer instead of launching into the business themselves.

Seif El-Nasr disagrees. "It's healthy for viewers to have access to different types of religious channels," she said. "We already have three channels playing Arab and Western music, why not dedicate more channels to religion?"

El-Alem's fears are centred on the fact that even though "Al-Azhar University has the most celebrated scholars, it lacks the technical means and human resources to launch a religious channel." The media expert said more research had to be done regarding "which Western channels attack Islam and the proper ways to refute their allegations."

Hashem was confident that the new channel would add to the fare already presented by currently existing channels, by presenting in-depth discussions of Islamic law, rather than just the opinions of younger preachers. That is one of the reasons why experts like Abdel- Rashid Salem, an Islamic studies professor at Sixth of October University, have become vocal champions of the idea. The problem with other religious channels such as Iqra' and Al-Majd, he said, is that they rely too heavily on young scholars. He sees the new channel's potential success as two-fold. For one, "the new station will be an excellent way for Muslims living outside the Muslim world to learn the true Islamic perspective on many current controversial issues," Salem said. At the same time, it will cause "weak preachers such as Amr Khaled -- who are unfortunately very popular amongst the younger generations despite the fact that they have no academic religious background -- to fade into the background."