Many Wary of Faith-Based TV

At a Heliopolis church, young Copts were handing out promotional posters for the new Agaphy TV station. The posters -- adorned with a picture of Jesus and the biblical verse "A door was open in heaven. Rev. 4:1" -- were meant to convince potential viewers that watching the channel may help them better understand their religion, and thus "open a small doorway in heaven for them," one of the channel's organisers told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Agaphy TV was launched on Monday, following nearly seven months of preparatory work. The channel's name is a Greek-Coptic word that means the "love of God". Still in an experimental phase, the channel plans to broadcast a variety of religious programming, including hymns, holy liturgies, spiritual songs, lectures, documentaries on ancient churches and monasteries, as well as shows for children and young people.

Owned by the Egyptian Coptic Church, Agaphy TV is funded by donations from Copts from all around the world, and especially the US. According to its supervisor, Bishop Boutros, Agaphy TV's goal is to provide Copts who may not have access to a place of worship, or who live abroad, with a link to the church.

Boutros also hopes to use the channel to promote Egypt's Coptic tourist sites. "It's our national duty," he said, suggesting that the channel might even seek help from state-run Egyptian TV, in the form of making the relevant touristic documentaries available.

While Christians and Muslims alike were anxious to see what the new channel had to offer, many viewers were unable to find it on their satellite receivers. Agaphy TV broadcasts from Telestar 12, a US-operated satellite that provides feeds to Egypt and several other African countries. In the Arab world, however, Telestar is not as popular as Egypt's Nilesat or the Arab world's Arabsat satellites, or even the European Hotbird. Boutros said the church was forced to use the US-operated satellite because "by law, Nilesat does not broadcast religious channels, and Hotbird is full of pornography." As for Iqra' and Al-Majd -- widely seen as Islamic channels -- Nilesat administrators said these are considered "general channels with religious inclinations," rather than "purely religious channels".

The timing of the channel's launch has also contributed to the controversy surrounding it. It began broadcasting less than a month after sectarian tension in Alexandria over a church play that was deemed offensive by Muslims resulted in clashes that killed three and injured hundreds.

Many viewers are anxious to see whether the new channel will follow in the footsteps of a Cyprus-based Christian satellite channel called Al-Hayat, which is popular amongst Egyptian Copts. Al-Hayat has been criticised in Egypt on several occasions, most pointedly for airing a programme that hosts priests who are critical of Islamic beliefs. Amina, a Cairo University journalism student, said she would be watching carefully to see if the new channel was going to show similar sorts of offensive material, or harbour any anti-Islam stances.

Boutros told Al-Ahram Weekly that Agaphy TV would only focus on "the church, its beliefs and the Holy Bible". He said the channel had "a unique identity," and its aim was not to upset Muslims. Besides, with Pope Shenouda III guiding a general committee of 15 bishops working on the project, "nothing could go wrong," Boutros said.

Some would beg to differ. Prominent Coptic thinker Milad Hanna said satellite channels were not the right venue for religious education, which should mainly take place in mosques and churches. Using satellite channels for religious aims would only result in sectarian strife, Hanna said. "Egypt would be better off if its secular Copts were more organised. Instead, things like this television station will only propagate religious ideas, and that is what leads to clashes like the ones that took place in Alexandria."

Defending the channel, Boutros said, "all we want to do is to promote our religion in the proper manner, to counter foreign channels that promote Christianity in strange ways."

Cairo University journalism professor Farouk Abu Zeid said much of the criticism of the channel was "blowing things out of proportion". It was only fair, he said, that Copts -- who make up some 10 per cent of Egypt's population -- make use of the booming satellite TV industry. "Just as Muslims air their beliefs to the world, Christians should be allowed to do so too," Abu Zeid said.

For Awadeddin Imam, a sheikh at a Heliopolis mosque, the matter was highly sensitive and complicated. "When Copts feel they need to start a channel for themselves, that means they think they are not being properly represented in Egypt, and that is not true." Imam blamed the tendency amongst Copts to exaggerate about being discriminated against as one of the main reasons why Muslim-Coptic tensions occur.