Saudi Billionaire Prince's Hate TV
Wed, Jun 21, 2006 at 4:12:25 pm PDT
Earlier this year, billionaire Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Abd Al-Aziz launched a new satellite TV channel, Al-Resalah, to “project Islam as a religion of moderation and tolerance.”
Today in the New York Sun, Steven Stalinsky of MEMRI looks at the kind of moderate, tolerant messages that are being broadcast by the prince’s channel: Saudi Billionaire Prince’s Hate TV.
“Prince Al-Waleed, Avid Supporter of Peace” was the headline of a June article in the Middle East Times International that reported on his generosity, powerful supporters, and investments in America. The article noted the prince’s $100,000 donation to New York’s Institute for Middle East Peace and Development and a visit to the prince’s Riyadh office by dignitaries including the recently appointed treasury secretary, Henry Paulson.
Given the millions the prince has spent on public relations, Al-Resalah’s excessive anti-Western content is somewhat astonishing. It is no different from any other hate-filled Saudi TV channel. Take, for example, Sheik Ahmad Al-Kubeisi, who appeared on Al-Resalah on March 15 and said: “When there is no hope for peace, there is no alternative but to resort to the gun. ... The West’s conflict with Islam and the Muslims is eternal, a preordained destiny that cannot be avoided until judgment day.”
On March 7, the Arab News quoted Prince Al-Waleed as saying he plans to launch an English-language channel for a Western audience. As such, guests will include Muslim Americans - whom the channel aims to influence - such as Salah Sultan, who appeared May 17.
Mr. Sultan has been called one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars. He is a signatory to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ fatwa against terrorism and is active in many American-Muslim organizations. In his appearance, Mr. Sultan praised a Yemeni sheik, Abd al-Majid Al-Zindani, whom the American government has categorized as a specially designated global terrorist for his loyalty to Osama bin Laden and his support of Al Qaeda. Mr. Sultan said of the attacks of September 11, 2001: “It was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the world.” [The video is viewable here. —ed.] ...
On March 31, the secretary-general of Al-Resalah, Sheik Tareq Al-Suweidan, gave a speech at Dialogue between Europe and Muslims, a convention in Copenhagen that the channel was covering. “The West have done strategic mistakes ... they underestimate the power of Islam,” he said. Sheik Suweidan praised the election of Hamas and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, warning: “The West have no chance but to deal with Islam, and we are extending our hands in peace and dialogue - you have slapped it. We do not accept insults.”
On April 6, on a program on Al-Resalah produced by the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments, Daw’a, and Guidance, the Saudi author Muhammad Al-Arifi said the West is inhabited by “infidels” committing adultery. “If he [the infidel] feels like having any type of sexual relations, he does ... they have organizations for homosexuals, organizations for people who marry animals,” he said. Mr. Arifi claimed that Dutch women are so promiscuous that most of them are not sure who fathered their children. [The video is viewable here. —ed.]
