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Al-Qaeda, opponents wage media war in Middle East

A scene from Hour el Ayn is pictured on a TV broadcast in Beirut on Oct. 21. The mini-series depicts al-Qaeda as vicious and corrupt. PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE

The battle for Muslim hearts and minds is playing out on TV screens and computer monitors these days, with the alternately fasting and feasting Ramadan masses presenting a ready audience.

At least two groundbreaking TV series focus on the damage that extremism is wreaking on the Muslim world, while a media organization closely associated with al-Qaeda has begun a high-quality Internet news broadcast to counter what it calls "lies and propaganda" on even Arab satellite news channels like Al-Jazeera, which has been blamed for under-reporting al-Qaeda activities.

The two mini-series are just a small part of a vast lineup of Ramadan comedies, period dramas and love stories playing on more than 100 satellite TV channels this year.

About two-thirds of the original Arabic TV programming produced during the year is broadcast in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when families gather nightly to break their fast, and advertisers spend more than half of their budgets to reach them.

But the two mini-series represent something new for Arab audiences.

"It is the first time in Arab drama that you see people who believe in the Koran and faith doing bad," said Ali al-Ahmed, director of Abu Dhabi TV.

Every night at 11:30pm in Saudi Arabia -- prime time during Ramadan -- his channel broadcasts The Rough Road, which tells the story of a fictional TV correspondent producing a documentary about mujahidin in Afghanistan, only to discover corruption and opportunism in their cause.

At 11pm, the Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting Co, shows Hour el Ayn (the beautiful virgins) based loosely on the true story of a militant attack on an expatriate compound in Saudi Arabia last year that left 17 people dead. Produced in Syria, the series begins in the attack's aftermath, with a wounded woman telling her story to a reporter, traces the lives of victims and attackers and their troubling cause, and emphasizing the viciousness and corruption of al-Qaeda.

The series is dedicated nightly to the "memory of the innocent victims of terror attacks" and opens with the quote "silence in the face of crime is another crime."

"We have allowed the extremists to tell their story," Ahmed said, noting militants' exploitation of major media to publicize their attacks. "Now we are warning the quiet majority to watch out for them. We are telling the society to be careful of these people, and we are allowing the drama to serve this cause."

The Internet news show also seeks to attract the big audiences available during Ramadan. Young Arabs in particular flock to the their computers after the evening feast, causing download speeds to droop.

Just before Ramadan, the Global Islamic Media Front, a group widely seen as a mouthpiece for al-Qaeda, issued a call on several Internet message boards calling on Muslims to volunteer their video production, editing and publishing skills.

Late last month, the Front started its half-hour news show, Voice of the Caliphate, which is posted on Web sites whose addresses are regularly changed.

"This is clearly intended to allow the armchair jihadis to get involved, from wherever they are," said Stephen Ulph, a researcher with the Jamestown Foundation and an analyst at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Studies.

Internet watchers say they have detected an uptick in Internet activity this month too.

"They are irritated by the Arabic satellite channels for not flagging enough of their operations," Ulph said.

"Their irritation with the mainstream media channels is strong, and their latest TV program is a result of this," he said.

In one recent program, a news anchor in covered face welcomed viewers with greetings for a Blessed Ramadan before delivering news of attacks by jihadists in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

"This is a media war between al-Qaeda and its opponents," said Montasser al-Zayat, a lawyer and onetime spokesman for a militant group in Egypt.

He said Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No.2 leader of al-Qaeda, was "keen to broadcast videotapes because he wants to send a message to his people that the group's organizational structure is still there and to tell the Americans, `We are here.'"
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