Javid Hassan, Arab News Staff

RIYADH, 9 March 2004 — A senior Saudi judge has blasted Al-Hurra, the US Congress-funded Arabic satellite channel, saying it is “waging a war against Islam and Americanizing the world.”

Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Khudairi, a judge in the Supreme Court of Riyadh, told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, “This channel spreads corruption, and those working with it are American agents.”

He declared it was therefore forbidden to watch the channel, participate in its programs, advertise on it, or contribute to it in any other way.

“The objective of the channel is to facilitate American hegemony over the world in the religious, political and social fields.” The channel’s logo — a wandering horse — had a deeper connotation that could only be understood by religious experts, he said, but did not elaborate.

“I went through many reports on the channel before it was launched and I came to the conclusion that it is directed toward the Arabs with the sole objective of weakening and controlling them,” Al-Khudairi said.

The judge pointed out that “the ongoing ideological war is clandestinely aimed at destroying the Arab identity and the characteristics of Islam,” making it “an extension of anti-Islamic propaganda calling for ‘infidelity.’”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Arab viewer said one of the propaganda ploys of Al-Hurra was to broadcast educational programs targeting the younger generation. Once they start watching them regularly, they discover that the programs are “education-coated US-made freedom pills.”

But Arab viewers point out that the channel conducts “no-holds barred” interviews in which criticism of US foreign policy is freely aired. An example of this was the interview with Sate Nuruddin, a well-known Lebanese journalist, who accused the Bush administration of lacking credibility on every Arab issue.