Omar Foda looks at the video hagiographies of three Coptic saints and finds that this little-studied genre draws heavily on the tropes of the Egyptian musalsal, including very colloquial Arabic language and exclusive use of melodrama in the presentation of emotions

Maurice Chammah analyzes the thinking behind the Islam-oriented music television channel 4Shbab, noting contradictions in its vision of the interaction between Islam and the West. He looks at the audience which 4Shbab assumes already exists and the audience which it hopes to create, and discusses Western media reactions to the project.

Is the Egyptian government using new Salafi stations to counter the more politically active Muslim Brotherhood? Nathan Field and Ahmed Hamam on the growing popularity of ultra-conservative religious programming.

Funded by Saudi investors, the Islamic music video network 4Shbab is the latest project of Ahmed Abu Haiba, former producer for the Amr Khaled series Kalam min al-Qalb. Video segment prepared by Ismail Elmokadem along with three video clips currently on air.

Moez Masoud is a 27-year-old Egyptian who hosts his own English-language Islamic talk shows, Parables from the Quran and Stairway to Paradise, on the Saudi-owned ART satellite network. With several new TV contracts in the works, including the possibility of a show on an American channel, the handsome young economics graduate …

An elderly man lays bedridden in his lower middle-class home in Shoubra, a largely Christian neighborhood near the heart of Cairo. Paralyzed for some 14 years following an injury to his spine, the man rarely leaves his home, as doing so has become an unbearable hassle. Until recently, this misfortunate …

Islamists have been some of the most ardent foes of reality programs on Arab television, forcing MBC’s Al Ra’is (Big Brother) off the air and staging protests or boycotts against LBC’s Star Academy and Al Wadi (The Farm). But now it seems at least some Islamists have decided to adopt a different approach: If you can’t …

The following article is adapted from Pintak's new book, Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam & the War of Ideas, published in January 2006 by Pluto Books UK and the University of Michigan Press. Abstract A radical restructuring of the global media landscape and the emergence of information ghettos, in …

Female preachers are proving themselves a force to be reckoned with on Arab satellite TV channels, preaching head-to-head with men in shows dedicated to religious debate. Appearing on such channels as Dream, Orbit, Iqra, ART, MBC, and Al Jazeera, these preachers often issue religious rulings (fatwas) on the air and …

Mohammad Hammam, Executive Manager of Iqra Satellite Channel, Talks to TBS As one of the fastest growing religions in the world, Islam has become both a media focus and a media victim in recent years.  According to 30-year-old Muhammad Hammam, executive manager of Iqra, the Arab world's longest-established Islamic satellite …