By Marwa Osman*
Saudi Arabia is an absolute theocracy where the King has ultimate authority over the cabinet, legislature, and judiciary. Religious minorities do not have the right to practice their religion. Proselytizing by non-Muslims, including the distribution of non-Muslim religious materials such as Bibles, is illegal. It is not a secret anymore that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the fountainhead of extremism that promotes and legitimizes violence which lies with the fanatical “Wahhabi” strain of a distorted Islam centered in Saudi Arabia.
As per all the above, which is only a fraction of the troublesome human rights violations that occur inside the Kingdom, apparently the House of Saud have now turned to promote the intolerant creed they play domestically towards their regional adversaries.
In a monumental campaign to bulldoze freedom of speech in the Arab world, Al Saud ordered the Egyptian satellite company Nilesat to stop the broadcasts of Lebanese Al Manar TV station which is known to be the voice of the Islamic Resistance movement Hezbollah amid rising tensions between the Lebanese government and the Persian Gulf monarchy over the party's fight in the ongoing war in Syria against Wahhabi inspired Takfiri radicals.
Al-Manar went off air in Lebanon for a few hours in the morning of April 6, a day after Nilesat informed the Telecom Ministry it would drop the channel broadcasts because they allegedly "provoke sectarian strife." Nilesat's decision to drop Al Manar broadcasts followed a similar move by Saudi Arabia-hosted ArabSat back in December.
The cut of Al Manar's transmission came ahead of an expected visit in the same week by Saudi King Salman to Egypt, which operates Nilesat. Saudi Arabia had donated billions of dollars to prop up the country's economy.
In a statement released on the same day of the ban, Hezbollah accused Egypt of total submission to Saudi Arabia in its attack on the Resistance. Hezbollah also strongly condemned the "unjust decision" to take it off the air, calling the move "a blatant violation of freedom of opinion and expression and an attempt to silence the voice of resistance and righteousness." Al-Manar's TV General Manager Ibrahim Farhat said the move was politically motivated. "This is a political decision, not an industry decision. Al-Manar has nothing to do with sectarian strife," he was quoted as saying by AFP.
In response to the ban, Al Manar declared in a solidarity conference on April 20 in Beirut that “al-Manar is the voice of the Bahrainis, Saudis, Iraqis, Syrians, Tunisians, Egyptians and all the Arabs and Muslims,” vowing to continue its coverage of the developments in the region and the entire Muslim world.
The television channel also emphasized that it will keep up its support for the Palestinian cause, adding that ArabSat and Nilesat’s move cannot stop al-Manar from “conveying the resistance’s voice in face of oppression.”
Al Manar reported on its website that its viewers could still watch the channel in Lebanon via the Russian satellite Express AM6 as local cable TV providers reprogramed satellite receivers to resume Al Manar's transmission to its viewers in Lebanon.
In a similar move in November 2015, the Lebanese al-Mayadeen television channel was also stopped being broadcast via Riyadh-based Arabsat after a guest criticized Saudi Arabia’s handling of a tragic human crush in Mina, near the Saudi city of Mecca, during Hajj rituals in late September.
Al-Mayadeen’s Director Ghassan bin Jiddu referred to the channel’s coverage of news concerning Palestinian resistance as well as the Saudi vile war on Yemen as other reasons why pressure was exerted on al-Mayadeen, slamming ArabSat’s move as a violation of freedom of speech and the rights of media.
The diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia have gradually deteriorated since the kingdom announced in February it was reassessing its ties with Lebanon because allegedly Hezbollah "became in control of Lebanon's political will." A couple of weeks back, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television station also closed its offices in Beirut, citing "security concerns" and unlawfully laid off 27 of its employees.
In March, the Saudi-led Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) labelled Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and prohibited citizens and residents of the PGCC countries of having any links with the Lebanese Resistance group. The main impulse behind this odious move was the fact that Hezbollah has been gaining grounds while fighting alongside the Syrian Arab Army to defeat terrorist insurgents who are greatly supported and funded by the US and its Persian Gulf allies.
Nonetheless, the Saudi-Israeli rapprochement is also a massive reason behind the Saudi attack against Hezbollah and Al Manar. In an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV channel earlier last month, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah spoke about the decision to blacklist Hezbollah as a ‘terrorist organization’. Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that such decision was spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, noting that Hezbollah possesses information that Riyadh had intention to crush Hezbollah since the July war in 2006. However, he said he would not disclose such information because of local considerations.
“I have information about the Saudi scheme to crush the resistance but I will not talk about it because of local considerations. Saudis spent millions of dollars in a bid to destroy the resistance.”
“The decision to blacklist Hezbollah is a Saudi decision. The kingdom has the financial, media and religious power in which can use to threat whoever opposes it,” his eminence told al-Mayadeen.
Meanwhile, Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed that the Saudi scheme has failed in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, noting that the Al-Saud regime is stressed and launching a war against Hezbollah because of this failure across many fronts.
“The Saudi regime wanted to hold Hezbollah accountable for its failure in several fronts.”
Though, Hezbollah still has popularity in the Arab and the Islamic world, Sayyed Nasrallah said, noting that the Saudi regime doesn’t tolerate any kind of opposition.
“The Saudi regime fears any kind of opposition even if it was by word.”
* Marwa Osman is a Media studies university lecturer at the Lebanese International University and a political commentator from Lebanon. She is also a member of The Blue Peace initiative's media network. She hosted a political show on 'Al Etejah English' TV channel, and she is often seen on 'Russia Today' as a panelist.
The views, opinions and positions expressed on Op-Ed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or positions of Khamenei.ir
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