Islam by Satellite

1 April 2009

During 2007 the Arabic satellite TV channel Iqraa broadcast the show Iqraa's Beauty Queen which the producers conceived as an Islamic version of the famous show America's Next Top Model. In Iqraa's version, therefore, the girl who won the competition did not win because she was more beautiful than the other 8,000 contestants, but because she possessed the inner values becoming a proper Muslim girl - self-sacrifice and tenderness.

Since Iqraa was launched in 1998, a number of similar satellite channels have emerged, and now, ten years on, there are 47 Arabic satellite TV channels with a wide range of broadcasting profiles.

In the dissertation Identities and Lifestyle on Islamic Satellite TV, PhD fellow Ehab Galal investigates the ways in which these mainly Islamic satellite TV channels construct religious identity. Galal, who is affiliated with the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, has thus analysed a large number of different TV shows in order to assess the influence that the satellite TV channels exercise on the Muslim world.

Based on his research, Galal concludes that the Islamic satellite channels promote a conservative and strict Islamic stance aimed at revitalising Muslim identity and that they very deliberately offer an alternative to secular and more liberal Islamic communities.

Fatwa TV

During his research, Galal found that the TV shows could be divided into three different categories: women's shows, children's shows and those he calls fatwa shows.

• The fatwa shows provide - through religious interpretation of the Koran - the guiding principles for proper Muslim behaviour in everyday life.
• The women's shows portray Muslim women as symbols for the moral community, and the self-sacrificing girl is seen as an ideal for Muslim women.
• The children's shows guide the children through Islamic principles, and the shows may be seen as an attempt at directing the children to the right Islamic path from an early age.

PhD Defense

Galal defends his dissertation on 3 April at 14.00 in lecture hall 23.0.49 at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Njalsgade 126, 2300 Copenhagen S. The defense is open to the public.