Jihad TV in Europe

[Wall Street Journal Europe] Mark Dubowitz and Roberta Bonazzi - The Iranian-backed Hamas and Hizbullah are deploying terrorist television stations in their war against Western democracies. Thanks to Arab satellite companies, Hizbullah's al-Manar and Hamas' al-Aqsa beam their incitement and hatred into European living rooms, radicalizing Muslim immigrants throughout the Continent. Following a 2006 letter to then-President George Bush signed by a majority of the U.S. Senate, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Treasury Department designated al-Manar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity. In 2004, the EU and the governments of France, Spain and Holland determined that al-Manar violated a European law prohibiting incitement to hatred in broadcasting and European satellite providers Eutelsat, Globecast, Hispasat and New Skies Satellite ceased transmission of the station. Yet the Saudi-based, Arab League-owned Arabsat and the Egyptian government-owned Nilesat still allow al-Manar to broadcast incitement and violence to Europe's Muslim population. Al-Manar has become alarmingly popular with Europe's young Arabic-speaking Muslims. On one German television program, young Muslims in Berlin cited the station as a factor influencing their hatred of the U.S. and Jews. Mr. Dubowitz is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ms. Bonazzi is executive director of the European Foundation for Democracy.


2009-02-19 06:00:00

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