CAIRO: A draft resolution was presented to the United States Congress to classify a number of Arab television channels as terrorist organizations as they incite violence against the United States and Americans, according to a copy published on the Library of Congress website.
Additionally, the resolution called for classifying the satellites that provide service for these channels as terrorist organizations, specifically the Egyptian satellite Nilesat and Arabsat, which is provided by the Arab League.
Draft resolution number 1308 titled “Condemning the broadcasting of incitement to violence against the Americans and the United States in media based in the Middle East, was presented to the United States House of Representatives by Republican Congressman Gus Bilirakis on June 26.
The resolution referred to five television channels: the Palestinian Al-Aqsa, Lebanese Al-Manar, Iranian Al-Alam, Iraqi Al-Zawra, and Iraqi Al-Rafidayn. It also accused them of sponsoring the “recruitment, fundraising, and propaganda of terrorism against the United States.
The preamble of the draft resolution stated that “Hezbollah leader Hassan Hasrallah and other Hezbollah officials frequently appear on Al-Manar to call for Death to America.’
It also claimed that on March 30, 2008, “Al-Aqsa TV broadcast a puppet show that depicted an Arab child stabbing the President of the United States to death and turning the White House into a mosque; and that on March 6, 2008, “Al-Alam broadcast a warning from an Iraqi insurgent that if the USS Cole was not withdrawn from off the coast of Lebanon, his group would be targeting all the United States interests, especially the warships [docked] in Umm Qasr beaches in southern Iraq’.
As for Al-Zawra, the draft said that it “broadcast videos of violent attacks against United States forces in Iraq that showed the destruction of United States humvees and armored vehicles ; while Al-Rafidayn has “repeatedly broadcast video clips produced by Sunni insurgent and terrorist groups in Iraq, and the channel’s news broadcasts have frequently broadcast videos, poems, and songs that praise those groups and their attacks on United States forces in Iraq.
NileSat and ArabSat were consequently condemned in the resolution as these channels are broadcast through their satellites.
The draft resolution has also urged governments in the Middle East and American allies to publicly condemn the broadcast of incitement to violence against the United States and called on American president, George W.
Bush, to specifically classify NileSat, ArabSat and Al-Aqsa as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). In addition, they also urged him to “take into consideration state sponsorship of anti-American incitement to violence when determining the level of assistance to, frequency and nature of relations with, regional states, as stated in the resolution.
“They must be joking! This shows how the American government, or at least some of its policy-makers, is dealing with the Muslim world in a racist way, which will in turn create hatred towards them from this part of the world, said Diaa Rashwan from Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategies Studies.
“NileSat and ArabSat are the most important satellites in the Middle East, as one is headed by the Egyptian government and the other by the Arab League, so even if the resolution is approved there is nothing they can do about it, Rashwan added.
When contacted by Daily News Egypt, neither NileSat nor ArabSat were not available for comment.ot available for comment.
