Yemen television offers anti-terrorism programmes

Yemenis watch a television broadcast about the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

Yemenis watch a television broadcast about the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

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During the month of Ramadan, Yemeni satellite television channels are broadcasting a variety of programmes that raise awareness about terrorism and extremism, promote moderation and discourage violence.

Some programmes address viewers indirectly through dramas and variety shows, while others directly address them through religious shows.

"This year’s Ramadan programming promotes moderation, combats terrorism and endorses a culture that renounces hatred and violence," said Mohamed al-Radmi, programme director for Yemen's Channel One.

Al-Radmi cited the drama "Khafafeesh al-Dhalam" and the series "Aini Aynak", both of which focus on the fight against terrorism and feature a dramatic, popular style that allows viewers to understand the message.

Al-Radmi also noted the poetry contest programme "Sada al-Qawafi", whose objective is to combat terrorism and violence and promote tolerance through poetry, an important tool for raising awareness in Yemeni society and a popular means of communication in the community, he said.

Al-Radmi added that scholars and preachers are also appearing in religious programmes to connect with the audience.

While al-Radmi praised television programmes that combat terrorism, he also criticised the performance of official and private Yemeni media, saying "they have not given the issue the attention it deserves considering the consequences, risk and size of this phenomenon on Yemeni society".

General manager for Saba Satellite Television Ahmed al-Hawri told Al-Shorfa the channel devoted several episodes of religious programmes to raise awareness about terrorism, promote tolerance and moderation and warn against radicalism, extremism and hatred through the social and religious programme "Uswa Hasana".

"We strived this year in our programming to be more attuned to people's concerns and share in their happiness and sorrows with the programme 'Bouyout Dafia', which is devoted to the Yemeni family and focuses on desirable behaviour, including the rejection of extremism and terrorism, and gives viewers an opportunity to obtain legal opinions based upon Sharia," al-Hawri said.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Ghanem, Chairman of Aden Staellite Television (Channel Two), said the channel sought to present a narrative in its Ramadan programmes that encompasses political, social, economic, cultural and intellectual issues.

"Religious programmes examine different aspects of moderation, combating terrorism, and rejecting extremism," he said, noting that these topics "occupied a large segment of air time this year through two Qur'an contest programmes and others.

He cited programmes such as "Fee Thilal al-Hadith al-Nabawi", "Yuseekum Allah", "Islah al-Nafs", and "All-lulu wa al-Murjan Fee Thanaya Ramadan", all of which promote moderation and discourage hatred of others and violence.

However, political analyst Mohammed al-Ghabri criticised what he called "the absence of an official body to draw media plans to confront terrorism and extremism at the national level, culturally and intellectually."

"All Ramadan programmes on Yemeni satellite channels that promote moderation and combat terrorism and extremist ideology are the result of personal efforts and are well-made and very influential," al-Ghabri said.

Yet, "their effect is temporary because these campaigns lack continuity and are not run on a regular basis year round in a well-planned manner," he added.

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    ﺧﻠﻴﻞ ﺍﺑﺮﺍﻫﻴﻢ

    2012-9-9

    There are a lot of images which the terrorists exploit for the sake of their terrorist acts, to intimidate the citizens, and challenge the governments through these acts and violent images, which are carried out in the Arab World by the terrorists who claim that they are struggling in the way of Allah, and they are preserving Islam through shedding blood, and the loss of the secure civilians’ souls. And they can be Muslims, but all their thoughts and beliefs are only lies, and not related at all to the Islamic religion, which is based on mercy and tolerance among Muslims, and respect for non-Muslims, and never to attack them. They are relating lies to Islam, and creating a contaminated image in the non-Muslims’ minds, which lead to treating the Muslims with hatred and violence. There are a lot of Arab extremists, working at the organizations to implement their filthy crimes against the citizens as their primary target is challenging the government, weakening their strength, and not to support Islam as they claim. Most of the terrorist operations are done by the foreign countries, aside from what they are doing in the Arab World, and in addition to the crimes which happen in the Gulf countries, which have a negative impact on all the relations of the Arab countries with these other countries, from the point of view of tourism, politics and commerce, and what is related as well to health, education, industry, and so on, as all of them are affected by terrorist crimes. A lot of the Arab countries are suffering from their severe need for the foreign and western countries, which help them to develop and grow in the fields of life because of the development of the western countries, which is absent in the Arab countries, but terrorism faces all of that and results in seriously jeopardizing the relations and policies between these countries.

  • سعيد غانم

    2012-8-26

    The importance of the Arab support to Yemen is to stress that all the Arabs are brothers in religion and Arabism, which never differs and which is an integral part of any Arab Muslim who projects his home and his country. Of course, we see that the Arab support to Yemen is insufficient and cannot even solve the problem partially as if the problem in Yemen is a child fight. The Arab support must be from all the Arab States and it should be better and better until it reaches the highest possible limit when it comes to the financial and military assistance, and aids in order to help Yemen to confront the terrorists and the extremists. The Arab support should include establishment of megaprojects in Bahrain to develop it. Consequently, this would happen if the State possesses the necessary abilities and expertise in the necessary fields in Yemen. Yemen has many open fields in front of all parties and the Arab States should not allow the foreign State to precede them in working inside the Arab States. However, all this should be according to the applicable laws and procedures. Law must always be protected because each profession has honor and no company or institution, or even individual can transgress these limits. The Arab support must be better than this.

  • ابو شاكر

    2012-8-22

    The danger of terrorism, extremism and their spread are part of the things that many are frightened of. Terrorism has no religion as everybody knows, so the heavenly religions and the great Islam on top of them urge peace and renounce all kinds of terrorism and extremism. Hence, we would like to clarify the seriousness of terrorism and extremist movements of terrorism that form great threat upon the Muslims and Muslim nations as a result of some corrupted minds that were corrupted by the stupid ruling systems which rule most of Islamic nations, and deliberately destroy education in order to make their peoples ignorant and do not know anything about their religion or world. Therefore, from this perspective, came the ignorance that prevails most of the Islamic nations and its peoples. Also, the ignorance here is not that one concerning the worldly sciences. No, it is the one concerning their religion issues especially since it adheres to matters of verdicts and legal opinions which are said via the great Muslim scientists. Therefore, we watch some youth who abandon the customary due to the exploitation of some of the dangerous and, at the same time, smart extremist movements of terrorism that can access the minds and hearts of the youth, and can persuade them that they are doing the right thing, although, it is a great sin and grand oppression. Islam is one of the heavenly religions that discarded extremism and terrorism and, therefore, the great chance for the religious men came as millions of people are watching them during Ramadan whether inside Masjids or via televisions and television and radio programs to fight extremism, corruption and terrorism.

  • مجيد حميد

    2012-8-13

    The parents should consolidate and deepen the values of belonging among the children. This value is one of the basic requirements of the psychological and social growth of individuals. Then, humans develop the sense of belonging to society as a whole.

  • عادل

    2012-8-13

    Media are the most important weapons in fighting terrorism culturally in view of the huge impact of the image and the transmission of the news. Thus, the media is important in reducing terrorism and criminal acts and practices.

  • ابو مصعب

    2012-8-8

    All the journalists and the media correspondents need freedom in covering the events without any pressure or interference from anyone within the scope of their job or from the government. The media must be the first to know the terrorist event. The old news are not considered to be news any more. Broadcasting or publishing any news in its real time is essential nowadays for the competition between the different media* who want to make the terrorist stories and their massacres interesting and live through the direct and the personal interviews with the same terrorist event. The media sometimes want to be hard professionals, to sound disciplined and practice the powerful precision so as to give credibility to the promiscuous and wrong information however exciting it was or pulled the listener to it. They want to protect the law for their job liberty in disseminating the terrorist acts themselves carefully, otherwise, they will became the target and the topic will turn on them while covering the terrorist acts and the massacres which they do. They also seek to protect the rights of the society as a whole and they want to have a constructive role in combating the terrorist incidents without being the cause of their own death or lose the sound coverage of the terrorist attack. Therefore, the media show the secret of the terrorist operations. The unknown terrorism appears as well as the violence, the explosions and the killings. The role of the media in facing terrorism and sensitizing the people and the communities of the dangers of it is important so that the youth will not indulge in it.

  • سليم احمد

    2012-8-8

    The description given to the members of the group Al-Qaeda differs according to the political, the religious and the war position that they take and from which numerous descriptions were used when referring to them. They can be terrorists, distracters, disobedient, dissidents, or criminals. They can be either Muslim soldiers of freedom or warriors for the freedom and the democracy, militants in order to eliminate injustice, or men of a popular or revolutionary movement against the injustice. Sometimes, they are described as opponents of the rule or extremists. Their operations and their actions are described in the eyes of some other people and my own view as abnormal terrorist operations or mean, treacherous, or irreligious criminal acts. For some, they are commandos of resistance, liberation operations, or martyrdom operations to eliminate the injustice. We Arabs must stop against those Al-Qaeda terrorists and stand on the same side against them.

  • عبدالرحمن

    2012-8-8

    The terrorism ways, means and types are numerous. The terrorists, the committers of crimes and the violent cowards, have proven their proficiency and their intelligence in using all the modern scientific means, their modern types and its horrible practicing to reach their personal and wanted goals, whatever they are. Thus, terrorism has taken many complex images and various forms from hijacking the aircraft in the air to seizing the ships and the vessels at the sea, stealing them, killing, or drowning the people on them. In addition, they destroy the civil aviation establishments and the civilian airports, and then they kill the leaders, the Presidents, and the Kings of all the countries. They assaulted the politicians and the public famous and prominent figures in the Arab world. They finish them by wasting people's lives whether they were elderly men, children or women. In addition, they kidnap the innocent people and they host the innocent whether they were politicians, journalists or diplomats. Also, they destroy the civilian establishments and the public and the private buildings, as well as the trains and the cars. They attack the embassies, the consulates, and the offices of the civil aviation. They disrupt tourism which almost of the Arab countries contribute in the tourism development because they are originally tourist countries and have civilization. They perform arson on the private and the public properties, and put explosives and bombs in the cinemas, the train stations, the Metro, and the buses. They were done in the overcrowded places to get rid of a greater amount of the overriding and unarmed civilians.

  • رامي

    2012-8-7

    There is no doubt that no day passes without us hearing in the audio media such as the radio, see in the visual media like the Internet and the television, and the visual and the print media such as the newspapers, the international and the local magazines, and that an individual or group of individuals have done an extremist terrorist obscene act that transmit horror, fear, and anxiety, and also causes the panic and the deep terror. Plus, it terrorizes the secure citizens, kills the innocents, and destroys the public and the private funds, properties and establishments. It disturbs the security and the safety of the public utilities from the government buildings, the civilian establishments, the houses, and the buildings that are serving millions of people around the world as a whole. However, the question remains: Who is the one behind all this in a very complex international organization which is called the Al-Qaeda? Who is killing and shedding the bloods without any justice?

  • غانم بشار

    2012-8-7

    There is no doubt that the role of the scholars and the clergy are important in confronting, addressing and standing against terrorism as well as the spread of the true Islamic religion among the people, the dissemination of the culture of tolerance, the description of the life the companions and the prophet’s house, and disseminating their morals and their life in addition to deploying the Islamic ethics among all the strata of the society, especially the youth and the women, and the oriented media and controlling it in all its forms, including the use of image galleries, handouts, brochures, and SMS to address the phenomenon of terrorism and organize lectures between the prayers to educate the people from terrorism and fight against violence of all kinds and forms. Also, its role is to address the economic aspect in the lives of people and resolve the problem of detainees and displaced people to address the phenomenon of terrorism and organize lectures between the prayers to educate the people from terrorism and fight against violence of all kinds and forms and address the economic aspect in the lives of people and resolve the problem of detainees and displaced people, and give the rights back to their owners and disseminate the absolute justice in the life of the people and the eradication of unemployment, and creation of job opportunities for the young people.

  • سعيد العربي

    2012-8-7

    There is no doubt that terrorism has become the world’s major problem that threatens all of mankind. Unfortunately, most terrorists are Muslims and most of them are Arabs. There is no pride in that, as they are committing the most heinous crimes against humanity in the name of patriotism and Islam, claiming that they were acting on the teachings of Allah and his Messenger. It is the shortest path to paradise and wide-eyed maidens of paradise. This is what they believe and this is what they convince the people of. Therefore, it is not surprising that everyone calls this terrorism as the Islamic terrorism and that the Islamic ideology became the primary objective and its method before the people to terrorism. The Muslim Scholars did not deny any story. They volunteered and enthusiastically exploited in pushing the youth to this fate by filling their minds with the religious and financial sensations, and marketing the Islamic law of the genocides and the dissemination of terror everywhere.

  • ثامر عامري

    2012-8-7

    Islam is the religion of tolerance since it had been sent down to mankind. It does not change or transform, and the defect is not in Islam but in the Muslim. However, when the Muslims improve their handling of their religion, they will improve their handling of people and Islam since it has come down and it can live in every time and place. However, the Islamic religion is one except for its dissemination ways among the different people according to time and place and as what such Muslim clerics deployed in the satellite TV channels want for their interests, and the exploitation of the people with this and whenever. We better understand Islam and we must improve the ways of presenting and delivering it to people. We can deliver it to the world with the best picture and I think that all the peoples, including the rulers, scholars and clerics, should come together in order to confront terrorism because Islam is the first targeted objective. The terrorists have distorted Islam more than anyone else and we must defend Islam with all the possible things, and address terrorism and its actions.

  • مقصود جبار

    2012-8-7

    What I see is that the media plays in all its forms and images a fundamental and important role in the life of peoples, homelands and countries, but the whole world. This role includes all forms of political, economic, social, and security life. Such importance has been recognized by the world's major powers as they are significantly affected by the acts and crimes of terrorism. For being a basic founder of this media and its sponsor of the advanced media and especially the satellite, some of them are controlling these channels for his own benefit and impose him on the world. As for the Arab media, it is generally characterized by weakness and the lack of professionalism, and the basic reason is that all the Arabic media are controlled by the various Arab rulers for their interests and protected themselves from their people, but the revolutions of the spring had a key role in the overthrow of the poor information methods.

  • ايوب علي

    2012-8-7

    During the time that Yemen was seeking to get out and escape from the neck of the bottle, and start to take off to the bright future, it began to look forward to a better future and strive to find solutions and treatment to the negative influences of suffering that Yemen lived in lately. Terrorist organization forces and the useless extremism seek to withdraw Yemen backward, spread corruption everywhere, work on full attrition for its efforts and energy, work on ensuring dispersion, and create an atmosphere full of disorder, chaos and violence because this climate enables the terrorist organization to be there and to disguise in its shadow.

  • ابو ناظم

    2012-8-7

    The extremist acts whose influence reflects on all the people and these influences are not limited on those who did it only but on the extremist acts that took place in foreign countries or in Muslim countries that have negative and very severe effects on the Muslim interests and harming their position on the universal level in addition to the big loss in spirits. These dangers influence on the deeper level, material and psychological losses. The extremist acts contributed to spreading hatred among nations as the killing operations and destruction of innocents create a feeling of violence not only between people against Islamists but against Islam also. Islam is the religion that calls all people for knowing themselves but the extremist acts lead to creating conflicts between nations and targeting of terrorists to civilians without interest because they kill people who do not have sin except that their destiny makes them live in areas infested with terrorism. May God have mercy on them.

  • ثامر علي

    2012-8-7

    Terrorism targets aggression of innocents and non-innocents by any direct or indirect means, explicit or hidden, that also leads to violation of physical, material, and psychological rights. Terrorism shows feelings of hostility towards the negativities for all people without exception whether they are civilians or terrorists, army or police; there is no difference between them. Terrorism does not differentiate between them and terrorist behavior appears in the individual’s feelings towards his inability to be the best for others around him. That is why terrorism, whatever its types and forms, is the behavior of hostility that targets civilians and non-civilians, buildings or the environment; terrorism destroys others as it destroys itself.

  • عماد كريم

    2012-8-5

    After the massive crimes that have been suffered by the citizens of the sister country Yemen by the various extremist terrorist groups and the brutal organizations particularly al-Qaeda that allowed themselves to do all the acts of savagery, cruelty and created thousands to millions of justifications for those bloody crimes on the territory of Yemen. Indeed, the terrorists who followed that organization, had embraced its ideas and believed in its objectives in the decent territory of Yemen are just shedders and slaughterers of the most expensive blood, the blood of the Yemeni citizens, as many murders, tortures and the violations have been carried out by this brutal extremist terrorist organization. Indeed, Yemen had tasted great bitterness at the hands of the terrorists who belong to al-Qaeda and because of them, the nation of Yemen lost great, loyal and decent sons. Therefore, we must implement the rapid elimination of al-Qaeda from Yemen and seek to fully eradicate them without hope for their return. However, what has been committed by those terrorist organizations on the Yemeni territory exceeded and encroached on the allowable limits by millions of miles. Also, they forgot the coming of that day when one would be held accountable for everything he does and, thus, all the Arabic Forces must unite and gather in the consistent and persistent attempts to get rid and completely eliminate the al-Qaeda organization from the Yemeni territory.