Why A Saudi Owned Media Outfit Is Pro-Israel

MBC group

Middle East Broadcasting Center, MBC, is a cable media outfit  with multiple channels. MBC 1 for Arab TV dramas and shows, MBC 2 and MBC Max for movies, MBC Action for American TV series MBC Bollywood and a host of others. MBC 1 (or simply MBC) was the first to come on board; this was on 18th September 1991.

Headquartered in Dubai since 2002, Over 60% of MBC is owned by the Saudi government while the remaining 40% is owned by Saudi businessman, Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim hence, it is classified a Saudi-owned media outfit. Research shows that half of the profits go to King Fahd's son, Abdulaziz bin Fahd.

On 26th April, pro Palestinian activists called out MBC for airing programs that seek to put Arabs and Muslims on the side of the Israeli occupation against Palestinians. The programs are titled ‘Umm Harun’ and ‘Exit 7’. The major theme of the programs is simply 'embrace Jews and ditch palestinians'.

Chairman of the Government Press Office in Gaza Salama Maarouf also expressed dismay at the programs. He stated that the call to normalize relations with Israel is a “moral and ethical downfall, especially since it came out of the countries and parties that should be primarily among the first advocates of Palestinian rights”.

Spokesperson of the Palestinian movement, Hamas, Hazem Qassem, strongly condemned the series, stating that certain Arab dramas produced in 2020 tend to “spread strange ideas that call for coexistence with the occupation, and dare to question the Palestinian cause.”

On 13th May, The Association of Religious Scholars in Palestine issued a fatwa (religious edict) that bans the watching of Saudi television programs which encourage and praise the normalizing of ties with Israel. 

The group’s lead official, Dr. Marwan Abu Ras, said in a statement, 

Umm Harun poster

"The Association looks with great doubt at the series which encourage and hail the normalization of ties with the Israeli occupation. We condemn the frenzied campaign of the TV channels run by Arabs and Muslims, and subsidized by Muslim money, against Islamic values and culture. Watching these series is haram (forbidden) and boycotting them is a religious duty because they oppose the real principles of the Muslims, Arabs and the Palestinians”.

On 14th May, Iran’s Foreign Ministry released a statement on the occasion of the Nakba Day, which marks the anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel, calling the Palestine cause the most important issue in the Muslim world.

Part of the statement read, “The Islamic Republic of Iran reannounces its support and unity for Palestinians and once against rejects the so-called 'Deal of Century'. It regards Palestine as the first and most significant issue in the Muslim World, it underlined”.

The selection of Mohammed bin Salman as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia has seen a drastic change in the Saudi governments approach to the Palestinian cause, it changed from hide and seek to outright declaration of Israel support. A number of Saudis have been used to further the ‘normalization’ agenda.

A public figure is Saudi Arabia, Abdelhamid al-Ghabin, sparked outrage on social media for promoting normalization.

A Saudi blogger, Mohamed Saud, has also been stirring anger through his videos in which he expresses love for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinians kicked the blogger out of the Al Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem in July 2019.

The Saudi monarchy and its Sunni allies never fail to seize opportunities to point fingers at Iran and its allies on both contemporary and scriptural issues. Every good gesture by Iran and its allies is painted to have a demonic intent by Saudi Arabia and its allies. Iran’s defense of the Palestinian cause has been labeled hypocrisy by Saudi Arabia and her allies even though the Saudis themselves express insouciance to the plight of Palestinians and other oppressed Muslims.

As loyalists of the Saudi monarchy devise every means to stain Iran, they do their damndest to cover-up every filth made by the Saudi government. 

If MBC were to be an Iranian media outfit, it would have been a great weapon in the arsenal of the Saudi monarchy and her Sunni followers against Iran and Shiites in general.

MBC presenter Razan Moughrabi

The theme of MBC has always been entertainment. At the onset,  Islamic principles used to play some part in the structuring of MBC programs; this began to change with the coming of MBC 2 on 12th January 2003. MBC 2 was full blown secular entertainment from scabrous music to Hollywood movies. The utterance of vulgar language and display of perversion has become the anthem. What makes it more disturbing is the fact that indigenous Arabian programs are coming up and taking in the footsteps of Hollywood in all ramifications. Hijab or any form of head covering has been thrown to the winds and contact between people of opposite gender and nudity are fast growing trends.

On 5th May, some members of the Egyptian parliament called on the Egyptian Prime Minister, Moustafa Madbouly, to push for a ban on an MBC program titled ‘Ramez Magnon Rasmi, or Ramez Is Officially Crazy’, they opined that the program made sport out of violence against women and bullying.

Since the fall of the Ottoman caliphate on 3rd March 1924 and the formation of Saudi Arabia on 23rd September 1932, the Saudis have claimed leadership of the Muslim world. They have continued to do this by employing all forms of finagling against any Muslim nation or group of nations that tend to command respect among the world’s Muslims. A major victim of this illusion has been Iran.

It is high time members of the ‘Saudi Defense League’ began to search their souls, are they serving Islam and humanity or are the serving wealthy men.