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posted by takyon on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the tune-in dept.

The kingdom launched a new Farsi website this week, but how will an Iranian audience react?

Saudi Arabia is taking a "soft power" jab at its regional rival Iran this week — a news website in Farsi, the language of Iran. It launches Thursday and the Saudi government expects to eventually start a Farsi-language TV channel as well. The step into soft power is new for the wealthy Kingdom, more known for opening its checkbook to gain influence.

"Yes, indeed, to give correct information," explains Adel al-Toraifi in an interview with NPR. He is the recently-named minister of culture and information, one of the young technocrats appointed by King Salman in the government's generational shift. As for soft power, he says, "This is what we are lacking," and it is time to "catch up with the world."

In September, the Saudis launched a short-term Farsi TV and radio broadcast during the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage of Muslim faithful to Mecca. The programming was strictly religious commentary and the broadcast ended when the Hajj was over. Al-Toraifi says this is part of a larger effort by the Saudis planned to include a web site in Russian, Chinese and Farsi — and coming up next — TV channels in English, Farsi and Urdu, the language of Pakistan. He says the immediate goal is to "actually explain Saudi society" to Iranians in their own language.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are regional rivals, fighting local proxy wars. Now a media proxy war may be heating up, with Tehran already out in front. In 2003, Iran began a 24-hour news service in Arabic that broadcast into Iraq after Iraqi state television collapsed during the U.S. invasion. Many Iranian-backed Arabic TV channels and web sites have been launched since then, which al-Toraifi described as "very negative." For the first time, the Saudis aim to challenge Iran's media blitz, says al-Toraifi. "It's better if Iranians know how we live, it's kind of a dialogue between people."


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @12:37AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @12:37AM (#275625)

    > Muslim solidarity, baby!

    Lol. The fundamentalist sunnis in saudi will tell you that shia aren't even real muslims. Kind of like how christian fundamentalists in the US will tell you that catholics aren't even real christians. [born-again-christian.info] Which the shia take just about as well as the catholics do.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @09:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @09:49PM (#275865)
    FWIW ask a Catholic what their religion is, and most will say they're Catholic. Seriously.

    Not saying they aren't Christians. Probably not all are Christians but that applies to Christians in general too. From what I understand if people follow Jesus they're Christians. If they don't they're not. Whether they're following from far away or closely is a different matter :). It's like "heading North" if you say you're heading North but you actually head a different direction then you're not heading north. If you "drift a fair bit" but your general direction on average is northwards then I suppose you're still heading north just not doing as good a job at it.

    Or like someone saying they're an Emacs user. But if they don't ever use it, don't know the commands, don't even have it installed, then they're not actually one. Worse if they keep using Microsoft Word instead... ;)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @11:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @11:14PM (#276396)

      > FWIW ask a Catholic what their religion is, and most will say they're Catholic. Seriously.

      You seem to think that's odd. Just because they give a specific answer doesn't mean they aren't denying they are christian. If anything it is an acknowledgment that there are other non-catholic branches of christianity - not just all the protestants but others like the eastern orthodox church too. Which is in keeping with the definition of "catholic" - broad-minded, universal. [reference.com] For example, the catholic church will accept the ecclesiastical validity of a baptism performed by any church claiming to do it in the name of christ, while catholic-denying evangelicals almost never have a reciprocal policy.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @09:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @09:58PM (#275870)