Malaysian Prime Minister Abdallah Ahmad Badawi announced, at the third conference of alumni of the Kuala Lumpur branch of Al-Azhar University, that his country would soon launch the first broadcasting satellite of its kind in the Muslim world.
The satellite, which will broadcast in Arabic, will present content on "cultural Islam."
Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, who attended the conference, welcomed the initiative, calling it a means in the struggle against violence and extremism.
Sheikh Tantawi also said that Al-Azhar, or any other Islamic institution, would not interfere in the re-publication of the Muhammad cartoons by a Danish newspaper. He said that this non-interference followed a request by the Muslim minority in Denmark, which said that it had been harmed by Danish citizens' anger over the foreign intervention in their affairs.
Source: www.islamonline.net, February 15-16, 2008
