IRAN WILL SOON HAVE CHRISTIAN TELEVISION SATELLITE PROGRAMMING IN THE FARSI LANGUAGE
SAT-7's CEO Terence Ascott also comments on the Arab World's reaction to the terror attacks on New York and Washington

By Dan Wooding

LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) -- At Christmastime this year, people in Iran will be able to receive Bible based programs in the Farsi (Persian) language from SAT-7, the Christian television satellite network that broadcasts to much of the Arab World.

Terence Ascott, CEO of SAT-7, which at present broadcasts a variety of Christian programming to the Middle East and North Africa and began in 1996 with a modest two hours a week schedule, announced this historic development during a visit to Los Angeles.

"We are working with Iranian Christians in Europe and North America and in Iran itself to make program segments and these will be assembled in North America at a special studio and broadcast from London to Iran," said Ascott. "We are also hoping to possibly broadcast one of the four Farsi language cultural channels from North America to Iran.

"The goal is to provide a range of programming from children's programming to drama, Christian music, and teaching programs in Farsi, some of which would be dubbed, but most of which would originally be made in the Farsi language which is spoken in Iran.

BRINGING IRANIAN CHRISTIANS TOGETHER

"The project is bringing together a fairly wide coalition of Farsi speaking Christians whom, it is sad to say, have until now been somewhat isolated from each other and unable to cooperate. The blessing of this project is that it is impossible for any one group to do alone, and this is what brings these groups together, perhaps for the first time.

"We originally hoped we would start in November, but the new goal is to get on air by Christmas and then provide a regular service early next year."

When asked if this would be the first time there has been Christian programming in that language by television, Ascott replied, "There have been occasional transmissions of the JESUS Film and we have broadcast few programs simultaneously in Arabic and Farsi but there has, as far as I know, not been a regular service at all of any Christian programming by satellite television to Iran."

He explained that Iranians would be able to pick up the programs with a domestic satellite dish, which he said is illegal, but in wide use in the country.

"There aren't any legally, but illegally there are millions of dishes in Iran and they disguise them very well," said Ascott, who was born in the United Kingdom. "Some are brought indoors or covered over in the daytime; others are put inside glass tanks lightly painted gray which make them look like water tanks on roofs. Others are hidden behind washing lines and so on. It's not really the display, but how they are imported and installed which is amazing to me. You can't just do it yourself. You do need a technician with some basic equipment to get the positioning right."

When asked to give his views on the terror attacks on America, he said, "Our response is to put an emphasis on forgiveness and love; of breaking the cycle of blood feuds that are so common in the Middle East where if you lose a relative in such a killing, you have to take revenge. This is why every time a Palestinian gets killed, there's another angry person looking to save the family honor by killing a Jew. And the same applies on the Jewish side; they have the same concept.

"It is important that we communicate to people in America and the West how disturbed Arabs in general are, and especially Arab Christians, about the killings that went on in New York and Washington. I think they have had a bad press. There have been a few orchestrated celebrations by the Palestinians that got onto TV while 99.9 percent of the population were horrified, distressed and really upset by it.

"I think that the Arab world, unlike North America, is much more concerned with the motivation and reasons for this attack, where as people in North America and the West seem to be caught up with looking at the event itself and the anecdotal tragedies that went with it and also the issue of retribution and bringing the culprits to justice.

"There hasn't been a high level of dialogue about why 19 people would sacrifice their lives in such a way. It takes a lot of discipline to fly an airplane into a building. It's an evil act of course, but still how do you get 19 people to give up their lives to make a statement - it wasn't even an official statement, but an undeclared statement, which is perhaps is much clearer understood in the Arab World than in the West. I think it was a pity there wasn't someone who owned up and said why they did it, because the issues have been mostly lost on the West community.

"With the questioning in the Arab World itself about these attacks on America, goes questions like, 'Can their really be justification for such an act in the Islamic faith?' 'Does Islam sanction this kind of Jihad and endorse the idea that these people are going directly to heaven because they have given their lives in a Holy War, declared or otherwise?' 'Does Islam sanction this kind of mass murder and how does it sanction it? 'And, if it does, do I want to identify with that kind of Islam.'

"So there is a questioning that hopefully will bring some people to consideration of a Gospel of Love, forgiveness, tolerance, turning the other cheek, of laying down your life to save somebody instead of laying down your life to take life."

SAT-7 has 70 staff, 8 located in America. Ministry offices and production facilities are located in Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt. The ministry uplinks the broadcast signal from London to the satellites for distribution.

This year saw SAT-7 perform its first-ever live uplink from Syria, covering the unprecedented display of Christian unity brought about through the visit of Pope John Paul II, May 5-8.

The ministry also received the National Religious Broadcasters "International Ministry" award earlier this year during the NRB's annual convention in Dallas, Texas.

For further information on SAT-7, you can log onto their website at www.sat7.org.

Assist News Service.  Used with Permission.