Courcy’s Intelligence Brief

We have suggested in this week’s main briefing that the anti-American demonstrations in the Middle East – although initially a Sunni phenomenon – provide an opportunity for Iran.  They remind the US of the power of the Arab street, which is overwhelmingly anti-American, and Iran is keen to emphasize that this is something it can exploit.  Iran has also tried to use the affair to undermine domestic reformists and Saudi Arabia.

Iran’s broadcast media has a near monopoly at home and considerable reach into Lebanon, where about 50% watch its Arabic news channel Al-Alam TV, and into Iraq, where the audience figure is 30%.  On 14 September, when the protests against the offending “Innocence of Muslims” film became widespread, Iran’s main news channels were dominated by coverage of what they presented as worldwide anti-US protests.  In contrast, the Saudi-financed Al-Arabiya and the Qatari-backed Al-Jazeera were far more constrained.

The Iranian coverage concentrated on the theme of a Western and Zionist campaign against Islam going on since at least the publication of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses in 1988.  Commentaries alluded to a “campaign of hatred”, including the Danish Mohammed cartoons, the internet film Fitna made by Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, the Koran burning by US pastor Terry Jones, and desecration of the Koran by US troops at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.  Also mentioned was the UK’s Channel 4 programme “Islam: The untold story”.

The Iranian coverage was clearly directed not just at a domestic audience but also at the wider Islamic world, putting across the message that Muslims cannot trust the West.

As regards the domestic audience, one interesting point was that while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s critical comments were given extensive airing, similarly critical comments by the reformist former president Mohammad Khatami were largely ignored.  The purpose seems to have been to get across the impression to the Iranian domestic audience that the reformists don’t care about insults to Islam.

As regards the regional audience, a similar tactic was used in playing up the alleged silence of Saudi Arabia over the film.  The message seemed to be that Saudi Arabia is in cahoots with Israel and the United States.