I read this article earlier today and found it quite fascinating. I draw your attention not so much to the politics, but more to the discussion of whether knowledge competitions are sanctioned under Islamic law... Philip Arab world's `Who Wants to be a Millionaire' adds politics to formula Thu May 30,10:20 PM ET By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD, Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt - The Arab world's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (news - web sites)" is popular, and to keep audiences tuning in, the show has added another ingredient to the familiar mix: politics. And one of host George Kordahi's catch phrases? "Greetings to our steadfast people in Palestine." Arabs divided by political rivalries and even language — national Arabic dialects can differ greatly — are united by a sense of solidarity with Palestinians in their confrontation with Israel. Arab politicians have exploited the Palestinian cause; playwrights and musicians have written about it. Now a game show has ridden pro- Palestinian sentiment to become one of the most popular programs in the Middle East. Kordahi, a former journalist who covered the civil war in his native Lebanon, said he couldn't do a show that ignored serious current events, and that the plight of the Palestinians was the issue of the moment. "I'm sad like every Arab at what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, for their huge sacrifices and the blood of the martyrs, which is reflected on the mood of the show," he said. In December, Kordahi quizzed three "martyrs' mothers" whose sons or daughters were killed by Israeli troops. They won a total of dlrs 100,000 and said they would donate it to charities. (The top prize is 1 million Saudi riyals, or dlrs 267,000.) Since the Palestinian intefadeh erupted in September 2000, 1,677 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 504 people on the Israeli side. Produced by the Saudi-owned MBC satellite station, the quiz show debuted across the Arab world a few months after the intefadeh began. >From the start, the television images of Palestinian-Israeli clashes that dominated the news programs of MBC and other satellite stations seemed to set the mood on the show. Along the way Kordahi, in his late 40s, became a celebrity, dapper in designer suits and known for establishing an immediate personal connection with his guests because of his warm manner and questions about their families and professions. The "Millionaire" formula pioneered by Britain's Celador Productions has had a similar effect on the careers of other hosts. In the United States, Regis Philbin set fashion trends with his monochromatic ties and shirts before the ABC network decided to drop the prime-time show. In India, movie star Amitabh Bachchan, whose fortunes had faded to the point that a bank was threatening to sell off his mansion because of bad debts, got a boost when he began asking "Are you sure?" on his country's version of the program. In a two-hour live, phone-in question-and-answer session on a satellite channel based in Lebanon, a woman called to tell Kordahi: "Your captivating eyes and irresistible smile are the reason for the show's success." "Me, a sex symbol? Seriously, I know I'm good-looking, but not to the extent of being a Prince Charming," Kordahi told The Associated Press in an interview in the five-star Cairo hotel suite he has made his home since February. After the game show established his celebrity and his link to the Palestinian cause, Kordahi was recruited to help promote a telethon that collected more than dlrs 100 million for the Palestinians in one day in April. (U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) told the Senate in April that some of the dlrs 100 million may have gone to elements of the Islamic militant group, Hamas. U.S. officials said that Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, whose country staged the telethon, has given assurances that the proceeds were for humanitarian aid groups.) "I think I unified their (Arabs') views, feelings and admiration around a certain program," Kordahi said. "I helped Arabs to get to know each other more." His show promotes pan-Arabism in its questions, asking contestants about politics and sports in the Arab world and about Islamic culture and history. Questions drawn from the Quran and Islamic history are commonplace. Though Kordahi is Christian, he peppers his patter with verses from the Muslim holy book. "I don't see myself as a Maronite (Christian). I think of myself as Lebanese," Kordahi said. "I was born feeling that I belong to this Arab Islamic civilization." Inevitably for anything that has drawn such attention, the show has met with controversy. Last year, a viewer asked one of Egypt's top Muslim clerics, Nasr Farid Wassel, whether such a show was allowed by Islam, which bans gambling. Wassel declared it and other high-stakes game shows to be sinful. But Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, head of the prestigious Al-Azhar mosque and university and more influential than Wassel, disagreed. Tantawi said: "These competitions address a series of useful religious, historical, cultural and scientific questions and their goal is to spread knowledge among the public." Two men have became millionaires so far, the first from the United Arab Emirates. The second was Palestinian Mohammed Tanira, who said he drove through the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and Israeli checkpoints to reach the studios in Cairo. After Tanira's victory, columnist Mahmoud Mouawad wrote in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram: "Palestine won the million."
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