Hezbollah Media Outlets Warm To Christians in Lebanon
This year, Hezbollah media outlets in Lebanon displayed an uncommon willingness to broadcast Christian celebrations, a sign that the Shiite group is trying to court Christians into an eventual alliance against rising Sunni extremism, writes Nasser Chararah.
This year, more than any other year, media sources controlled by Hezbollah have broadcast displays of Christmas celebration. On Christmas Day, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Nour radio station took the occasion to praise Jesus Christ’s birth, and chose to broadcast religious songs following a political decision made by Hezbollah.
The party’s main TV channel (Al Manar) did the same. It dedicated a share of its programming to wishing Christians well on the day celebrating of the birth of Christ. Moreover, its news bulletins included positive media coverage of Christmas celebrations. They highlighted Hezbollah’s participation in these celebrations through talks on the place of Jesus, the son of Mary, in Islam.
It is true that these programs emphasized the use of the terms “Prophet Jesus” or “God’s spirit,” in a display of their conservatism vis-a-vis the Christian consideration of Jesus as God or the son of God. However, Hezbollah’s media intended to downplay this “ideological and religious controversy,” and instead focus on the party’s participation in the celebration of this important holiday with Christians in the East.
Even the Iranian embassy in Beirut distributed congratulation letters on the birth of “Prophet Jesus son of Mary.”
