According to its Web site, Al-Manar is a “Lebanese TV station,” launched in 1991 that began broadcasting via satellite in 2000. The channel claims to focus on the tolerant values of Islam and “to promote the culture of dialogue and cooperation among the followers of the Heavenly religions and human civilizations.” The Web site also states that “Al-Manar avoids cheap incitement” and presents a combination of religious programming, international and local news, sports, politics, culture, and children’s shows.

The channel is officially associated with the Arab League and according to its Web site, “draws a large number of viewers inside the Arab world and in countries of immigration.” The Lebanese Daily Star has reported that Al-Manar claims to reach an estimated 200 million viewers around the world, but the newspaper said a more realistic approximation is 10 million regular viewers. According to a French paper, Liberation, in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, Al-Manar reaches about 100 million homes.

The network first made headlines with the airing of the Syrian-produced Ramadan special Al-Shatat (Diaspora) in 2003. The series focused on the purported history of the Jews with classic anti-Semitic motifs including the blood libel. MEMRI was instrumental in bringing the issue of Al-Manar and Al-Shatat to the attention of world leaders including high-ranking American government officials; Germany’s chancellor and its foreign minister; the Swedish and Australian prime ministers, and France’s prime minister and president. After the French prime minister viewed segments from the series, he called for banning the channel in France, according to the French daily Le Monde.

Following the French ban of Al-Manar, Hezbollah has tried to create an impression that it is not connected to the channel. Yet Al-Manar’s news director, Hassan Fadhlallah, is a Lebanese member of Parliament representing the Hezbollah party. In a 1995 interview with the Washington Post, an Al-Manar station manager said the station “belongs to Hezbollah culturally and politically.”

Arab and Western press outlets also describe the channel as belonging to Hezbollah. Writing in the Lebanese Daily Star on December 24, 2005, Rami Khouri called the channel “Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar.” On November 21, 2005, Al-Jazeera TV reported: “The Al-Manar TV station, speaking in the name of Hezbollah,” and on May 14, 2005, the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh wrote: “Al-Manar TV, which belongs to Hezbollah.” Recent examples from Western sources include Le Monde on December 7, 2005: “Al-Manar – the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah satellite TV” and Reuters, which on December 5, 2005 called Al-Manar a “mouthpiece of the … Hezbollah group.”

As Al-Manar’s chairman, Nayyef Krayyem, who was also chief of Hezbollah’s information department, told the Christian Science Monitor in 2001, “Al-Manar is an important weapon for us. … It’s a political weapon, social weapon, and cultural weapon.” Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, was quoted stating Al Manar’s message is simple: “Jihad is the only way to salvation, and the experience of the Islamic and the Lebanese resistance is the best proof.”

The channel is used to spread Hezbollah’s message in Lebanon as well as throughout the world. In an interview with Islamonline in January 2001, an Al-Manar TV broadcaster, Fatima Bari, said Hezbollah’s activities have “enriched Al-Manar TV through its Jihad, the blood of its martyrs, and everything it sacrificed” and that “Al-Manar TV waged an extremely harsh media war against the Zionist[s].”

In the recent Lebanese elections, Al-Manar got the terrorist organization’s message out. No other groups or parties running for office had a TV station at their disposal. One Lebanese politician, ‘Ali Trabulsi, appeared on the channel during the early round of voting on June 5 declaring, “I vote ‘yes’ for the resistance [i.e. Hezbollah]. I have written it with the blood of my 10 fingers.” He then took his bloody finger and wrote on his election form: “Yes to the resistance.” The result: His group won 14 out of 128 seats. and Hezbollah emerged as a power in the Lebanese Parliament.

In the coming weeks, this column will focus on how the channel is influencing the Arab and Muslim world in general and in particular spreading anti-Americanism and support for terrorism.

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.