During the holy month of Ramadan this year, some interesting developments have occurred in the Arab world. In Saudi Arabia, the Interior Ministry headed by Prince Nayef decreed on October 12 that all non-Muslim residents must follow the Muslim law of fasting during Ramadan. Anyone who fails to do so will be deported.

In Egypt it is customary for vendors at markets to offer special brand names for the popular dates that Muslims commonly eat to break the daily fast. Dates are usually named after prominent world personalities, both popular and hated, as well as other subjects that made news during the year.

Arab newspapers such as Lebanon’s Daily Star, Qatar’s the Peninsula, Egypt’s Al-Akhbar, and the Web site Islam Online are reporting that the most expensive dates this year are named after Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Other popular brands this year are “Saddam Hussein,” “Iraqi Resistance,” “Palestinian Intifada,” and “Al Aqsa Mosque.” Last year’s “Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction” and “George W. Bush” are currently off the market, as is last year’s most popular “Jacque Chirac,” which was removed reportedly due to his stance regarding the hijab in France as well as France’s insistence that Syria withdraw from Lebanon. “Yasser Arafat” dates are also absent this year, while for the third year in a row “Sharon the Butcher” dates are the cheapest, worst quality, and most damaged. Another of the “bargain section” this year are named after John Kerry and are reportedly “the longest,” to resemble his chin.

The month of Ramadan is the busiest TV-viewing time of the year in the Arab and Muslim world. TV stations air religious programs depicting Islamic history and battles to inspire today’s Muslims to jihad. One example includes TV host Hisham Khreisat, who had a monologue on the Saudi Al-Majd TV channel on October 17, 2004: “This great month is a month of fasting, a month of blessings and victory, a month of jihad and martyrdom…They have always been battles of victory and liberation. The most decisive battles in the life of the nation were always in Ramadan. Ramadan…is a month of heroism, work, effort, and sacrifice, a month of martyrdom and martyrs. Thus we have been taught by history…[that we] will remain alive thanks to the blood of [our] martyrs…”

Also shown on TV are annual miniseries devoted to an assortment of subjects, which are often anti-Semitic. “Al-Shatat,” a 29-part Hezbollah-produced series, made with the cooperation of the Syrian government, aired last year on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV. The program depicts a centuries-old plot by Jews to take over the world, and was based on “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” It included scenes such as a rabbi killing a Christian boy to use his blood to make matzoh. “Knight Without a Horse,” a 41-part series also based on the “Protocols,” was produced by an Egyptian, Muhammad Subhi, and broadcast during Ramadan of 2002 by Egyptian state TV, the Egyptian “Dream” channel, Iraqi state TV, and Hezbollah’s Al-Manar. Both of these programs are being aired in Persian this Ramadan on Iranian TV.

This year Arab TV stations are also broadcasting a series on the life of the Palestinian Arab Hamas terrorist Yahya Ayyash, nicknamed “The Engineer” for his skill at creating bombs. Mr. Ayyash built the bombs used in numerous suicide bombings from 1994-96 that killed more than 100 Israelis.

The TV series making the most news this Ramadan is the Jordanian series “Road to Kabul,” which tells the narrative of modern Afghanistan from Soviet occupation through the American invasion in 2001. Islamist groups who considered the series critical of their actions opposed its airing, and on one Islamist Web site a group called “The Brigades of the Mujahideen in Iraq and Syria” published a threat: “We would like to strongly warn everyone who contributed to the production of the series, including actors, producer, and photographers, that the series should not contain anything that slanders the honorable phenomenon of Taliban…” Shortly after this statement was released, TV stations pulled the series from their airwaves.

The removal of the program comes in contrast to the response to Western demands to cease airing previous series. In 2002, the State Department called on the Egyptian government to prevent the broadcast of “Knight Without a Horse” – a demand that was rejected by the Egyptian information minister, Safwat Al-Sharif. As this year’s Ramadan reaches its peak, the Arab press has continued its trend of using the holiday for incitement to jihad and propagating anti-Semitism. It is doubtful that that the Arab press will make any significant changes by next Ramadan.

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