ISLAM ON THE AIR Reprinted from The Statesman, India's largest newspaper, August 10, 1949 JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA. Muslims throughout the world will have this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca, birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed, brought to their homes by radio for the first time in history. When this most important event in the Muslim calendar is broadcast this month, millions of poor Muslims who will never be able to come to Mecca and thus fulfill the desire of all the Faithful, will have the city brought to them. Those who have already taken part in the Haj, or pilgrimage, will be able to live again the scenes of their visit. The pilgrimage is centuries old, and the wealthiest and the poorest take part in its ceremonies side by side. At Mecca, riches and poverty are forgotten. Radio is the latest addition to modern aids to the pilgrimage. Seventy-year-old King Ibn Saud will open the pilgrimage, and the broadcasts will include the main re ligious ceremony from the Masjud al Nabawi or Prophet’s Mosque and the pilgrims’ processions to the nearby Jebel el Rahm (Hill of Holy Desire). Two mo bile recording vans will be used. None but Muslims are allowed to enter Mecca and the technical arrangements for the broadcast will be in the hands of engineers loaned by the Egyptian State broadcasting network. Emission will be from a new £E50,000 broad casting . station which is nearing com pletion here. The pilgrimage ceremonies will be transmitted from Mecca to Jed dah by means of a 170-megacycle ultra- high frequency modulated link. Six aeri als will send out the service to: Egypt, Iraq, Syria - Lebanon - Transjordan, El Riadh-Persian Gulf, Medina-Yemen and the local areas between Jeddah and Mec ca. The Egyptian State broadcasting network is expected to relay the pro gramme to the western-most parts of the Muslim world. The new station, built by American engineers of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation of New York, on behalf of the Saudi Arabian Govern ment, will be possibly the most austere in the world. Its normal five-hour daily programme will be purely religious and cultural. No music or other secular en tertainment or commercial advertising will be included. The Muslim is enjoined to pray five times a day and the new sta tion at Mecca will broadcast these pray ers. Readings from the Quran and phil osophical lectures will also be broadcast. Americans have provided and installed all the equipment for Saudi Arabia’s first broadcasting system and they will continue to be in charge of the techni cal arrangements in Jeddah. The con tract, which is automatically renewable every two years unless denounced by either party, provides for the training of Saudi Arabian personnel to run the station eventually. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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