MBC increases security at offices after 'Daesh show'

Dubai - The show - which took approximately 18 months to make - aims to show the brutal realities of life in Daesh-held areas, and includes characters who work with Daesh.

Saudi satellite broadcaster Middle Eat Broadcasting Center (MBC) has increased security at its office around the region - including Dubai - following the broadcast of Black Crows, a show depicting the lives of women and children living in the de-facto Daesh capital of Raqqa, Syria, according to Ali Jaber, MBC group director of TV.
The show - which took approximately 18 months to make - aims to show the brutal realities of life in Daesh-held areas, and includes characters who work with Daesh.
In an interview with America's National Public Radio, Jaber said that MBC has "heard a lot from (Daesh) about this series in terms of threats that we are receiving every day.
"I am personally receiving a lot of threats," he added. "We have increased security around our bases in Dubai and in Beirut, in Cairo and in Riyadh and in Jeddah."
During the interview, Jaber said that the show stems from MBC's desire to produce television shows that is relevant and real to Arab audiences.
"This is the prevailing conversation in the Arab World," he said. "The writer and the researcher have interviewed all those people who have come back from Raqqa in Syria, and they have based all the drama series on these stories."
"This drama is here to say that this is happening," he added. "It is part of our region, and the people of the region need to tackle that."
In Jaber's opinion, Daesh "did not come out from emptiness."
"It came out from some of the wrong religious teachings that have been going on in our societies for a very long time. I've always maintained that (Daesh) is not only an organisation. It's an idea. It's a narrative, and you don't bomb an idea. You fight an idea with a more progressive, more compelling ideas," he said.
"We are fighting against a very formidable enemy because they are using the words of God and they are using the basic instructs of people to lure sympathisers and to soldiers, and this is dangerous," he added. "Somebody has got to really stand up and say something against this."
bernd@khaleejtimes.com
 
 

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