Saudi mobile phone company Mobily has barred users from text message voting in the pan-Arab version of Star Academy, after an earlier religious edict deemed the show immoral. The program is carried by the Lebanese channel LBC and was very popular in its first two seasons. [Source: Reuters]
Business decision based on funny Fatwa (religious decree), branding the reality show-Star Academy- immoral. Well, I don’t like the show myself, and I said that before, but that does not mean that I agree to zone it into the “Haram” list. After the infamous fatwa last year, the winner of the show; who happened to be a Saudi, was detained by the Saudi religious authorities for causing an “indecent scene.”
From my experience in the telecom market in this part of the world, I can confidently claim that Mobily press release has nothing to do with religion and it is just playing a cleaver marketing game. Keeping in mind that Mobily was newly launched at Saudi Arabia, and will do anything to eat part of the Saudi telecom market share.
On the other hand, such fatwa is so meaningless and aimless, that it seems to be directed to a particular show but not the other. Why? Just because it is reality show? Under their terms, does Superstar qualify as not Haram? What about the 100’s music and chat-TV channels? Are they Halal?
This is where I noticed that the Saudi mobile companies are playing on using religion and Islam in their marketing ads, directly and indirectly. I wonder how many noticed the brainless religious ads of Saudi Telecom (Mobily competitor) during the month of Ramadan. While they had good intentions, but the ads were always negative. I think they had the chosen the worst marketing companies to come with these TV ads
It seems that Mobily understood the game of commissioning the religious game in their marketing campaign, but in more clever way than Saudi Telecom did. After all, as I said before, there are 100’s of music and chat-TV channels as well other reality shows, which I personally see more fundamentally destructive to our youth and culture than a talent reality show like Star Academy. And none of these are banned, and the customers of both of the Saudi mobile companies have full access to these channels and shows!
via sabah blog
