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"The charge lurking in the background is material support for terrorism," Stephen A. Miller, an assistant United States attorney, told United States Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein, according to The New York Times.

Much of Manar's satellite business has reportedly come from Christians who want more religious programming in their homes.

The New York Post describes the sting operation this way:

In June, a "wired" FBI informant walked into Iqbal's Brooklyn office, asking to be hooked up to the "DISH network."

The informant explained he was Lebanese and wanted to watch the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, which transmits secular or Christian shows. Iqbal asked if he was "Lebanese Christian" and when the informant said no, he asked, "Why don't you watch Al Manar?" court papers say.

He described different service packages that would allow the customer to receive Al Manar and other Arab networks, including Al-Jazeera.

Al Manar sounds like a despicable channel. But should it be illegal? Be careful: Christians have been enthusiastic for Sat-7, a Christian satellite network that targets the Middle East and North Africa, where several countries limit Christian media. And the precedent is unsettling. If the U.S. can ban access to Al Manar today for its "death to America" broadcasts, what's to stop a ban on CBN tomorrow for its "death to Hugo Chavez" broadcasts?

4. Jackie Mason and Jews for Jesus get more media attention
Just because Jackie Mason is the celebrity spokesman for Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation (which was one of the "war on Christmas" groups last December) doesn't mean he's a fan of Jews for Jesus.  He's suing the evangelistic group for $2 million, saying it illegally used him in an evangelistic tract called "Jackie Mason … A Jew for Jesus!?". "The pamphlet uses my name, my likeness, my 'shtick' (if you will), and my very act, which is derived from my personality, to attract attention and converts," he complained. Does Jackie Mason, whose claim to fame is having not given Ed Sullivan the finger, really still "attract attention"? Today he does, I guess.

5. William Martin profiles T. D. Jakes for Texas Monthly
That combo should be all you need if you're the kind of person interested in religion reporting. Martin is the Rice University sociologist whose book A Prophet with Honor is still the top biography of Billy Graham, and whose With God on Our Side beat this year's slew of books describing the rise of the religious right by a decade. Jakes you should know by now (CT's profile was written by Lauren F. Winner). Texas Monthly is one of those wonderful magazines that really gives its writers room to breathe. (Martin profiled Joel Osteen for the magazine a year ago.) There's not much new in the profile, which covers prosperity teachings, the Juanita Bynum controversy, prison ministry, and the immense size of both Jakes and his church. Martin's thesis isn't shocking: "Few, if any, contemporary religious figures can match the prodigious talent, driving ambition, entrepreneurial genius, commanding presence, rhetorical power, and tangible accomplishment manifested by the senior pastor of Dallas's 30,000-member Potter's House." But it's still this week's must-read article.

Update
We got a call from Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal religion editor Charity Gordon, whose article, "Pastor leaves after church turns away biracial boy" we praised earlier this week. The story, Gordon said, did not appear in the print edition of the paper, was posted online while reporting and editing were still going on, and church members have since questioned the account of the boy's dismissal as described by pastor John Stevens. The police officer who had been attending the church and was quoted in the story wasn't actually at the church when the events took place (though the online article never says that he was). Gordon's updated article will appear in Saturday's paper.

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August (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50