American Forces Network to Look Inside the Koran

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

American Forces Network will air a new National Geographic Channel special, Inside the Koran, to troops stationed inside Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to a spokeswoman for the channel, executives there offered it to AFN.

National Geographic described the special as an effort to show Muslims living according to their interpretations of the Koran, including dissecting its messages "of peace and tolerance," which "some perceive as justification in the text for violent conflict and savage acts that have increasingly been waged against U.S. troops and their allies."

The show debuts on NGC Aug. 5, and it will then be rebroadcast over AFN Aug. 9 at 11 a.m. in Iraq and 12:30 p.m. in Afghanistan, as well as for troops stationed in Korea, Japan and Europe.

Run by the Defense Department, AFN reaches more than 850,000 servicemen and women stationed overseas in 175 countries, as well as on Navy ships in port and at sea.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.