Saudi Arabia: Voice of Reform Launches
By Nick Grace
December 9, 2002
Saudi Arabia returned to the target list of clandestine broadcasting on Saturday, according to BBC Monitoring, by a London-based Islamist opposition group called the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA). The station identifies as Sawt al-Islah and broadcasts on satellite with a simulcast on 7590 kHz between 1900 and 2100 GMT.
Headed by Dr. Saad al-Faqih, MIRA seeks to promote pro-democratic reforms and freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia. It broke off with another Saudi opposition organization, the Committee for the Defense of Legimate Rights, in the late 1990's when al-Faqih sought to keep his group's focus on Saudi Arabia and not to promote the burgeoning pan-Islam movement, which is extremely popular among the Saudi populace. MIRA is well known for taking advantage of modern technology to get its message out, including anonymous faxes, Web sites that frequently change addresses to keep one step ahead of Saudi censors, and now a radio program. Al-Faqih speaks frequently to the Western press about the Middle East, bin Laden and the War on Terrorism.
Sawt al-Islah (Voice of Reform)
MIRA, BM Box: MIRA, London WC1N 3XX, UK
http://www.miraserve.com
*1900-2100* 7590 kHz
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