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" Saudi-owned TV broadcaster MBC is planning to add four new Turkish soap operas to its programming - just months after a religious leader condemned them as "un-Islamic and subversive". The television company, which broadcasts the popular Noor and Sanawat al-Dyaa (The Lost Hours), confirmed to Arabian Business that the new Turkish dramas would be added to the lineup this season."Turkish drama is now an established genre," Mazen Hayek, MBC’s marketing director, told Al Arabiya.net.In July, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, condemned Turkish soap operas and ordered people to stop watching them.The religious leader said the programmes contained evil and destroyed people's ethics and values.He added that the “malicious” Turkish soap operas corrupted individuals and spread vice in society.Al-Asheikh was referring to MBC programmes Noor and Lost Years, which have become extremely popular in the Arab world over the last couple of months.The soaps are dubbed in colloquial Syrian Arabic and have proved such a big draw in the kingdom that many people plan their day around the programmes. [...]"Source : Arabian Business.com