sxigcrgvni

Off the 210 Freeway in suburban Duarte, between an International House of Pancakes and a , sits a nondescript one-story industrial park that has been an unlikely flash point for weeks of global unrest.

It's here that The Way satellite TV channel creates evangelical Christian programming that beams across the Arabic-speaking world. Until recently, the business was so anonymous that even city officials didn't know the television studio was operating there.

But that all changed a few weeks ago, when The Way was revealed as a key filming location for "Innocence of Muslims,louis vuitton sac," whose trailer has sparked ongoing violent anti-American protests in dozens of cities throughout the Middle East and beyond.

The anti-Islam film has shed light on The Way and other U.S.-based, Arabic-language satellite TV stations whose programming is aimed at converting Muslims to Christianity. Though little noticed in the English-speaking world, the stations' programming had been controversial among Middle Eastern Christians and Muslims — both in the U.S,vuitton pas cher. and abroad — long before the low-budget movie popularized their message.

"All kinds of Christians have gotten in on the action, and some of them are quite horrific in the way they do attack the Islamic faith," said Terence Ascott, the chief executive and founder of SAT-7, a moderate, nondenominational Christian satellite network that began broadcasting in the Middle East in 1996. "It doesn't help the relationship between Christians and Muslims."

The stations' programming ranges from relatively tame Christian cartoons and broadcasts of religious celebrations to fiery sermons that attack the prophet Muhammad,louis vuitton pas cher. The production values vary, and broadcasts include Arabic-language programs as well as English-language talks shows dubbed into Arabic.

Some of the stations are independently operated by immigrants from the Middle East. The Way is run by an evangelical Coptic Christian named Joseph Nassralla, originally from Egypt.

Others are financed by some of America's highest-profile Christian televangelists. Joyce Meyer Ministries and each started their own Arabic-language Christian networks, with the goal of expanding their reach to millions of potential converts.

Orange County-based Trinity Broadcasting Network launched its Healing Channel in 2005 and has steadily extended its reach. The station touts solar-powered satellite dishes that can beam programming to isolated desert communities.

"Never in history has there been a greater opportunity to reach the Muslim population of the earth with the saving power of Jesus," said TBN founder Paul Crouch before the trailer for "Innocence of Muslims" was translated into Arabic and uploaded onto YouTube.

Unlike The Way and a few stations that attack Islam using fiery rhetoric, The Healing Channel focuses largely on singing the praises of Christianity. "You get more with honey than you do with vinegar," TBN spokesman Colby May said,louis vuitton borse.

There are no reliable statistics on the stations' viewership. But the potential audience is huge in countries like Egypt, where Christians are hungry for an alternative to state-run television that rarely addresses their issues,borse louis vuitton, and even poor families with no Internet access can scrounge up enough for a satellite dish and receiver, said Febe Armanios, an associate professor at College who has studied Coptic and Middle Eastern Christian satellite stations.

"On top of shacks, you see the dishes," Armanios said. "People may not have Internet, but they're going to have a cellphone, and they're going to have access to satellite TV,louis vuitton sito ufficiale."

Expatriates in the United States, nostalgic for their home countries, also tune in.

Arabic-language Christian satellite channels first began to emerge in the mid-1990s but proliferated rapidly in the last decade as the technology became cheaper. A report commissioned by SAT-7 listed 26 Christian satellite channels broadcasting in Arabic.

They include stations run by the Coptic Orthodox Church, which are aimed at Christians and steer clear of potentially incendiary programming, to more radical channels like The Way, The Truth and Redeemer TV, whose primary target audience is Muslims,sacs louis vuitton.

Nassralla went into hiding in the furor over the "Innocence of Muslims" and later issued a statement saying he was duped about the real nature of the movie by filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of violating terms of his probation.

One of the widest-reaching Christian evangelical stations is Al Hayat,sac louis vuitton, or Life TV. U.S. televangelist Joyce Meyer helped launch the station in 2003 and her program still airs on it six times a day, dubbed into Arabic,louis vuitton outlet.

For more than six years, the station also broadcast Father Zakaria Botros, a Coptic Christian cleric who dedicated sermons to describing the alleged sexual indulgences of the prophet Muhammad, including portraying him as a pedophile and necrophile.

Magdi Khalil, a Washington-based Coptic human rights activist and director of the nonprofit Middle East Freedom Forum, said that according to his research, Al Hayat's viewership is upward of 30 million.

The University of California's plea to the , filed earlier this month, to uphold race-based affirmative action in college admissions is — in effect — a confession of failure.

UC's plea comes in an amicus brief in a crucial case challenging affirmative action at the University of Texas. If the court declares the Texas policy unconstitutional, as it well may, it would mark the end of affirmative action in all public higher education in America and, just possibly, for any private institution getting federal funds.

In California, the end came long ago, with a UC Board of Regents' vote in July 1995 and the passage in November 1996 of Proposition 209, which barred all race preferences in public education, contracting and employment. Oddly enough, UC's brief doesn't mention the regents' vote — the embarrassing fact that the original ban was self-inflicted.

UC offers itself as a test case. In the years since 1996, it says in its amicus brief, it's tried every strategy other than using race to restore the percentages of "underrepresented minorities" — African Americans and Latinos principally — to the level of enrollment before the ban went into effect.

In 1995, the brief says, African American students represented 7.3% of admitted freshmen at Berkeley; in 2012 it was projected to be 3.5%; at , the number is down from 6.7% to 3.8%. In the same years, even as the number of Latino high school graduates in California increased by 36%, Latino enrollment at Berkeley declined. Minority enrollment at UC's professional schools is similarly low.

None of the alternative efforts, from intense outreach programs to major changes in admissions policy, the brief says, have been completely successful. That failure seriously undermines UC's "ability to discharge its role as 'the training ground for a large number of our nation's leaders.'" It goes on to say, "Race-neutral admissions policies cannot fully guarantee diverse student bodies."

UC acknowledges that systemwide the absolute number of Latinos has increased substantially, even though it declined at the most popular campuses — in the fall of 1995, had 344 Latino freshmen,borse louis vuitton, 22% of the class,sacs louis vuitton; in 2011, the freshman class included 1,438 Latinos, 40% — but not rapidly enough to keep up with the number of Latino high school graduates, which has been rising even faster during the past decade and a half.

What it doesn't say is that in the California State University system, for which the top third of all state high school graduates is theoretically eligible (at UC it's the top 12.5%) there are now almost as many Latinos as non-Latino whites: In 2010, there were 100,000 Latinos, and 115,000 whites.

In the same year, according to the College Board, California's community colleges enrolled 513,000 Latinos (up from 255,000 in 1996) and 506,000 whites (down from 519,000 in 1997). Nor does the brief point out that since the end of affirmative action, the graduation rate for so-called underrepresented minorities at UC has increased substantially. According to UC data, 17% of African Americans who entered UC in 1992 graduated in four years; of those who began in 2007,louis vuitton outlet, 45% graduated in four years; 71% graduated in six years. Of those who entered in 1994, 57% had graduated in six years.

There are similar numbers for Latinos, and even for whites, but hardly as dramatic. Six-year graduation rates among whites increased from 76% to 85%,vuitton pas cher, according to UC data; for Latinos,louis vuitton sito ufficiale, from 66% to 75%.

The UC brief correctly voices deep concern about the importance of enrolling students from a wide spectrum of backgrounds in a society as socially and ethnically diverse as California — or as Texas — or as much of America is coming to be. The inability of an institution like the University of California to consider ethnicity also puts it at a disadvantage with private institutions,louis vuitton sac, which can,louis vuitton pas cher.

But throughout our nation's history, city colleges and community colleges have generally been the first rung on the educational ladder for students whose parents didn't go to college. When selective research universities such as , UCLA and UC San Diego, which aspire to rank among the most highly regarded institutions in America,sac louis vuitton, if not in the world, try to also be representative of the state's population — to be elite and democratic too — they may well aspire to be something that never was and never will be.

It becomes more difficult in tough economic times. Eight years ago, Richard Atkinson, who had recently retired as UC's president, pointed out that California enrolled a smaller proportion of its college-age population in higher education than virtually every other state. He proposed enlarging the pool of UC-eligible students to maybe the top 15% and at CSU by a proportionate amount.

At a time when budget cuts have forced retrenchment in all education, and sharp tuition increases, such proposals may seem hopelessly quaint,louis vuitton borse. But they point to a problem that's deadly serious. If we were serious about greater diversity and better opportunities for minorities, we would open the doors much wider, not continue to close them. That — and improved high school preparation — would do more than any return to the divisive race-conscious tinkering of the past.

Peter Schrag, a former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee, is the author of "Not Fit for Our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America."