From the people who brought you bin Laden's broadcasts: a range of snazzy designer goods
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Your support makes all the difference.Al Jazeera, the Arab television station best known for broadcasting Osama bin Laden's anti-American tirades, is planning to exploit its new-found global fame with a range of branded products.
Clothes, sunglasses, perfumes and mobile phones displaying Al Jazeera's teardrop logo will be available early next year.
The station has been criticised in the West for broadcasting uncensored footage of Mr bin Laden denouncing the US and claiming responsibility for the World Trade Centre attacks. However in the Arab world, Al Jazeera has a reputation as one of the few independent media outlets. Muslim extremists accuse it of being pro-Israel because it interviews Israeli politicians, and the Jordanian government recently closed Al Jazeera's office in the country, accusing it of "sedition".
Ali Mohammed Kamal, marketing director of Al Jazeera and the man behind the branding initiative, said: "Al Jazeera is thought of as the voice of freedom. After 9/11, it has provided a dialogue ... between West and East, liberals and fundamentalists, Christians and Muslims.
"There is always so much demand when we give away things like T-shirts with our name on them that we thought, why not do this professionally?" he added.
While the 1991 Gulf War was the making of CNN, the "war against terrorism" has made Al Jazeera a household name around the globe. In the days after the bombing of Afghanistan began last year, Al Jazeera was the only channel broadcasting live from Kabul, its bureau there suffering a direct hit from an American bomb.
Next week Mr Kamal will fly into London to attend a marketing show.
Al Jazeera's goods will be marketed not only in Arab countries but in Britain and around the world – up to half the traffic to the station's website comes from the US.
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