BAGHDAD, May 14 (IslamOnline.net) - The Iraqi television started transmitting once again one Tuesday, May 13, with new frequency after more than 30-day hiatus due to the U.S.-led war on the country, but now without Qur’an recitation or even Adhan (the call to prayer.)

It began its transmission with airing songs, news bulletins and instructions of the “coalition forces” to the Iraqi people on how to deal with U.S. soldiers.

It kept the same old emblem of an octagonal star painted in the colors of the Iraqi flag.

Over the past three weeks, TV Iraqi officials and cadres held protracted talks with American technicians to tackle means and approaches of resuming the halted transmission, given the free-for-all looting that swept the Iraqi capital and the TV building after the downfall of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on April, 9.

The looters also damaged the studios and set them in flames, with the building’s audio and video library - one of the first libraries to be established in Arab world - had been reduced to charred rubble.

Nevertheless, some Iraqi engineers and technicians, to whom a number of valuable and state-of-the-art equipment were entrusted to protect them from the war, returned them to the new temporary building.

Others helped U.S. soldiers storm markets known for selling looted government equipment, especially the electrical ones, which were being sold at dime a dozen.

IslamOnline.net correspondent, while touring one of such markets, happened to find the famous fake nightingale of the Iraqi TV, which whistles a piece of music similar to the one used to start the daily transmission of Baghdad radio over 70 years, with 300,000 Iraqi dinars ($200) put on it.

Dozens of original Iraqi movies, such as al-Qadisia and King Ghazi, were being also sold in the market at $10 per movie, not to mention hundreds of rare radio and TV videos available at less than 50 cents for every ten videos.

The absence of Qur’an recitation, Adhan and national anthem, however, was conspicuously obvious.

Nidal Salem, a news broadcaster, admonished the bulletin’s director for starting the first transmission after war without airing recitation of the Glorious Qur’an.

But he argued that “all videos of Qur’an have been stolen.”

The TV also did not interrupt programs to broadcast Al-Maghrib and Ishaa Adhans, or calls for prayers, as it used to do in the past and made no mention of them.

“We took pains to resume transmission after a long hiatus. The Americans, in effect, did not take any concrete steps but only made hollow promises. But we succeeded in resuming transmission, thanks to our sincere engineers and cadres,” Mohannad Aziz al-Rabei, a director, told IOL.

“Although U.S. troops gave us assurances that information freedom would not be restricted, they kept on meddling in some programs and dictate us to air some programs providing instructions to Iraqi citizens, urging them to steer clear of personnel carriers,” he added.