What the Muslim World Is Watching

The New York Times ^ | 11/18/2001 | FOUAD AJAMI

[l33t]

l Jazeera is not subtle television. Recently, during a lull in its nonstop coverage of the raids on Kabul and the street battles of Bethlehem, the Arabic-language satellite news station showed an odd but telling episode of its documentary program ''Biography and Secrets.'' The show's subject was Ernesto (Che) Guevara. Presenting Che as a romantic, doomed hero, the documentary recounted the Marxist rebel's last stand in the remote mountains of Bolivia, lingering mournfully over the details of his capture and execution. Even Che's corpse received a lot of airtime; Al Jazeera loves grisly footage and is never shy about presenting graphic imagery.

The episode's subject matter was, of course, allegorical. Before bin Laden, there was Guevara. Before Afghanistan, there was Bolivia. As for the show's focus on C.I.A. operatives chasing Guevara into the mountains, this, too, was clearly meant to evoke the contemporary hunt for Osama, the Islamic rebel.

Al Jazeera, which claims a global audience of 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers, may not officially be the Osama bin Laden Channel -- but he is clearly its star, as I learned during an extended viewing of the station's programming in October. The channel's graphics assign him a lead role: there is bin Laden seated on a mat, his submachine gun on his lap; there is bin Laden on horseback in Afghanistan, the brave knight of the Arab world. A huge, glamorous poster of bin Laden's silhouette hangs in the background of the main studio set at Al Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, the capital city of Qatar.

On Al Jazeera (which means ''the Peninsula''), the Hollywoodization of news is indulged with an abandon that would make the Fox News Channel blush. The channel's promos are particularly shameless. One clip juxtaposes a scowling George Bush with a poised, almost dreamy bin Laden; between them is an image of the World Trade Center engulfed in flames. Another promo opens with a glittering shot of the Dome of the Rock. What follows is a feverish montage: a crowd of Israeli settlers dance with unfurled flags; an Israeli soldier fires his rifle; a group of Palestinians display Israeli bullet shells; a Palestinian woman wails; a wounded Arab child lies on a bed. In the climactic image, Palestinian boys carry a banner decrying the shame of the Arab world's silence.

Al Jazeera's reporters are similarly adept at riling up the viewer. A fiercely opinionated group, most are either pan-Arabists -- nationalists of a leftist bent committed to the idea of a single nation across the many frontiers of the Arab world -- or Islamists who draw their inspiration from the primacy of the Muslim faith in political life. Since their primary allegiance is to fellow Muslims, not Muslim states, Al Jazeera's reporters and editors have no qualms about challenging the wisdom of today's Arab rulers. Indeed, Al Jazeera has been rebuked by the governments of Libya and Tunisiafor giving opposition leaders from those countries significant air time. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, for their part, have complained about Al Jazeera's extensive reporting on the misery of Iraqis living under sanctions. But the five-year-old station has refused to be reined in. The channel openly scorns the sycophantic tone of the state-run Arab media and the quiescence of the mainstream Arab press, both of which play down controversy and dissent.

Compared with other Arab media outlets, Al Jazeera may be more independent -- but it is also more inflammatory. For the dark side of the pan-Arab worldview is an aggressive mix of anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism, and these hostilities drive the station's coverage, whether it is reporting on the upheaval in the West Bank or on the American raids on Kandahar. Although Al Jazeera has sometimes been hailed in the West for being an autonomous Arabic news outlet, it would be a mistake to call it a fair or responsible one. Day in and day out, Al Jazeera deliberately fans the flames of Muslim outrage.

Consider how Al Jazeera covered the second intifada, which erupted in September 2000. The story was a godsend for the station; masked Palestinian boys aiming slingshots and stones at Israeli soldiers made for constantly compelling television. The station's coverage of the crisis barely feigned neutrality. The men and women who reported from Israel and Gaza kept careful count of the ''martyrs.'' The channel's policy was firm: Palestinians who fell to Israeli gunfire were martyrs; Israelis killed by Palestinians were Israelis killed by Palestinians. Al Jazeera's reporters exalted the ''children of the stones,'' giving them the same amount of coverage that MSNBC gave to Monica Lewinsky. The station played and replayed the heart-rending footage of 12-year-old Muhammed al-Durra, who was shot in Gaza and died in his father's arms. The images' ceaseless repetition signaled the arrival of a new, sensational breed of Arab journalism. Even some Palestinians questioned the opportunistic way Al Jazeera handled the tragic incident. But the channel savored the publicity and the controversy all the same.

Since Sept. 11, I discovered, Al Jazeera has become only more incendiary. The channel's seething dispatches from the ''streets of Kabul'' or the ''streets of Baghdad'' emphasize anti-American feeling. The channel's numerous call-in shows welcome viewers to express opinions that in the United Stateswould be considered hate speech. And, of course, there is the matter of Al Jazeera's ''exclusive'' bin Laden videotapes. On Oct. 7, Al Jazeera broadcast a chilling message from bin Laden that Al Qaeda had delivered to its Kabul bureau. Dressed in a camouflage jacket over a traditional thoub, bin Laden spoke in ornate Arabic, claiming that the terror attacks of Sept. 11 should be applauded by Muslims. It was a riveting performance -- one that was repeated on Nov. 3, when another bin Laden speech aired in full on the station. And just over a week ago, Al Jazeera broadcast a third Al Qaeda tape, this one showcasing the military skills of four young men who were said to be bin Laden's own sons.

The problem of Al Jazeera's role in the current crisis is one that the White House has been trying to solve. Indeed, the Bush administration has lately been expressing its desire to win the ''war of ideas,'' to capture the Muslim world's intellectual sympathy and make it see the war against bin Laden as a just cause. There has been talk of showing American-government-sponsored commercials on Al Jazeera. And top American officials have begun appearing on the station's talk shows. But my viewing suggests that it won't be easy to dampen the fiery tone of Al Jazeera. The enmity runs too deep.

Continued here

[michaelje]

Al Jazerra is the CNN of the middle east.

[michaelje]

"the Hollywoodization of news is indulged with an abandon that would make the Fox News Channel blush"

Another cheap shot by the Jew York Times. (Its ok, Im Jewish)

[Tribune7]

Poor Al Jazeera. It's a shame we had to bomb them.

[Faraday]

Here's a job for the CIA. I can see a transformer explosion taking them right off the air.

[l33t]

Fouad Ajami is not employed by the New York Times and he is an independent academic. Don't know how you can blame the NYTimes on this particular observation. I think the tabloidization of some of the Fox News programs warrants this comment to some extent.

[Savage Beast]

Maybe Al-Jazeera and CNN could just merge. Might as well.

[michaelje]

I see economies of scale on the horizon.

[BunnySlippers]

I think the tabloidization of some of the Fox News programs warrants this comment to some extent

I agree. Good observations.

[Moridin]

"Bush administration has lately been expressing its desire to win the ''war of ideas,'' to capture the Muslim world's intellectual sympathy and make it see the war against bin Laden as a just cause."

These Arabs are psychos, anything that the U.S. does or says will be twisted into some bizarre path of conspiracy. The world would be a far safer place if the Arab world were melted into a sheet of glass.

[pocat]

Godless, communist Ernesto (Che) Guevara glorified by muslims?

No surprise...

TERRORISM'S TRUE ROOTS

[WriteOn]

The NY Times is changing?

[atafak]

To destroy Al jazeera's hold on the Arab mind, we can set up a station which broadcasts reruns of Baywatch 24 hours a day. The Arabs, as a whole, are so sexually deprived and depraved, that they'd be tuned to that channel full time.

[Moridin]

"Another cheap shot by the Jew York Times. (Its ok, Im Jewish)"

No, it's not OK and I couldn’t care less if you say you're Jewish--you don’t have to be Jewish to be left wing. I do agree that the comment in the article was a cheap shot toward FNC but it was grounded in a bit of truth.

[CW_Conservative]

Godless, communist Ernesto (Che) Guevara glorified by muslims?

No surprise...

This Al Jazeera program on (Che) Guevara sounds a lot like a show I saw on good old American taxpayer financed PBS.

The program featured college students running around Cuba retracing the revolution and spouting such drivel as, "the Cubans may be poor, but at least they are happy".

[michaelje]

you don’t have to be Jewish to be left wing

Im not arguing that. My position is that the top brass and many reporters (if you are gracious enough to call them so) are left wing Jews at the NYT.

[Excuse_Me]

Another cheap shot by the Jew York Times. (Its ok, Im Jewish)

No, it's not. You may be Jew-"ish", but that doesn't make you a Jew. The way you live your life makes you a Jew, not what your mother was.

[American Preservative]

Another cheap shot by the Jew York Times. (Its ok, Im Jewish)

3 posted on 11/16/01 6:28 PM Pacific by michaelje

Well, I'm Jewish, and, your remark is not O.K.

How about sticking to shooting photos (which it looks like you're good at - saw your profile page), instead of shooting your mouth off with that put down drek?

[michaelje]

Are you both going to tell me that the New York Times ISN'T infested with left wing Jews ?

Dont come after me with PCBS.

[michaelje]

Thanks for the complement on the photos btw.