God Bless Al-Jazeera -David Keyes
Every Tuesday night Al-Jazeera superstar Faisal al-Qassem [pictured at right] hosts "The Opposite Direction," far and away the best program in the Arab world.
The show pits two guests against one another who, to put it mildly, hate each other's guts. Qassem will invite a Kurd whose entire family was killed by Iraqi forces and a Baath party loyalist who served under Saddam. He will invite a democratic Syrian dissident and an Assad lackey, a secular feminist and a radical Islamist. Guests storm off the show and regularly curse each other and threaten bodily harm.
Few tools have done as much to break the wall of Arab ignorance and lack of accountability as Al-Jazeera. Debates that were previously thought unimaginable in the Arab world are now heatedly discussed night after night and broadcast to tens of millions.
Vociferous secularist Wafa Sultan, Lebanese neocon Fouad Ajami, critic of radical Islam Daniel Pipes and terrorist-hunter Steve Emerson have all had significant face time on Qassem's show. They have defended secularism, democracy, and the West to tens of millions of Arabs. And Qassem's Arab guests are tyranny's most eloquent critics.
Al-Jazeera still has a long way to go, [y]et [it] has set a new gold standard for Arab media.
That Faisal al-Qassem is banned from most Arab countries and would be thrown in prison in Syria is a sure sign that he is doing a lot right.
(National Review)
UPDATE [on the other hand]:
Israel to Sanction Al-Jazeera over Party for Kuntar -Khaled Abu Toameh
Every Tuesday night Al-Jazeera superstar Faisal al-Qassem [pictured at right] hosts "The Opposite Direction," far and away the best program in the Arab world.
The show pits two guests against one another who, to put it mildly, hate each other's guts. Qassem will invite a Kurd whose entire family was killed by Iraqi forces and a Baath party loyalist who served under Saddam. He will invite a democratic Syrian dissident and an Assad lackey, a secular feminist and a radical Islamist. Guests storm off the show and regularly curse each other and threaten bodily harm.
Few tools have done as much to break the wall of Arab ignorance and lack of accountability as Al-Jazeera. Debates that were previously thought unimaginable in the Arab world are now heatedly discussed night after night and broadcast to tens of millions.
Vociferous secularist Wafa Sultan, Lebanese neocon Fouad Ajami, critic of radical Islam Daniel Pipes and terrorist-hunter Steve Emerson have all had significant face time on Qassem's show. They have defended secularism, democracy, and the West to tens of millions of Arabs. And Qassem's Arab guests are tyranny's most eloquent critics.
Al-Jazeera still has a long way to go, [y]et [it] has set a new gold standard for Arab media.
That Faisal al-Qassem is banned from most Arab countries and would be thrown in prison in Syria is a sure sign that he is doing a lot right.
(National Review)
UPDATE [on the other hand]:
Israel to Sanction Al-Jazeera over Party for Kuntar -Khaled Abu Toameh
For the second time this year, Israel has decided to act against Al-Jazeera, after the influential TV station held a party for released Lebanese child-killer Samir Kuntar in Beirut, where he was hailed as a hero who carried out a brave military operation against the Jewish state.
"We will suspend all handling of Al-Jazeera requests," said GPO director Daniel Seaman.
(Jerusalem Post)
(Jerusalem Post)
Note: Click HERE for a video feed of Al-Jazeera's party for Kuntar
2 comments:
It will be interesting to see the future of this. Openness often leads to more openness. It sounds like a show I would enjoy watching.
Yeah, sounds like Jerry Springer meets Islam. There are many translated clips on MEMRI's site:
www.memri.org
Bruce:}
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