OPINION & EDITORIAL
Al Jazeera offers political context
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Also by Frank Hennick:
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- Anti-Nazi demonstrations passionate but lacking dignity (September 6, 2006)
- Campus growth must preserve green space (September 11, 2006)
- U.S. should emulate Hungarian rhetoric (September 25, 2006)
- Campus spots make UW home (December 4, 2006)
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- Government needs to improve overseas propaganda (October 28, 2001)
- Sloppy reporting promotes hatred (January 28, 2005)
- Osama threat ineffective (November 5, 2004)
by Frank Hennick
Monday, November 20, 2006
This past Wednesday saw a landmark event in Arab-Western interactions, though few in the United States will even hear about it. Al Jazeera, the controversial Qatari news corporation that many Americans consider skewed against them, began broadcasting its new English-version channel. As the BBC reports, Al Jazeera English will enter roughly 80 million homes in Africa, Asia and Europe, mostly targeting non-Arabic speaking Muslims around the world.
Al Jazeera has triggered American irritation in the past for its unapologetic and exclusive broadcasts of Osama bin Laden's "messages" and for displaying close-up images of captured American soldiers (in alleged violation of the Geneva Conventions). Testifying to the disconnect between world views, Al Jazeera enjoys a reputation for blunt integrity in the Middle East and for skewed reporting in America.
Insofar as Europeans understand English, they will have the opportunity to access Al Jazeera's unique perspective on world news. We Americans, however, will remain left out of the intrigue, as no American cable or satellite service providers will offer these broadcasts. In the United States, anyone curious about Al Jazeera English will need a broadband connection and a bit of Internet savvy, confining the audience to political "techies."
This snub, while not momentous in itself, is emblematic of a much broader problem facing America.
In short, we do not pay enough attention to foreign news sources. When we endeavor to learn about the world around us, we are usually quite content to use the familiar domestic press and media. Of course, this is only natural and indeed, many of our domestic news services do a passable job in covering foreign affairs. Still, this coverage comes to us strained through an American perspective. Even at its objective best, it cannot escape this fact.
Yet, the inevitable biases of journalism are what make something like Al Jazeera English valuable to Western viewers. Even excluding Turkey, Europe is home to many millions of Muslims — France alone has between 5 and 6 million, and the UK has almost 2 million. These sizable Muslim populations alone give Europe good reason to take interest in this new station. It gives Europeans an opportunity to understand the values and perspectives of an increasing percentage of the population. The inveterate biases of Al Jazeera's broadcasts make these perspectives all the clearer.
Americans, too, would stand to benefit from access to such a network. Although Middle Eastern Muslims make up a smaller percentage of the population here than in Europe, the importance of making a special effort to understand the region and its people is quite plain. Regardless of how Iraq turns out, the greater Middle East will continue to serve as a focal point and thorn in the side of American foreign policy. As the State Department scrambles for speakers of Arabic and rummages for regional experts, all signs point to a long and tricky American involvement in the Middle East. We citizens would do well to get familiar with the region — not just through our domestic media, but through the media of others.
America's cable and satellite service providers have a role to play, too. Sometimes supply can create demand. While the number of Americans clamoring for Al Jazeera broadcasts cannot be overwhelming or insatiable, we should be willing to wager that there are plenty of Americans curious about what Al Jazeera has to say. After all, we do love television.
If we are to develop a better sense of the world around them — particularly the Middle East — we must venture outside our comfort zones of CNN, Fox and the popular press. American television providers also have a role and responsibility to fulfill, as they provide the lens through which Americans view the world. Let us hope that Al Jazeera English — biases and all — finds its way onto American television sets and that we are not left out in the cold for long.
Frank Hennick (fahennick@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in history and international studies.
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 9:30am):
Once the average US citizen understands what the average Muslim wants, there will hopefully be a greater understanding of the danger that liberty and freedom face as the 1000 year old war to make the entire world submit to Islam continues.
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 11:58am):
During WWII, can anyone imagine FDR granting Tokyo Rose broadcast rights in the United States-- simply to prove some academic gobbledygook commitment to "understanding the region"?
Our US Constititution's commerce clause endows FCC with authority to regulate what broadcasts are licensed on American airwaves. If we wouldn't entertain granting drivers licenses to Hezbollah members (to prove our commitment to open roads), why should Americans grant access to our broadcast airwaves for the primary mouthpiece of our Islamo-fascist enemies?
This column's "reasoning" is absurdity on stilts.
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 1:56pm):
ah, but they can broadcast because of open markets! if you want to limit capitalism, you're no better than they are.
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 2:59pm):
Al Jazeera, CNN, peas in pod?
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 3:22pm):
Americans should judge for themselves. Some of al-Jazeera's most notorious deeds include:
- Repeatedly airing the most vile anti-Americanism, including statements made shortly before 9/11 by Abd al-Bari 'Atwan, editor of the London Arabic publication Al-Quds al-Arabi. On Al-Jazeera, 'Atwan called the U.S. "a terrorist regime that has killed innocent people since 1945 to this very moment." Osama bin Laden, on the other hand, was for 'Atwan "a legitimate jihad fighter. Bin Laden has a work plan ... to harass the U.S., to harm its presence in the region as much as he can."
- Trampling upon the Geneva convention by showing footage of American prisoners of war being interrogated in Iraq, as well as of American soldiers killed by Iraqis.
- Featuring the radical Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who made headlines by defending suicide bombing during a recent trip to London (earning him an invitation to return from London Mayor "Red Ken" Livingstone), on an Islamic issues program entitled "Sharia and Life."
- Airing, on several notorious occasions, video and audio communiques by Osama bin Laden and other leading jihadists, thereby allowing them to spread jihad ideology and hatred of America all over the Arabic-speaking world -- and never divulging how it obtained the tapes.
- Highlighting messages from the likes of Osama bin Laden's spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, and other high-profile terrorists.
- Filming footage of a Baghdad suicide attack that indicated that someone in the network knew in advance when and where the bombing was going to take place.
- Lying about attacks by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi civilians -- propaganda disguised as reporting that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called "vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable."
What's more, al-Jazeera will serve Islamo-fascism as a useful recruiting tool. For jihadist recruiters in the West, al-Jazeera will likely be an electronic madrassa beaming, twenty-four hours a day, the teachings and perspective of radical Islam into the living rooms of Western Muslims.
If that happens, and whatever they succeed in doing here, you can be sure that it will be carried -- and celebrated -- on Al-Jazeera.
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 5:31pm):
If Al-Jazeera supports terrorism then Animal Planet supports bestiality.
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 10:01pm):
All liberal "cut-n-runners" should be strapped to chair with their eyes taped open and forced to watch Al-Jazeera for a few weeks.
Bah, they'd probably STILL refuse to wake up to reality.
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 10:41pm):
"If Al-Jazeera supports terrorism then Animal Planet supports bestiality."
Animal Planet features bestiality? I seem to have missed that.
Anonymous (November 20, 2006 @ 11:01pm):
Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are.
And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength"--while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn't violate the "separation of church and state," and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy.
