The Onion reports on the ‘secret terrorist hat language’ of Afghanistan.
Tagged: CNN Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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thabet
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abunoor
CNN Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs Octavia Nasr is being forced out at CNN after tweeting the following upon the death of Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
“Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”
Nasr, who is Lebanese-American, had attempted to explain the context of her comments in a blog post that her comments came out of her appreciations as “a Middle Eastern woman” for Fadlallah’s “contrarian and pioneering stand among Shi’a clerics” on women’s rights.
She also tried to give a sense of how Fadlallah, while viewed only as a “terrorist” by most western audiences, has a different reputation in Lebanon and across the region.
Of course, this was not going to fly.
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abunoor
Here were As’ad Abu Khalil’s brief thoughts on the evolution of Fadlallah’s religio-political thought over time and the effect of his passing.
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abunoor
Matt Duss on the Neocon’s Fadlallah problem:
The punchline here is that Sayyed Fadlallah was the religious guide, or marja’ al-taqlid, to numerous members of Iraq’s ruling Da’wa Party, including Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. This means that they looked to Fadlallah as a source of religious authority on matters relating to correct Islamic life and practice, and committed to following his edicts on those matters. It also meant that, in October 2008, when Fadlallah (along with several other ayatollahs) condemned the U.S.-Iraq security agreement in its then-current form and decreed that any agreement should call for an unconditional withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, the agreement had to be re-negotiated.
As I wrote at the time, the power of these ayatollahs to effectively scuttle an agreement of significant import to the security of the United States throws into stark relief what the Bush administration created in Iraq: a government dominated by Shia religious parties who take their guidance — and derive much of their legitimacy — from the opinions and edicts of a small handful of senior Shia clerics.
That aside, here’s the neocon logic, as best I can explain: When a reporter acknowledges the passing of a revered, if controversial figure in a way that doesn’t sufficiently convey what a completely evil terrorist neocons think that figure was — that’s unacceptable. But when the United States spends nearly a trillion dollars, loses over four thousand of its own troops and over a hundred thousand Iraqis to establish a new government largely dominated by that same “terrorist’s” avowed acolytes — that’s victory.
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aziz
a minor protest, but worthwhile: unfollow @cnnbrk on twitter.
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abunoor
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thabet
The Leader Of The Free World:
CNN’s Chief News Executive, Eason Jordan, was previously forced to resign after he provoked a right-wing fit of fury over comments he made about the numerous — and obviously disturbing — incidents where the U.S. military had injured or killed journalists in war zones. NBC fired Peter Arnett for criticizing the U.S. war plan on Iraqi television, which prompted accusations of Treason from the Right. MSNBC demoted and then fired its rising star Ashleigh Banfield after she criticized American media war coverage for adhering to the Fox model of glorifying U.S. wars; the same network fired its top-rated host, Phil Donahue, due to its fear of being perceived as anti-war; and its former reporter, Jessica Yellin, confessed that journalists were “under enormous pressure from corporate executives” to present the news in a pro-war and pro-Bush manner.
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shams
well….the whole thing is too demoralizing for our troops to speak truth. Its a pretty horrible situ for them. the truth would crush them.
The Bush Doctrine simply could never work. More democracy in MENA means more Islam. So 5000 troops died for nothing in Iraq, and nearly a thousand in Afghanistan so far. I can’t even bear it. Those poor kids and their poor families. -
shams
That is why the conservatives have to demonize al-Islam, the Taliban and Saddam….otherwise all our young soldiers have been killed and wounded for nothing. Like Duss points out, Iraq is an Islamic state with shariah in the constitution, still informed by islamic jurisprudence and which declared a national holiday on the day american troops left Iraqi cities.
That is why all the wilin’ out on al-Islam about fgm, stoning, and rape rooms….its misdirection….so the troops and the american electorate won’t realize how badly they have been scammed.-
thabet
It’s called ‘empire’.
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shams
well yah…..or “american exceptionalism”……but its real name is the Epic Fail of the Manifest Destiny of Western Culture in MENA.
/gigglesthose idiots couldn’t see this coming?
that is what i mean about conservatives……even their smart people are retards.
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thabet
Unsurprising: CNN has always been fanatically pro-Israeli.
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abunoor
Alhamdulillaah Sullivan is on the case as well. It doesn’t mean things will change, necessarily, but people should just be honetst about what the rules are. This is the point, in the mainstream western media being uniformly pro-Israel is considered to be “objectivity.”
To many people, this is only right, and I honestly think they don’t understand why some would criticize this standard.
But on the internet, there is room for other voices and perspectives which is a good thing.
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abunoor
When I say Western, I guess I mean American. Thabet I know you have your complaints about BBC, as well but its a different ballgame compared to America. I mean, the Brit ambassador to Lebanon had words of praise for Fadlallah on a government blog? From an American perspective, this leaves one’s headspinning it is difficult to imagine such a thing.
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thabet
British pro-Israeli fanatics were out quickly when Frances Guy put up her thoughts:
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thabet
She has clearly been forced to ‘clarify’ views.
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aziz
My dear friend Maria Ebrahimji – a producer for CNN – is profiled by Elan Magazine.
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abunoor
One of the most best young Muslim thinkers out there, Omer Mozaffar, returns to his blog after a hiatus, with this observation about, The Reactive Nation:
It seems that the media told us that there were two types of Muslim: Sunni and Shi’i. Those of us who know a bit about Islam know that there is more than Sunni and Shi’i, starting with the Ibadi. But, those of us who are honest about American Islam know that the largest sect is neither Sunni, nor Shi’i, nor Ibadi, nor heterodox. The largest Muslim sect is see-enn-enn-i. cnni. We so often turn to CNN to tell us what to believe, how to believe it, and how much to believe in it. And, for that, may God forgive us.
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Willow
Exactly right.
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abunoor
I think there are at least two different phenomenon going on here. First, there is the common everyday Muslim who, let’s face it, is not going to be able to dig through a variety of sources and keep up with events all over the world…they are often driven by what is covered in the mainstream media by necessity and I think sincerity lies behind their wanting to care about what is reported especially if it involves Muslims rather than just letting it pass by and not caring about it.
There is also the professional activist class which drifts and flows with what is covered in the MSM because they feel either that there has to be some Muslims who are reacting to these stories or because they feel that these stories, since they already have MSM coverage are ones where change can be made.
My question is whether we want the activist class to stop doing that and start really doing the hard work necessary to make real change, have a long term vision and proactively create focus on what we think is important or whether we still need people who are doing the “Reactive” job but there is another group, a group of thinkers and visionaries outside of the second group, that needs to be doing this larger more long term job.
Or do we really want, as a matter of spiritual necessity, to break even the everyday common Muslim from this reactive habit. The problem that I consistently come back to with the criticism of being reactive (which I completely share) is that it is better to be reactive than to be dead. Yes, it’s not good that we only care about Muslims or others getting killed if its on CNN, but would it be improvement if we didn’t care EVEN when it was on CNN? To move to the proactive/visionary stage is actually extremely difficult and I don’t think it’s something everyone can do…I think for a community it needs to be something that we support certain people doing (religious scholars, academics, long term political thinkers (as opposed to activists or politicians). This is an infrastructure that is truly lacking in the Muslim community such that even people who have those kind of minds to do such work are stuck spending most of their time scraping in the day to day and activist and fundraising and teaching kids type work.
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Willow
I agree with both points. Some amount of reactivity is necessary for the reasons you mention–reactivity is a thousand times better than total apathy–but if we’re ever to do anything but be reactive we have to learn how to set our own agenda. Identify common goals and start working on solutions before they become (negative) headline news.
A free media is a tyrannical media, ironically. With no oversight, the power to manipulate information (even if it’s just what is highlighted vs. what is downplayed) is pretty vast. We confuse ‘free’ with ‘fair’ and ‘productive’ when in fact it is neither. We simply assume free means all things blessed and righteous. Ironically I’ve found Americans to be much more complacent about information than people living in dictatorships, perhaps because the latter know for certain they’re being fed a line every time they turn on the TV. Cultivates a much healthier level of reflection and skepticism.
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abunoor
Willow,
For reasons I can’t entirely explain or defend, I actually dislike the whole Muslims need to go into the media mantra that was prevalent and probably remains so in many Muslim circles up to this moment.
But, if we agree that the media is influential in shaping the public agenda, then it probably is very important.
So my question to you is, at what level does one have to reach to influence what is covered (or is that even possible — are there some large impersonal forces that shape these mega phenomenon that can’t really be controlled?) does simply having Muslim reporters or writers change things? Do they have to be in behind the scenes positions? Or do we really need Muslim owned agenda driven (in a smart way) media?
I got a chance to talk with Geneive Abdo (non-Muslim Arab who writes a lot about Muslims and does so in a way very sympathetic to Muslims) a few times and she definitely stressed the difficulties she faced in trying to paint positive stories of Muslims in the mainstream media, although it seemed to me from the outside that she did a pretty good job.
I’m interested in your feelings about this Willow, since I’ve sensed a general frustration from you about the way the media works, but I’m not sure I know what you are advocating as the solution.
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abunoor
Of course any serious discussion or thinking about these issues, has to factor in how this is affected by all the massive changes taking place in the media industry…meaning among other things…I doubt it would be good advice to suggest young Muslims or anyone else to go into media as a career thinking there are going to be traditional newspaper jobs available like there were in the past.
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Willow
does simply having Muslim reporters or writers change things? Do they have to be in behind the scenes positions? Or do we really need Muslim owned agenda driven (in a smart way) media?
Yes to all. The effect of news media and entertainment on shaping public perception (and by extension, public policy) cannot be overstated. I think Al Jazeera English, the praises of which I have sung on many occasions, has done a lot to help start an alternate Muslim narrative. But the entrenched idea that Al Jazeera=terrorism has limited its penetration into western info markets.
Modern Muslims–I am about to make a sweeping generalization, but only because I have consistently found it to be true–are very dismissive of the imagination. The number of books (fiction and nonfiction) we produce relative to our population is RIDICULOUSLY low. (The Arab world, for instance, represents 10% of the world’s population but only 1% of its books.) Meanwhile in other parts of the world, films and memoirs and theses and histories antagonistic to Islam and Muslims are being churned out almost as fast as they can be printed. We’re mute in a world that increasingly hinges on speech.
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abunoor
Thanks for your insights in the first paragraph.
Obviously being tied specifically to terrorism is not helpful and is factually silly, but for AlJazeerah or any other attempt to succeed in providing a different viewpoint, it is probably helpful to being identifiably different. So, that is a positive aspect of AlJazeerah’s brand, is that it is seen as being a real alternative and has a name for itself even among people who do not speak Arabic.
As to the point about books I agree hundred percent of course. With regard to nonfiction there is absolutely no reason why Muslims should be so far behind.
With regard to fiction, film, “art” in general, (which I also think is absolutely vital as these forms have potentially more ability to influence large numbers of people than does nonfiction writing or scholarship) I can’t speak on the dynamics of the Muslim world. For Muslims who grow up in the West, we can see that they will see the same void you see and want to fill it. I have to honestly say I am scared because to make good art that is true to Islamic values I think is incredibly hard and I woudn’t trust many people to do it since one has to be incredibly talented, incredibly sincere to one’s faith and knowledgeable about areas that most artistic personalities (fiqh for example).
Of course, it doesn’t really matter who I would trust to do something as I’m not in charge of anybody (other than my kids, and heck I can’t stop them from drawing whatever they want) but I guess I just have to come to terms with the fact that there’s going to be Islamic art that is offensive, that is not “Islamic” (i.e. haraam), that is just low quality, etc. etc. Because I know it is influential it still really does bother me though. Anyways, Allaahul-Musta’an.
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Mohammed Husain
http://www.presstv.com is another english language news station based out of iran, that I think has some really impressive news analysis and also great documentaries.
Willow, you were speaking also about the paucity of film from the Muslim world, but I also think as far as the Muslim world goes, Iran has a burgeoning film industry, thats now getting an increasing amount of international acclaim. The industry is particularly relevant I think, because it has adapted itself to Islamic regulations, and yet is thoroughly modern.
Believe me, I’m no propaganda tool for the iranians, but i think there are some really positive developments that have occurred there in the last thirty years that are also relevant to us as Muslims living in the West, and its unfortunate that they have been largely overlooked largely because of Iran’s Shi’i inclinations.
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aziz
Anyone with cable television happen to catch Fareed Zakaria’s new show on CNN?
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thabet
Chinese sue CNN for $1.3 billion.
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razib
…better than suing madonna
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Arwi and 
shams, 
thabet, 
abunoor, and 1 other are discussing. 
Mohammed Husain, 
razib is discussing. 
midwinterspring 7:22 am on September 8, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Oh those Afghans! So exotic and unlike us.
Do CNN reporters even go to community college? They really should try it. I learned a lot at my community college, especially about the strange, exotic world of the Nacirema.
Arwi 7:25 am on September 8, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
That was truly hilarious. Say what you want about Europe, but I don’t think the BBC would be producing segments to explain that turbans are worn by non-terrorists for reasons other than to signal their terrorosticity.
Runner up in hilarity though is Deepak Chopra’s interview about his new “fictionalized biography” — I guess that is the hip new phrase for historical novel. I’m only sad he didn’t call it Alternative Jewels from Medina.