February 23, 2005
Al-Ittijah al-Mu'akis
That's the title of the most popular show on Al Jazeera, which has been referred in this space before in less-than-kind terms. I'll stand by them, but this show, "Opposite Directions", seems to be really something (link goes to an Atlantic article, and subscription is required. Sorry).
The host is Faisal al-Kasim, a British-educated Syrian with dual British/Syrian citizenship, runs a talk show in which really, really good questions are being asked. Like "When was life better, under colonial or Arab rule?" (86 percent of respondents said they'd like to to be re-colonized.), "Are Arab regimes refraining from condemning the abuse in Abu Ghraib because they're committing far worse atrocities in their own prisons?" (84% of respondents said yes).
Al-Kasim is no fan of the West as such, but is convinced that until the Arab world addresses the problem of "Abu Qarib" ("close to home") it has no business complaining about Abu Ghraib, especially in light of what went on there up until 2003. He's hosted a liberal Arab woman with a traditionalist women in a debate over polygamy. He's hosted an Egyptian general implicated for war crimes and a leader from the Holland-based Center for the Support of Democracy in the Arab World in a discussion of prison abuses. This guy is just amazing. I'd really like to find sub-titled episodes, but that seems unlikely.
The Atlantic article is quite good - like most of the things published therein - and it ends with the following rumination:
"The show [I saw taped] was refreshing in the liveliness and openness of its debate, and its being beamed around the Arab world simply could not have been imagined even a decade ago. Yet it was also emblematic of the problems afflicting Arab society—pitting a grim, powerful, and reality-denying general against a man who can question authority only because he lives in Holland."
Brilliant.
