I have been observing an odd behavior on the part of the Wall Street Journal: Attacking Arab News almost daily. The WSJ charges Arab News with spreading religious extremism and Islamism. It may look strange that an American newspaper of international standing feels so much perturbed by a Saudi newspaper.
The WSJ, obviously, has been annoyed by the growing number of readers, particularly in the US, for the Saudi and other Arab newspapers with on-line editions. The WSJ is also worried about the success of the Middle East-based newspapers in penetrating the iron wall the US media have erected around the American readers so that they read only what the American media choose for them. The US media heavyweight also fears that the Arab-based newspapers will strike at the root of the Jewish hegemony over the Western media.
It is an undeniable fact that the Jewish-controlled media take a devilish pleasure in spreading falsehoods about the Arabs and Muslims to turn the Western public opinion against the Arabs in general and Muslims in particular.
It is ironical that the advanced information technology has enabled the Arab world to strike back at its enemies, in a limited way though. The West used to threat Arabs with the highly advanced electronic media to undermine our values and traditions.
They tell us with unconcealed contempt that they are promoting their values and style of thinking to influence our life and way of thinking. Time was when they said they would reshape our society’s values and attitudes to serve their best interests and we had to remain passive spectators. The advanced technology, however, is a double-edged weapon. We are now capable of adopting advanced technology of the information superhighway to serve our interests as well.
Several Arab governments have adopted the new media technology, which enable them to pay back their Western critics in the same coin.
The increasing protests of Western leaders, particularly in the US, prove that our media have been scoring against their anti-Arab campaign and defending our people to a great extent. The Western disapproval of our media, simultaneously, betrays the hypocrisy of some Western leaders who claim to champion the cause of freedom of expression. They are willing to permit the freedom only if it serves their interests. They would deny us this freedom if our media do not toe their line and protect their interests.
I wonder if the Internet would pave the way for the downfall of the American empire just as the telegraph led to the collapse of the British Empire.
5 August 2002
