I guess part of the media’s purpose is, to put it in vulgar terms, to ‘rake muck.’ Had that not been the case, Nixon would still occupy the White House even. The Al-Jazeerah television station has upped the ante by becoming news rather than a mundane conveyor of news. Had I been the CEO of this enterprise, I’d be smoking a fat cigar.
The Americans have thrown it out of Baghdad for a month. America is simply applying the adage “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Meaning, while in the Middle East, do as other powers in the ME do: Shut them down. Of course, the result is that the station’s stock shot up as spectacularly as Enron’s went down.
My concern, however, is more internal than American in nature. In a highly publicized episode of the shouting match that goes for a “discussion” program, which is hosted and moderated by Faisal Al-Gasim, a new trend has emerged. It seems we are done with the “takfir” business now.
To those unfamiliar with this term it simply means that if you do not agree with me, you are an infidel, regardless of creed. Now they go, with Al-Gasim’s hypocritical and rapacious delivery, for “treason,” “unpatriotic” and most dangerous of all, “a dog for the Americans.”
Those they term “liberals” who do not think America is inherently evil or that democracy is a bad idea or that Western culture is to be enjoyed and flattered in public and not just privately, are the objects of this new attack. Al-Jazeerah is out to discredit those who argue their cases with some measure of sanity, logic, and objectivity. They will succeed since they are targeting the rabble, the ignorant and the vindictive.
Worse, they give wide airing to people like A.M. Al-Ouaji, a “reformer” by trade and a fanatic by nature.
The man (and others like him), who is on this station more than news presenters, is no reformer. He is a schemer. His history is long and obvious. He was and still is a fanatic. He was thrown into Saudi jails not because he wanted reform but rather for his fanaticism and the ideas he stuffed into his student’s heads. Those same students the world is now chasing.
He is no fool. He recognized that the tide of history and reality is against him. Therefore, he sheds one skin and appears with another. Invariably, the essence is the same. He presents himself as a “moderator” between the government and the fanatics. Those same fanatics he and his ilk created. All the while, he is afraid of one thing: Losing his power and the grip he thinks his people have on us.
I would not trust him with a drop of salt water in an ocean, and neither would Al-Jazeerah since he would be the first to shut them down permanently; yet they expound his ideas and promote his presence. I personally do not believe that there exists anything called a “reformed fanatic.”
It would be a contradiction in terms since a snake changing its skin once a year does not emerge as a butterfly. Obviously, they are playing a game and a nasty one at that. As a believer in absolute right of speech, I would not deny him his time in the spotlight (complete with makeup — something he considers haram), but I would think he does not deserve public time to preach.
