Understanding Al Jazeera
Would it surprise you to learn that Al Jazeera is highly controversial in the Arab world? Is this new type of Arab media a threat to the peace and stability of the Middle East? Is it a threat to the West? Read on to understand what Al Jazeera is and what it can do.
by Cecil Maranville
Like most Westerners, I became aware of Al Jazeera during the Iraq War of 2003. I knew it was an Arab news service that reported on the war to Arab peoples throughout the region. Perhaps you first became aware of it with many others when Al Jazeera shocked the Western world by repeatedly displaying graphic pictures of dead Coalition soldiers. Its coverage often seemed unfavorable to the Coalition.
Not all of their reports put the West in a bad light. Early in the war, Al Jazeera correspondents had the advantage of being able to enter any Iraqi city or village, whereas the Western press pool received its briefings from the Coalition's Central Command in Qatar. At one point when Western journalists' reports talked of a possible uprising in Basra, Al Jazeera's correspondent reported from inside the city that everything was calm.
Al Jazeera describes itself as balanced, but its war coverage appeared weighted toward Saddam Hussein and the Baathist Party. A postwar scandal did not help. In May of 2003, The Sunday Times (London) reported that Hussein's intelligence agency had successfully recruited the director-general of Al Jazeera, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali, along with two other employees. Although unproven, the allegations forced al-Ali to resign his position and reinforced the suspicion that the satellite television and Internet news service was anything but balanced.
Later in the summer, when Al Jazeera ran video clips and audio recordings from Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders, its reputation in the West sank even lower. And in the fall, Spanish antiterror police charged Al Jazeera's top war correspondent, Tayseer Allouni (also spelled Taysir Alouni) with being connected with al-Qaeda.
Shortly after that, Iraq's Governing Council (IGC) banned Al Jazeera (and Saudi Arabian Al Arabiya) from covering its activities, as well as from official press conferences. Both those organizations were charged with "giving too much prominence to anti-US attacks, and of providing a forum for backers of ousted president Saddam Hussein" (AFP, "Al-Jazeera Banned From Iraq," Sept. 24, 2003). Of course, this action was largely symbolic, for the IGC couldn't "ban" the satellite television-Internet news from broadcasting.
All of this certainly serves to paint a negative picture about the Al Jazeera organization in the minds of Westerners. But is that view a true one?
Enemy of the West?
Is Arab media the enemy of the West? In his editorial of Jan. 18, 2004, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman represented Al Jazeera and the Internet as formidable forces that he believes will shape the future of the Middle East in general and Arab-Israeli relations in particular. Friedman urged the American government to tell Israel to get out of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip ASAP. He cited two reasons.
The first was the Arab nations' awakening to "globalization, modernization and liberalization." Before the Arab Muslim states come up to speed in these areas, they will go through a period of "unstable and at times humiliating catch-up," according to Friedman.
His second reason was divided into three parts: (a) a massive Arab population explosion underway, which oil revenues can no longer support; (b) worst-ever violence between Israelis and Palestinians; and (c) the dramatic increase in Arab media. The latter, says Friedman, is pouring into the heads of young Muslims the idea that the biggest threat to their future is "J.I.A.—'Jews, Israel and America.'"
Does Al Jazeera have the power to shape world politics? Could it truly affect the future of the Middle East and therefore that of the entire world?
When God gave the prophet Daniel a series of visions about "world politics," he did not fully understand their meaning. When Daniel asked for an explanation, God told him, "Go your way, Daniel [that is, go on about your business], for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end" (Daniel 12:9, Revised Standard Version).
In the same context, God told Daniel to "shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase" (Daniel 12:4). This encapsulates today's passing of information with ease and speed—and at minimal expense—through the Internet and via satellite television.
The New Revised Standard Version offers a different nuance of the last part of Daniel 12:4: "Many shall be running back and forth, and evil shall increase" (emphasis added).
A lesson from the Garden
Any knowledge can be used for good or for evil, including "the news." It's interesting that a contingent of Coalition forces in Iraq is based at Camp Eden, so named because it's traditionally believed to be the location of the Garden of Eden. Personally, I believe Eden was in a different locale. Regardless, what took place in the real Eden has a direct bearing on our topic.
One of the trees in the biblical Garden of Eden was "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9,17). It symbolizes the fact that knowledge is a two-edged sword, slicing for good one way and for evil the other way.
Is Al Jazeera good or evil? Will it, along with other Arab media, be a major player in the shaping of events in this pivotal region?
Until the launch of Al Jazeera nearly eight years ago, Arab media was typically dull reporting, for every portal was tightly state-controlled. Al Jazeera came on the scene as a revolutionary and different source of news for the Arab people.
When Gulf politics drove Arabic BBC television out of business in 1996, Sheikh Hamad ben Khalifa Al-Thani, the leader of Qatar, saw an opportunity. He wanted to establish a strong identity for his tiny country in the Saudi-dominated region and personally funded the start of Al Jazeera, putting up $140 million to finance the first five years of the channel's operation. He recruited virtually the entire staff that formerly worked for the BBC—so the journalists of Al Jazeera aren't newcomers by any means.
It is small by Western standards, with about 750 employees, compared with CNN's 4,000 or NBC's 3,300. The name "Al Jazeera" was chosen to symbolize both their location in tiny Qatar and their philosophy; it means "peninsula" or "island."
Unpopular to Arab countries
As surprising as it might seem to Western readers, Al Jazeera has been something between a nuisance and a shock to the governments of the Arab nations! It invites guests to present controversial perspectives that typically challenge the conservative Islamic line. It features lively debates between people with extremely divergent views. Al Jazeera has interviewed Tony Blair, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice and a number of other Western government officials, allowing them to give the West's perspective to the Arab world.
This type of openness has been nothing less than revolutionary to the region. Because many people have access to the Internet and to satellite television, governments can do little to control the Al Jazeera phenomenon. While people in the West think of Al Jazeera as pro-Arab, it's taking heat on its home turf for being pro-West! Arab states have variously accused it of being a front for the CIA or for the Israeli intelligence organization, Mossad. Bahrain banned Al Jazeera from covering its elections last May, because it said the station was biased toward Israel.
A recent incident illustrates how Al Jazeera manages to be provocative to both the Arab and Western worlds. Al Jazeera's Internet cartoonist had drawn a caricature that showed the World Trade Center towers being replaced by two mammoth gasoline pumps. The White House got wind of it somehow and called the emir of Qatar immediately—in the middle of the night. The emir in turn woke Al Jazeera's director, who pulled the cartoon. The cartoon would have angered Westerners, but the fact that the emir caved to U.S. pressure angered the Arabs.
The governments of the Gulf States are attempting to strangle or at least control Al Jazeera by banning all advertising on the station. The ban has indeed made it difficult for Al Jazeera to survive. The emir had to bail it out and extend his funding to keep it in business. In an attempt to provide competition, Saudi Arabia launched its own satellite television channel, Al-Arabiya—with slick graphics and a deep well of funds to draw upon. But it is still controlled by the Saudi royals.
The Al Jazeera phenomenon
Al Jazeera's popularity has encouraged similar openness in other Arab media, including Abu Dhabi TV and Lebanon's Al-Manar, which along with Al Jazeera are giving powerful voice to dissenters in the Arab world.
How influential is Al Jazeera? It has grown from six-hours-per-day to around-the-clock programming, seven days a week, with an audience of 35 million Arabs. In addition to its satellite television channel, it also has both Arabic and English Web sites. (The English URL is http://english.aljazeera.net.) Its English Web site advertises the fact that one can now purchase "Al Jazeera Mobile," whereby the subscriber can watch Al Jazeera television on a video cell phone.
Facts can be assembled and emphasized in many ways. Al Jazeera is not tabloid journalism or simple propaganda, but it does have an Arab bias. It refers to Palestinian suicide bombers as "martyrs." While Arab governments aren't happy with its reporting, the average Arab citizen is. Ian Urbina of the Asia Times Online observes: "Like it or not, Al Jazeera indeed reflects widespread sentiments in the Arab world" ("Al Jazeera: Hits, Misses and Ricochets," www.atimes.com, Dec. 25, 2002).
The potential impact of satellite television and the Internet on the Arab world is truly difficult to fathom. But I have no doubt that what we see today is only the infant of what we will see tomorrow.
Is this burgeoning force able to influence international politics? Absolutely! It is indeed fruit from the tree of knowledge—equally capable of accomplishing great good or of marshalling the forces of war and destruction. The full picture of Bible prophecy shows that future conflict in the cauldron of the Middle East will boil over to scald the entire world, before mankind finishes writing its history.
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