Blogosphere: November 21

Gulf News web editor Adam Flinter plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds.

Know thine enemy: Al Jazeera & the US
According to USA Today, the Arab news network, Al Jazeera will be shown in "70 million households worldwide" in its English format. Al Jazeera understands the importance of a news network with no ties to the government. They cater to the people's thirst for knowledge, and nothing else. They will certainly cover underdeveloped countries, which has been ignored by most mainstream media.

However, the response from the White House and the Pentagon has been cool at best. In addition, "in the USA, most cable firms have refused to give [Al Jazeera] channel space". In other words, it will be mostly available here. Unfortunately, this isn't much change to those who already surf its homepage.

Why isn't the West more accepting of an Arab channel?

After all, there are a few Caucasian Al Jazeera correspondents like Dave Marash. If 9/11 never happened, would most Americans still feel this way? Then again, I think that it was 9/11 that sparked most people's interest in international news in the first place. Yes, it was that fateful day that stirred hatred for Arab nations, but it's also possible that if 9/11 never happened, most people wouldn't even be remotely interested in the Middle East. Al Jazeera will, at the very least, help us know our "enemy" as well as they know us.
http://mediapossible.blogspot.com/

A veiled encounter
Al Jazeera's prime time Behind the News programme today focused on the controversy over recent statements by Egyptian Culture Minister Farouq Hosni denouncing the hijab (women's veiling) as a backwards step. The Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf Qaradawi, and all the other usual suspects are going nuts. Egypt has seen a long-running series of skirmishes over veiling in recent years. In September 2003, for instance, several Egyptian women claimed to have been banned from presenting the news on Egyptian TV for wearing the hijab.

Last month, controversy erupted over a ban on the niqab (full face covering) at a conservative upper Egypt university. I don't have time to really get into the issue itself, which is fascinating, but only wanted to note the powerful symbolism of today's show.

Khadija Bin Qanna, the host, is one of the most famous veiled news anchors in the Arab media.

Gehad Auda, the guest, is a member of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party's Political Committee and is close to presidential heir-apparent Gamal Mubarak. From the moment he came on screen, Auda screamed at Bin Qanna, hectoring her and interrupting her and trying to bully her — honestly, he looked ready to leap through the camera and throttle her. Bin Qanna kept her calm, politely trying to ask questions even as he ran right over her.

The symbolism of Auda's aggressive on-camera (failed) bullying of an accomplished, calm professional veiled woman rather undermines any notion that a campaign against the hijab comes in the interests of Egyptian women. To me, it felt like the television talk show equivalent of the harassment of Egyptian female protestors and journalists by regime goons during the elections last year — I'd be interested to hear the reaction of any Egyptian (or other Arab) women who happened to see the programme.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/

It's up to Aoun
Hezbollah did not overthrow the government when it started a war with Israel.

It's now trying to overthrow the government through street protests, which are predicted to come now that the Shiite ministers have pulled out of the government — coincidentally, after the UN passed a resolution regarding the Hariri assassination tribunal.

14 March forces are determined to make sure that Hezbollah's tactics do not work. But we will wait and see how long they keep their stance.

A brief phone call to the office of the Future Youth Organisation yielded a determined response.

The message was, basically, "To hell with Hezbollah. They dragged us through a mess this summer. They're trying to do it again, but this time we are determined to stop them. We've got plenty of Shiite we can appoint to fill their positions, and we'll give Aoun positions in the government if he wants them. That way, it will be the entire nation against Hezbollah and Amal."

Aoun might still manage to get the presidency just yet.
http://lebop.blogspot.com/

Blessed are the peacemakers, eh?
As Israel's massacre of 19 civilians last week disappears off the media's radar, Israel has started taking a more PR-friendly approach to illegal assassinations. Something that would allow them to launch a missile into a refugee camp in the middle of the night without the world getting pi**** off.

Calling 10 minutes in advance to warn the target has been one solution but that seems to have backfired recently after Mohammad Baroud received such a call and ran to his local mosque to get some support. Hundreds of Palestinians then followed him home and drew a large enough crowd to form a human shield. Israel called off the air strike, telling Reuters: "The attack plan was cancelled because of the people there," he said.

"We differentiate between innocent people and terrorists."

If you didn't laugh hysterically at the last sentence then you're just not having enough fun in your life. Not only did the Israeli army kill a 24-year-old Palestinian police officer and a 16-year-old kid in Gaza on the same day but not two weeks ago did the Israeli army open fire on a large crowd of women who had surrounded a mosque in Beit Hanoun to help militants escape. The Israeli army shooting unarmed women in Beit Hanoun briefly made headlines only to be overtaken a while later by the killing of those 19 civilians.
http://www.black-iris.com/

Stop the bus!
Decided to catch a bus the other day. In Dubai that's a strange concept. Firstly, white people are rarely seen standing at the bus stop and secondly, as a woman there are only four seats available to you. Confused? So am I.

You go to the bus stop and wait with all the other people. The bus pulls up and you go to get on and there are eight women sitting in the first four seats. These seats are designated for women only.

How nice and polite I thought...how cavalier...how old fashioned...how weird.

However, the bus was full and those seats were already occupied by other women so I kept walking down the aisle in the aim of standing up and holding on. People started looking at me and then a women yelled out to me that I had to get off the bus because it was full. I looked around and to my untrained eye the bus still had plenty of standing room. I followed this woman and got off the bus, blushing, because I felt I'd committed some sort of crime.
http://kookieindubai.blogspot.com