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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Arab media, viewers ambivalent over Iraqi kidnappings |
| 2004-09-27 |
| The Arab media has presented the latest hostage crisis in Iraq as just another element in the bloody and chaotic pattern of violence in the country. The latest developments have been reported and often broken on Arab television channels, but they have soon been superseded by bloodshed elsewhere in Iraq or in the Palestinian territories and Israel. There has been little sign of the outrage that greeted the kidnapping of two French hostages last month and none of the soul-searching prompted by the Beslan siege. The issue of foreign hostages in Iraq was examined this week on the most heated discussion programme on the Middle East's most-watched television station, al-Jazeera. In the programme The Opposite Direction a fiercely anti-American political analyst, Talat Rumayh, faced off against an Iraqi politician, Karim Badr. Mr Rumayh claimed that the kidnappers were Iraqi resistance fighters and compared the number of their victims to the thousands of Iraqis, who had been killed: "Two thousand people have been killed since the beginning of the attack on Falluja, which was dismissed in one report, one line or just a couple of words... while we keep hearing about the hostages. It's the hostages and the terrorists, always the terrorists," he said. Karim Badr responded by saying all Iraq was disgraced by the beheadings. "We have to prove our humanity. I am addressing my brethren in Iraq: These are masked creatures that resemble humans, who I am certain are uglier than their deeds," he said. "Is the killing of people and exploding cars in the streets an act of resistance? Is the kidnapping and murder of people in this manner an act of resistance? I am certain they do not represent the Iraqi conscience in any way at all." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #20 "Missed a digit.."I sympatise,Zang.Me too. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-09-27 9:06:06 PM |
| #19 Memesis - Lol! Naw, I just place a dot in front when I change nyms for effect - don't wanna be charged with trolling, heh. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-09-27 7:41:24 PM |
| #18 .com, OH! Did not see the DOT. Not sure of the significance, but will tak your word for it. So, you sayin' that was not a sarcasm? Un-fcuking-believable! |
| Posted by: Memesis 2004-09-27 7:36:52 PM |
| #17 It's got to be true! I read it in the Sun! |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-09-27 7:23:20 PM |
| #16 While the number quoted was, in fact, factually "inaccurate", we believe it portrayed the truth - less one digit place |
| Posted by: Dan Rather 2004-09-27 7:20:05 PM |
| #15 I believe that was DOT Abu MSM, Memesis. He's a touchy mofo, the prick. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-09-27 7:09:32 PM |
| #14 Abu MSM, LOL! |
| Posted by: Memesis 2004-09-27 7:07:59 PM |
| #13 Sorry for redundancy. |
| Posted by: Memesis 2004-09-27 7:06:58 PM |
| #12 Fucking bloggers. Fact checking every word. We had a good thing going 'til this goddamned internet thingy showed up. Assholes. |
| Posted by: .Abu MSM 2004-09-27 7:06:58 PM |
| #11 Amen, ZF... Digital bird-cage liner. On a good day. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-09-27 7:05:03 PM |
| #10 ZF, that would be about 25M, not 2M. |
| Posted by: Memesis 2004-09-27 7:04:44 PM |
| #9 .com: Make that 25M, bro. Sorry. Missed a digit there. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-27 7:04:39 PM |
| #8 The misinformation coming of the press is just Orwellian. Just about every aspect of war coverage is so contaminated with ideological bias that you have to read the coverage with the kind of care that Russians used to reserve for Soviet-era Pravda and Isveztia. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-27 7:03:33 PM |
| #7 Make that 25M, bro. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-09-27 7:02:33 PM |
| #6 Note also that Iraqi polls taken during Saddam's reign overwhelmingly opposed the US and an invasion. Post-invasion, perhaps 20,000 guerrillas are fighting US troops, out of a population of 2m people. This is why polls sponsored by the Arab government media are not to be trusted. And where do Western media companies go to for expertise on how to conduct polls in Muslim countries? You guessed it. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-27 7:01:19 PM |
| #5 SPoD, scientology is a cult! Waitaminit... Could it be that Islam...? Naw, can't be, could it? |
| Posted by: Memesis 2004-09-27 6:58:06 PM |
| #4 Let's face it - we don't really know how the polling was done. Look at how the liberal media in this country produces poll results that erroneously but consistently favor Democrats and liberal issues. Think about the biases of a government-controlled Arab media that endorses the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and think about how they may be distorting their polls as well. The Arab media are like the liberal media, but worse by orders of magnitude. Anything they say needs to be taken with a grain of salt. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-27 6:58:00 PM |
| #3 Islam is the only "reilgion" lower than Scientology. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-09-27 6:45:48 PM |
| #2 The beginning of the end for Islam: translating the qu'uran into English, German, etc. They had long ago decided to spread Islam by any means available. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-09-27 6:42:16 PM |
| #1 Then, many Arab commentators warned that the kidnappers’ actions could irrevocably tarnish the image of Islam and the Arab world. Understatement of the day. It is already irrevocably tarnished. Infidels have learned that Islam says that it's OK to lie, murder, etc. if it is for the cause, yada yada yada...... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-09-27 6:37:29 PM |