Where East and West meet?

This is a thought-provoking Op-Ed by Daniel Pearl's mother on the Al-Jazeera English channel...

Another Perspective or Jihad TV?


"In short, Al Jazeera’s editors choreograph a worldview in which an irreconcilable struggle rages between an evil-meaning Western oppressor and its helpless, righteous Arab victims. Most worrisome, perhaps, it often reports on supposed Western conspiracies behind most Arab hardships or failings, thus fueling the sense of helplessness, humiliation and anger among Muslim youths and helping turn them into potential recruits for terrorist organizations."

I suppose my question would be - how much more incendiary to a potential suicide bomber is the Al-Jazeera coverage of Sheik Qaradawi than, say, Fox News's coverage of President Bush referring to axes of evil and a "crusade" against terrorists. This Op-Ed brings up questions of first amendment values held dear, including the value of multiple viewpoints... The suggestion is that the Qatar parent of Al-Jazeera English pushes a jihadist agenda that will infiltrate its fledgling English counterpart, subversively and more effectively through the english accents of well-respected "western" journalists.

"Let’s face it: when a terrorist attack is described as a “martyrdom” in a thick Middle Eastern accent, it can be dismissed by Americans as a peculiarity of cultural differences. But imagine the effect of the word if spoken in David Frost’s cultured British tones. This is why, even if Al Jazeera English waters down its alarmist content, it should still be seen as a potential threat: it will bestow respectability upon the practices of its parent network in Qatar, which continues, among other things, to broadcast Sheik Qaradawi’s teachings."

Tough issue - especially considering the source...

LT