The View from the Other Side

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The View from the Other Side

• Islamism, Modernity, and the Rise of Independent
  Journalism in the Middle East

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• Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington, Stephen
  Schwartz Middle East experts
• Brookings Institute and American Enterprise
  Institute research and policy institutes
• cultural incommensurability versus universal
  values

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Modernity and the West

• Modernity is the path from superstition to
  enlightened rationality, from Mythos to Logos
• Modernity is a state of disenchantment (Max
  Weber)
• Modernity is the illusion of a fundamental rift
  between present and past - Tradition is lost
  and then reconstructed, reasserted

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• Modernity is an unfinished project (Juergen
  Habermas)
• Postmodernity means the end of all the grand
  narratives of Modernity (Lyotard)
• Modernity is merely a narrative about the
  formation of European identity (Bobby Sayyid)

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Islamism and Modernity

• Sunni Muslims
• Shia Muslims

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Geopolitical divisons in the Middle East

• Kemalism (Turkey) - secular states
• Khomenism (Iran) - theocracies

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The Rhetoric of Explaining Terror

• Wahhabism versus Sufism
• Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d.1792)
• Salafism (way of the prophet)
• Sayyid Qutb (d.1966) and the Muslim Brotherhood

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Spreading Saudi Fundamentalism in U.S.Network of
Wahhabi Mosques, Schools, Web Sites Probed by
FBIBy Susan SchmidtWashington Post Staff
WriterThursday, October 2, 2003 Page A01

• Backed by money from Saudi Arabia, Wahhabis
  have built or taken over hundreds of mosques in
  North America and opened branches of Saudi
  universities here for the training of imams as
  part of the effort to spread their beliefs, which
  are intolerant of Christianity, Judaism and even
  other strains of Islam
• According to FBI testimony in those
  proceedings, Hussayen visited Wahhabis and
  Salafis -- as non-Saudi adherents are known -- in
  New York, Michigan, Chicago, Canada and, most
  significantly, Northern Virginia, a hub for
  Saudi-backed religious organizations that have
  wide influence in promoting Salafi doctrine in
  mosques, at conferences and around the globe on
  the Internet.

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Senate Judiciary Hearings on Saudi-Terror Nexus
U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Technology and SecurityTestimony by Senator Jon
Kyl (R-AZ),Chairman Terrorism Growing Wahhabi
Influence in the United States." Thursday, June
26, 2003

• Based on government documents, Newsweek
  magazine reported in its recent issue, June 23,
  that al Qaeda, which experts have described as a
  Wahhabi movement, has overhauled its approach to
  penetrating the United States
• Journalists and experts, as well as
  spokespeople of the world, have said that
  Wahhabism is the source of the overwhelming
  majority of terrorist atrocities in today's
  world
• The extreme nature of Wahhabism is well
  established. As the great scholar of Islam,
  Bernard Lewis, has noted, "Saudi oil revenues
  have" -- and I'm quoting here -- "allowed the
  Saudis to spread this fanatical, destructive form
  of Islam all over the Muslim world and among the
  Muslims in the West. Without oil and the creation
  of the Saudi kingdom, Wahhabism would have
  remained a lunatic fringe."

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New Media in the Middle East

• Al - Arabia
• Abu - Dhabi

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• Al - Hayat
• Al - Jazeera

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Al-Jazeera
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History
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Main Characters
Samir Khader
Hassan Ibrahim
Deema Khatib
Lt. Josh Rushing
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Al-Jazeera in the USA

• Available on cable since 1998. No restrictions
  or censorship
• American Enterprise Institute
• Arab Media Internet Network (AMIN)
• Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMR)

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Al-Jazeera in Canada

• CRTC Ruling. July 25, 2004
• The authorization to distribute Al Jazeera is
  subject to the broadcasting distribution
  undertaking (BDU) wishing to offer the service
  having a condition of licence governing its
  distribution. The Commission has decided that
  distributors must record Al Jazeera programming
  and keep the recordings for a specific length of
  time. This measure will enable the Commission and
  licensees of BDUs to verify and assess the
  context of the programming in the event of any
  future concerns about abusive comment on Al
  Jazeeras programming. The Commission is also
  requiring that BDUs distributing Al Jazeera not
  distribute, as part of that service, any abusive
  comment. Finally, the Commission will allow BDUs
  to alter or delete the programming of Al Jazeera
  solely for the purpose of ensuring that no
  abusive comment is distributed. The Commission
  found that this condition is necessary to
  prevent, to the greatest extent possible, the
  distribution of abusive comment on the service
  pursuant to the Commissions statutory
  responsibility to regulate and supervise all
  aspects of the Canadian broadcasting system with
  a view to implementing the broadcasting policy
  set out in the Act, while at the same time
  minimally impairing freedom of expression.

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The Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

• Formed in 1968 to decide who gets to broadcast in
  Canada
• Its mandate largely to serve as a bulwark against
  American programming
• The main criterion for a foreign station to win
  access to Canada was its not competing with
  companies already in the Canadian marketplace,
  plus the existence of consumer demand for their
  product
• In 1986-87, restricting "abusive comment" became
  a CRTC responsibility, after Canada's anti-hate
  laws amended the Criminal Code and the
  Broadcasting Act
• Its only leverage is to grant or revoke
  5-to-7-year licenses, though in instances, it can
  revoke a license sooner
• The CRTC lacks funds to monitor stations on its
  own, so it responds to complaints, investigates
  them, and if it finds them warranted, revokes
  licenses