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What the Muslim World Is Watching
By Fouad Ajami
The New York Times Magazine |
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Al Jazeera is not subtle
television. Recently, during a lull in its nonstop coverage
of the raids on Kabul and the street battles of Bethlehem,
the Arabic-language satellite news station showed an
odd but telling episode of its documentary program "Biography
and Secrets." The show's subject was Ernesto (Che)
Guevara. Presenting Che as a romantic, doomed hero,
the documentary recounted the Marxist rebel's last stand
in the remote mountains of Bolivia, lingering mournfully
over the details of his capture and execution. Even
Che's corpse received a lot of airtime; Al Jazeera loves
grisly footage and is never shy about presenting graphic
imagery. The episode's subject
matter was, of course, allegorical. Before bin Laden,
there was Guevara. Before Afghanistan, there was Bolivia.
As for the show's focus on C.I.A. operatives chasing
Guevara into the mountains, this, too, was clearly meant
to evoke the contemporary hunt for Osama, the Islamic
rebel.
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Al Jazeera, which claims
a global audience of 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers,
may not officially be the Osama bin Laden Channel --
but he is clearly its star, as I learned during an extended
viewing of the station's programming in October. The
channel's graphics assign him a lead role: there is
bin Laden seated on a mat, his submachine gun on his
lap; there is bin Laden on horseback in Afghanistan,
the brave knight of the Arab world. A huge, glamorous
poster of bin Laden's silhouette hangs in the background
of the main studio set at Al Jazeera's headquarters
in Doha, the capital city of Qatar. |
On Al Jazeera (which
means "the Peninsula"), the Hollywoodization
of news is indulged with an abandon that would make
the Fox News Channel blush. The channel's promos are
particularly shameless. One clip juxtaposes a scowling
George Bush with a poised, almost dreamy bin Laden;
between them is an image of the World Trade Center engulfed
in flames. Another promo opens with a glittering shot
of the Dome of the Rock. What follows is a feverish
montage: a crowd of Israeli settlers dance with unfurled
flags; an Israeli soldier fires his rifle; a group of
Palestinians display Israeli bullet shells; a Palestinian
woman wails; a wounded Arab child lies on a bed. In
the climactic image, Palestinian boys carry a banner
decrying the shame of the Arab world's silence. Click to continue reading the article.
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