The View from the Other Side Islamism, Modernity, and the Rise of Independent Journalism in the Middle East.

The View from the Other Side

Islamism, Modernity, and the Rise of Independent Journalism

in the Middle East

• Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington, Stephen Schwartz: Middle East “experts”

• Brookings Institute and American Enterprise Institute: “research and policy institutes”

• “cultural incommensurability” versus “universal values”

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

• 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)

Islamism and Modernity

• Sunni Muslims

• Shia Muslims

Geopolitical divisons in the Middle East

• Kemalism (Turkey) - secular states

• Khomenism (Iran) - theocracies

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

Spreading Saudi Fundamentalism in U.S.Network of Wahhabi Mosques, Schools, Web Sites Probed by FBI

By Susan SchmidtWashington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, 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.

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."

New Media in the Middle East

• Al - Arabia

• Abu - Dhabi

• Al - Hayat

• Al - Jazeera

Al-Jazeera

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History

Main CharactersSamir Khader

Deema Khatib

Hassan Ibrahim

Lt. Josh Rushing

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, 2004The 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 Jazeera’s 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 Commission’s 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.

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