a review of religion and media
In a recent interview Egyptian-born journalist Mona Eltahawy tells Bill Maher (notoriously anti-religion, Maher so often perfectly demonstrates the confounding problem the left has with articulating religious tolerance) that Egypt has less chance of becoming a theocracy than is assumed in U.S. commentary. Continue Reading →
Hosni Mubarak didn’t contrive his I’m the preventer of chaos reality all alone. The tyrannical dictator of Egypt, who today told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour that he’d love to step down but can’t, has for three decades been appreciated (both politically and financially) by the West for what he is not: another critical voice in a troubled and troubling region. Poverty, ineptitude, graft, corruption, injustice: all were no match for Western fear of creeping radical Islam, i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood. Mubarak’s spent his years making the most of Islamophobic rhetoric. In a nation that’s neither rich nor poor, African nor Middle Eastern, friendly nor hostile, familiar nor understood, Mubarak’s benefitted from playing the foil for Western projection. Continue Reading →
Hosni Mubarak didn’t contrive his I’m the preventer of chaos reality all alone. The tyrannical dictator of Egypt, who today told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour that he’d love to step down but can’t, has for three decades been appreciated (both politically and financially) by the West for what he is not: another critical voice in a troubled and troubling region. Poverty, ineptitude, graft, corruption, injustice: all were no match for Western fear of creeping radical Islam, i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood. Mubarak’s spent his years making the most of Islamophobic rhetoric. In a nation that’s neither rich nor poor, African nor Middle Eastern, friendly nor hostile, familiar nor understood, Mubarak’s benefitted from playing the foil for Western projection. Continue Reading →
Hosni Mubarak didn’t contrive his I’m the preventer of chaos reality all alone. The tyrannical dictator of Egypt, who today told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour that he’d love to step down but can’t, has for three decades been appreciated (both politically and financially) by the West for what he is not: another critical voice in a troubled and troubling region. Poverty, ineptitude, graft, corruption, injustice: all were no match for Western fear of creeping radical Islam, i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood. Mubarak’s spent his years making the most of Islamophobic rhetoric. In a nation that’s neither rich nor poor, African nor Middle Eastern, friendly nor hostile, familiar nor understood, Mubarak’s benefitted from playing the foil for Western projection. Continue Reading →
From Andrew Khouri’s “Getting the Story Right in Egypt,” a recent post at The Scoop, Diane Winston’s website at USC’s Annenberg School for Journalism:
But on Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood—Egypt’s largest opposition group and a perennial Mubarak foe—announced it would join the large demonstrations that were planned after prayers on Friday. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman called it “the day of the intifada.”
That is how an article appearing in Friday’s New York Times set the stage for what was no doubt a pivotal moment in Egypt, with thousands taking to the street, where they would face tear gas and baton-wielding security forces. The piece examined how religious factions, which have played little role so far, would affect the protest movement.
Cue oversimplification of religion in 3, 2, 1…