Israel Matzav

Jared Loughner and the Arab media

Barry Rubin is - am I still allowed to say this? - dead on in asking what the American reaction would be to millions of Jared Loughner's and mass media that encourage them and consider them normal. Given the hysteria that has gripped America this week over one maniac, how would Americans react if they had to live in the Middle East?

America this week is awash in a huge and passionate debate over whether angry political disagreements and harsh criticisms of certain views or groups inspired the attack on an American congresswoman (Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel, by the way). I’m not going to enter into that argument right now but I want to point out the Middle Eastern ramifications of what's going on here.

Every day for more than a half century, Arabs and Muslims have been inundated every day with hatred for Israel, America, the West, Jews, and often Christians. You can read transcripts of Syrian broadcasts or Palestinian speeches from 50 years ago that sound just like what is being said by their successors now.

Let’s say that the proportion of lies, slanders, extremism,and incitement in the American discourse is one-tenth of one percent of all the words spoken on controversial issues. The equivalent figure for the Middle East is well over 95 percent.

In addition to that tone, there is not only a total lack of balance but an absence of the other side altogether. It's all one-sided.

And in addition to those two points, the level of factual accuracy is farther away from reality than anywhere else in the world. (Though, admittedly, that gap has been narrowing in recent years as Western academic and journalistic standards decline).

And in addition to those three points, while extremists tend to be marginal in the United States, they are in control--either politically or at least setting the terms of discussion--throughout the Arabic-speaking and Muslim-majority worlds.

Thus, the level of incitement, imbalance, lies, and the hegemony of hatred in that region towers above that in the West like the World Trade Center towers over an anthill.

Oh, the World Trade Center doesn't exist any more. Well, that has something to do with this situation, too, doesn't it?

Or to put it another way, in the Middle East, the crackpot is often (usually?) given more credit than the rational or factual.

Read the whole thing.

There's one other person besides Barry who has tried to compare Loughner with the Arab world. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton got it all wrong.

In a television broadcast filmed before students in Abu Dhabi, Mrs Clinton was asked why the 9/11 terror attacks, the work of a handful of men, had been allowed to colour American views of a whole people.

She replied that America was "proud" of its many Muslim citizens and public servants, and said that the media exaggerated the voices of those who presented hostile views of the Muslim and Arab worlds.

She then raised the shooting at the weekend of the Arizona Democratic congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords.

"We have extremists in our country," she said. "A wonderful and incredibly brave young woman congress member was just shot by extremists in our country.

"We have the same kinds of problems, so rather than standing off of each other we should work to try and prevent the extremists wherever they are from being able to commit violence."

Clinton doesn't get it. The United States is not the Arab world, Laughner was not incited by American media, and is not lauded as a hero by American society - just the opposite. Rubin comments:

In fact, though, she is reinforcing Arab complacency and self-justification (everyone has terrorism and there's nothing special about us in that regard) and making it harder to achieve progress.

One, or at most two, crazies acting on their own with no popular backing or financing do not exactly compare with an organized group with thousands of members, with operations stretching from Morocco through Asia, being given safe haven by governments, with their world view being reinforced by massive religious and governmental institutions, and cheered on by millions of sympathizers or at least well-wishers!

Melanie Phillips adds:

The moral corruption of Mrs Clinton’s equation is not only obscene – it actively endangers America and the free world. Can it really be the case that an American Secretary of State believes that an attack upon her country that murdered thousands of people and which chalked up another marker in the holy war against the west being waged from within the Arab and Muslim world -- in the defence against which America is sending its young men to die on the battlefield -- has the same significance as one deranged gunman running amok? But then, who can forget Mrs Clinton’s dark imprecations, in her earlier incarnation as the President’s wife, against the

vast right-wing conspiracy

which was how she characterised opponents of the Democratic party?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Barry Rubin, Hillary Clinton, Jared Loughner, Melanie Phillips

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:49 PM