Al Jazeera Watch
The Opposite Direction, hosted by Faisal al-Qassem, is the Arab world’s most popular program. Broadcast on al-Jazeera, Qassem’s debate show regularly pits two people against each other to discuss highly controversial topics. I’ve written about the show before, and noted that al-Jazeera, by facilitating such programs, has been an awesome force for change in the Middle East.
Recently, The Opposite Direction hosted a debate on this explosive question: do Islamists or secularists pose a greater threat to democracy? On one side was Hani al-Sibai, an influential salafi thinker. On the other, Sayid Qemni, a well-known Arab secularist. Where else but al-Jazeera can two intellectual heavy-weights like Qemni and Sibai debate such controversial issues? Where else in the region is there such a public forum for these views to be heard? Definitely not in the mainstream press.
A clip from the Sibai-Qemni debate isn’t up yet, but for a taste of The Opposite Direction, take a look at this segment of an earlier show:
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2 Responses to “Al Jazeera Watch”
It’s terrible how Al Jazeera is made out to be some sort of terrorist propaganda network, probably just because of the arab name.
In relation to the rest of ME, Al Jazeera has always been at the forefront of trying to do real journalism, rather than just propogands. Of course, they have their own perspective, but they really do try.
I think they ran afoul of US authorites quite early when the outed some blatant US propognda efforts.