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Published by norzamilazamri, 2022-06-06 02:40:19

Islam

Islam

N Rieman eportsVol.61 No.2

Summer 2007 The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University

4 Islam

6 Violence: Its Source Is Not Always What It Seems By Griff Witte
7 Understanding the Many Faces of Islamism and Jihadism By Fawaz A. Gerges
10 The Arab Story: The Big One Waiting to Be Told By Rami G. Khouri
12 When the News Media Focus on Islam’s Internal Struggles By Geneive Abdo
14 Misperceptions of the ‘War’ in Iraq By Richard Engel
16 Fiction Can Be More Real Than Journalism By Matt Beynon Rees
18 Emotions Speak Through Images Photo Essay by Anja Niedringhaus
23 Islam Today: The Need to Explore Its Complexities By Tariq Ramadan
26 Deconstructing ‘the Other’—And Ourselves By Robert Azzi
28 Exposing Extremism—No Matter Where It Is Found By Bruce B. Lawrence
31 Western Journalists Report on Egyptian Bloggers By George Weyman
33 A Photojournalist Immerses Himself in the Story Being Told Words and Photographs by Iason
Athanasiadis
38 A Master Narrative About Iran Emerges By Ali M. Ansari
40 Finding Ways to Bridge the Abyss of Misunderstanding By Khaled Almaeena
41 Reporting the Arab and Muslim Worlds By Marda Dunsky
43 Visual Contours of Middle Eastern Life Words and Photographs by Katharina Eglau
47 Swamp Speak: Then and Now By Ray Close
49 History, Memory and Context By Iman Azzi
51 Woman and Islam: Bearing Witness to Their Daily Lives Words and Photographs by Alexandra Boulat
55 Muslims in America: Creating a New Beat By Andrea Elliott
57 Newspapers Portray Women in Pakistan as the ‘Good’ Muslims By Susan Moeller
59 The Consequences of Uninformed Reporting By Jamie L. Hamilton
61 Glossary

Cover photo: Palestinian women kick a ball at the beach in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. March 22,
2006. Photo by Anja Niedringhaus.

63 Words & Reflections

Reflections

64 Two Years Later, Justice Denied By Andrea McCarren
68 Newspapers, Schools and Newsroom Diversity By Dan Sullivan

Books

71 The Civil Rights Struggle and the Press By Mary C. Curtis
73 Predicting Digital Media Challenges Is Not Difficult By Cameron McWhirter
74 ‘A Voice, a Brain, and a Notebook’ By Dan Froomkin
76 Revisiting the Vanguard of Women Journalists By Kay Mills
78 Demonstrating the Craft of Writing By Tom Ehrenfeld
3 Curator’s Corner: Honoring the Best for Fairness in Reporting By Bob Giles
80 Nieman Notes Compiled by Lois Fiore
80 A Dilemma for Black Women in Broadcast Journalism By Renee Ferguson
81 Class Notes
87 End Note: A Skeptical Vietnam Voice Still Echoes in the Fog of Iraq By Dexter Filkins

2 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Curator’s Corner

Honoring the Best for Fairness in Reporting

‘Newspapers that meet the test of fairness can reassure the public of the important
role of the press as a vital institution of democracy.’

By Bob Giles transparency, in part, by assembling a long list of footnotes
that identified documents and sources for the major points
A mid concern about the credibility of the press and the in the series, which he posted online.
future of the printed newspaper, fairness continues
to resonate as an important journalistic value. The The complexity of fairness can be seen in these three
Nieman Foundation recently recognized three newspapers examples: respecting cultural and religious traditions to the
for “exemplary examples of fairness.” Each of the entries extent of publishing anonymous quotes; unraveling a failed
presented stories that dealt with different dimensions of terrorist-detention program by getting participants to speak
fairness. Together, they demonstrate the complexity of fair- on the record, and extensively footnoting sources and docu-
ness in journalism. ments to help readers understand the reporter’s trail.

The Lancaster New Era received the Taylor Family Award The Nieman Foundation began the annual recognition
for Fairness in Newspapers and the $10,000 honorarium of fairness in newspapers in 2002 with support from the
for its coverage of the Amish school shootings in that rural Taylor family that owned and published The Boston Globe
Pennsylvania community. The newspaper confronted the for five generations. This competition is grounded in the
deeply held spirit of Amish communal life that no individual belief that fairness is important to public perception of
should stand out from the group. This posed a fundamental newspaper credibility; a newspaper that is judged to be fair
issue of fairness for the New Era newsroom: How could is also likely to be seen as credible. Newspapers that meet
the paper balance the community’s expectation of im- the test of fairness can reassure the public of the important
munity—that is, no one would be quoted by name—with role of the press as a vital institution of democracy.
its own need to put sources on the record as a matter of
journalistic credibility? Following the award ceremony, reporters and editors from
the papers being honored talk with Nieman Fellows. Year
The solution, editor Ernest Schreiber explained, was after year, these discussions reveal qualities distinctive to
to gather “so much information from so many sources fair stories that find their foundation in the basic elements
that we could write confidently and compellingly without of journalism. One of the lessons these discussions yield is
revealing the identities of those who wished anonymity.” that ordinary citizens experienced fairness in many of the
The result was a three-day series called “Lost Angels: The stories. The manner in which newspapers reported on the
untold stories of the Amish school shootings,” which shed conflicts and tragedies confronting people thrust unexpect-
light on a world usually hidden from view in remarkably edly into the news was often the quality that distinguished
fair and just ways. the stories as outstanding examples of fairness.

Reporter Tim Golden was honored for his stories on Typically, the reporters gave extensive attention to accu-
Guantanamo in The New York Times. In this case, Golden racy and precise detail. They reflected the entire community
addressed difficult questions about the Bush administration’s fully and fairly, and their stories were attuned to cultural
terrorist-detention system, hidden under layers of govern- differences and nuances. Their reporting revealed an au-
ment secrecy, and discovered new answers by getting key thoritative understanding of the complicated events they
players to speak on the record about how the system was were explaining, which resulted in stories that portrayed
created and how it has operated. His stories demonstrated an accurate context. The reporters seemed to come at the
that the obstacles to fully informing the public constructed assignment with no preconceived story line. They drew on
by military or government rationale, even during time of sources who were in a position to know something about
war, should be no substitute for either truth or fairness. the events being reported on. They used their narrative
skills to craft stories that achieved what can be considered
Transparency was the critical element of fairness in re- an “objective truth.”
porter John Mangels’ series of stories in The (Cleveland)
Plain Dealer on a leading scientist in the field of plagues The journalists who help us each year select the news-
who could not explain the disappearance of 30 vials of papers to be honored find reassurance in the entries they
plague bacteria from his laboratory and eventually spent read. They find evidence that reaffirms how newspapers can
two years in prison. Mangels’ stories avoided the tempta- make fairness a routine part of the daily work of covering
tion to characterize the government’s role, in the name of the news in a manner that addresses concerns of readers
homeland security, as one that resulted in an injustice or about the fairness and credibility of newspapers. n
to portray the scientist as a heroic figure. Mangels achieved

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 3

IslamGoodbye Gutenberg

“The blast had not been an attack at all,” writes Griff Witte, the Islamabad/Kabul bureau chief
for The Washington Post, about a deadly blast in a gunpowder shop in the center of Kabul,
which many assumed to be an intentional act by the Taliban. “In a place like Afghanistan, we’re
accustomed to seeing violence through the lens of militant Islam,” Witte says. “That, after all,
has been the story—a war fought along religious lines, with insurgents fired by their desire to
wage jihad against infidel occupiers. But it’s not the only story, and it’s easy to miss the others
if religious motivations are instantly ascribed every time something goes up in smoke.”

Witte’s words open our collection of articles exploring the challenges journalists encounter
in their coverage of Islam in the wake of 9/11. Words and images that follow Witte’s
observations speak to these difficulties but also address ways in which journalists—and
scholars who study Islam—are striving to anchor their work in a knowledgeable context and
imbue it with essential layers of complexity.

Fawaz A. Gerges, a scholar of Islam and author, speaks to the challenge of “disentangling
myth from reality about the political Islamic movement … [which] for journalists … involves
a willingness to recognize the complexity and diversity within this movement … as they try
to place their coverage of news and events (often involving violence and threats of violence)
within a broader, more meaningful and accurate context.” In many years of working for
and with Western journalists, Rami G. Khouri, a Beirut-based syndicated columnist, raises
a profound professional challenge when he asks, “How do journalists make the lives and
aspirations of Arab men and women who will not succumb to criminality or terror relevant
to Western audiences?” Geneive Abdo, who reported extensively from the Middle East and
Iran, observes that Western journalists demonstrate a tendency “to champion ‘secular’ or
‘moderate’ Muslims.” Yet, she writes, “for the vast majority of Muslims, such coverage is
offensive not only because a small fringe is given massive exposure, but also because it is the
media, not Muslims, who have the power to decide who speaks for Islam.”

Richard Engel, Beirut bureau chief for NBC News, describes several layers of complexity
about the “many wars within the war” and how the various power struggles in Iraq intersect
with the conventional U.S. narrative. When he was Jerusalem bureau chief for Time, Matt
Beynon Rees grew “steadily disillusioned with the ability of journalism to convey the depth of
what I had learned about the Palestinians.” In writing a novel based on Palestinian characters,
Rees found that “unlike journalism, it doesn’t depend on what characters say—its gets inside
their heads.” Images and words by The Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus
display not only actions of war but convey the feelings of those affected, whether they are
grieving parents or friends, frightened mothers with children, or girls who’ve found precious,
rare moments of frivolity and joy.

At a time when Western coverage of the Muslim world is vast, Tariq Ramadan, a professor
of Islamic Studies and an author, laments that “never has knowledge of Islam, of Muslims,
and of their geographical, political and geostrategic circumstances been so superficial, partial
and frequently confused—not only among the general public, but also among journalists
and even in academic circles.” Since 1968 Robert Azzi has covered the Middle East as a
photojournalist, and he provides ample reason to fault a lot of recent reporting on Muslims,
as he contends that “Arab identities, positions and challenges need to be seen within their
cultural context, not simply in relation to Israelis’ interests and narratives.” Bruce Lawrence,
an Islamicist at Duke University, observes that “what we encounter appears to be the steady

4 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

transformation of Muslims into ‘the Other,’ a defining of Islam as evil, and an ignoring of
differences among Muslims.”

In writing about the jailing of Arab bloggers, George Weyman, managing editor of Arab
Media & Society, finds in Western news coverage a mistaken belief on the part of journalists
that “only those sharing a Western vision of modern society can freely exchange ideas and
take part in engaged debate online.” Working in a region that he says is “among the most
misunderstood and misrepresented,” Greek photojournalist Iason Athanasiadis often
finds that “simple images told the story more effectively than sentences encumbered by
qualifications, complicated by parentheses, and clogged by background.”

Ali M. Ansari, reader in modern history and director of the Institute for Iranian Studies
at the University of St Andrews, focuses on the British sailors’ hostage situation in Iran to
observe that “media coverage in Britain and other Western countries was driven by a master
narrative that contained within it a number of assumptions related to Western supremacy.”
It is the news media’s “calculated misuse of words, resulting in a distorted and inaccurate
picture of a culture, a religion, and its people” that upsets Khaled Almaeena, editor in chief
of Arab News based in Saudi Arabia, who writes that “reality gradually becomes subsumed
by a new layer of misinformed belief ….” Marda Dunsky, who reported in the Middle East
and now teaches “Reporting the Arab and Muslim Worlds” at DePaul University, believes that
“journalism must not only give voice to Muslim attitudes but also probe and contextualize
historical and political facts upon which they are based.” In her 15 years of traveling in the
Middle East, German photographer Katharina Eglau has sought out the “often unnoticed
details of daily life in a region best known for its turbulent politics,” and her images are found
in her photo essay and interspersed through many stories.

Ray Close, who worked for the CIA for many years in the Middle East, explores the various
threads that connect what good reporters and “successful spies” do. Working in Beirut, Daily
Star reporter Iman Azzi witnessed last summer’s war with Israel; now with a paucity of
international reporting about Lebanon, she writes that “when a major story erupts in Lebanon,
Westerners don’t already have the dots by which they can make connections.” Photojournalist
Alexandra Boulat’s collection of images of women and Islam, taken in Jordan, Gaza and
Iran, “from refugee to pilgrim, from suicide bomber to teenager … speak to these women’s
beliefs, rituals and habits, and to the anger and joy they experience.”

Andrea Elliott, who covers Islam in America for The New York Times and whose three-
part series, “An Imam in America” was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing,
writes about how, as a non-Muslim who did not speak Arabic, she found pathways to take
her readers inside Muslim communities. “I came to realize that unless I focused on a single
Muslim enclave—one mosque, city block, or family’s home—I would never capture a fuller
story.” Susan Moeller, who directs the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda
at the University of Maryland in College Park, describes findings from her center’s report of
a review of U.S. newspaper reporting and commentary in which women were characterized
as the “good” Muslims. Jamie L. Hamilton teaches about Islam at Phillips Exeter Academy
and, in doing so, she contends with a media environment outside the classroom in which “the
message that it is a ‘bad religion’ is so clearly consistent they [the students] don’t know what
to think.” A glossary ends this section. n

Nieman Reports is indebted to Robert Azzi for proposing this topic and helping us to bring
such an extraordinary array of insightful voices to our pages.

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 5

Islam

Violence: Its Source Is Not Always What It Seems

‘… it’s rare when religion alone offers an adequate explanation for conflict.’

By Griff Witte by their desire to wage jihad against for sowing chaos that would embar-
infidel occupiers. But it’s not the only rass the chief.
Ihad been dreading the call. It came story, and it’s easy to miss the others
just before 7 a.m., rousing me from if religious motivations are instantly It may well have had the desired ef-
a deep sleep. But my translator ascribed every time something goes fect locally. But to the outside world,
wasted no time getting my attention. up in smoke. Occasionally, accidents it fell into a very different, though
There had been a massive blast in happen. More often, religion masquer- familiar story line: Islamic fundamen-
the center of Kabul, he said. Half a ades as the motivation, obscuring other talists killing in the name of religion.
dozen bodies had been pulled from factors that matter far more. Just as the protests over the cartoons
the rubble. More were expected. I had were winding down, violence flared
arrived in Kabul just two days earlier I first observed this phenomenon again. Again the spark appeared to be
to report for The Washington Post, and in early 2006 when Afghans began to religion. Again I found that explanation
I had immediately sensed something pour into the streets in protest over misleading. This time, there had been
unsettling in the air. It was spring, after several cartoons of the Prophet Mu- a riot in the western city of Herat. By
all, the traditional start of the fighting hammad that had been published in a Afghan standards, Herat is peaceful.
season in Afghanistan, and everyone Danish newspaper months earlier. The So it was unexpected when reports
was bracing themselves for the war to cartoons were perceived, correctly, as emerged that a mob of Sunni men had
come to Kabul. being offensive to Islam. Demonstra- attacked groups of Shi’ite worshippers
tions erupted around the world. But during their observation of the holiday
As I arrived at the scene of the in Afghanistan, at least, they took on Ashura.
explosion, I felt certain it just had. A a strange character. Day after day, a
six-foot-deep crater marked the blast pattern emerged. Thousands of people When I flew into Herat days later, I
site, and all around was debris from would demonstrate peacefully, chant- found evidence of a massacre. I visited
a row of now-obliterated mud-brick ing slogans as they marched. But near a Shi’ite mosque that had been nearly
shop stalls: rugs, nylon rope, laundry the end, a small group would begin to burned to the ground, with four people
baskets, a dead dog. As rescue crews throw rocks. Then they would fire guns. killed and more than 100 injured in
frantically dug for survivors, an old man Every now and then, they dropped a the ensuing clash. Survivors expressed
silently wept. “This is the work of the grenade or two. The police invariably shock; there had long been amicable
enemies of Afghanistan,” a shopkeeper met violence with violence, and the relations between Sunnis and Shi’ites
spat as he gazed at the wreckage of body count started to rise. The bloody in Herat, and they did not understand
his stall. nature of the protests was surprising why that had suddenly changed. Nei-
to me, because the organizers I talked ther did I, until I began reporting on
There was no question about it, with said they had never intended their what had really happened. The former
others agreed. It was the Taliban—that protests to be violent. All they wanted governor, it seemed, wanted to show
band of religious zealots who had im- was to convey their deep sense of hurt that he was the only one capable of
posed their rigid will on the country for at a grievous insult to their religion. maintaining peace and stability in
five years and had now been terrorizing Herat. So he orchestrated a sectarian
it through guerrilla attacks for nearly I dug deeper and soon found that riot, just to remind residents how
as long. The assumption was a reason- those inciting the violence had other much they missed him. The move was
able one to make; insurgents spouting objectives in mind. The reason, it purely political and had very little to
their twisted vision of Islam had killed turned out, had little to do with reli- do with Islam. “This is not the work
or wounded more than 1,000 Afghan gion. Instead, it was all about power. of Sunnis or Shi’ahs,” 35-year-old car
civilians in 2006. But it was wrong. The protests had become a convenient dealer Ghulam Hussain told me as he
way for some to flaunt their influence surveyed the damaged mosque. “This
The blast had not been an attack at and for others to undermine the au- is the work of people who have lost
all. It had been an accident. A spark in a thority of their rivals. In one case, for power and want to get it back.”
gunpowder shop had set off a chain re- instance, a local strongman wanted
action, with disastrous consequences. to get even with the police chief, so It was a cynical, opportunistic ploy,
In a place like Afghanistan, we’re ac- he instructed his followers to use the to be sure, but one that played well
customed to seeing violence through protests over the cartoons as a cover into preconceived notions in the West
the lens of militant Islam. That, after all, of why conflict occurs in the Muslim
has been the story—a war fought along
religious lines, with insurgents fired

6 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

world. And yet it’s rare when religion the Post—we’ve almost come to expect wearing turbans, and they were shout-
alone offers an adequate explanation conflict and religion to go hand in ing about the rule of law, not about
for conflict. Even the Taliban—who for hand, to the point where it’s surpris- Allah. That such a conflict could occur
many epitomize a radical Islamic move- ing when one is present without the in a place like Pakistan caught many
ment with violence at its core—cannot other. I spent much of March covering people off guard. But should it have
be properly understood without a rallies in Pakistan by lawyers who were been a shock that there’s more to the
strong grasp of its nonreligious fea- furious at President Pervez Musharraf ’s Islamic world than Islam?
tures. It has, for instance, an important decision to suspend the nation’s chief
ethnic dimension, representing as it justice. The lawyers were passionate The point is not that religion doesn’t
does a vision of Pashtun supremacy in their objections, calling for an end matter. It certainly does. The point is
in Afghanistan. It also has geostrategic to Musharraf ’s reign; the police were that other factors matter, as well. As
elements; it has received critical sup- forceful in trying to quiet dissent, re- journalists, we owe it to the public to
port from allies in Pakistan who favor sorting to tear gas and baton charges. present a multidimensional portrait
the movement less for its religious The result was a dramatic story. And yet, of the conflicts at the heart of our
orthodoxy than for its potential as a based on the comments I received from coverage. n
bulwark against India. readers, the most unexpected element
for many was the one not present: The Griff Witte is the Islamabad/Kabul
When the dateline reads Afghanistan protesters were clad in black suits, not bureau chief for The Washington
or Pakistan—two countries I cover for Post.

Understanding the Many Faces of Islamism and
Jihadism

A scholar of Islam shares insights to help journalists confront the challenges involved
with reporting on the political Islamic movement.

By Fawaz A. Gerges Lamp. Morocco. Photo by Katharina Eglau. based on shari’ah (Qur’anic law)—is a
challenge fraught with difficulties. For
Since the September 11th terror journalists, this challenge involves a
attacks, Americans have come willingness to recognize the complex-
increasingly to believe that Is- ity and diversity within this movement,
lamism, not just jihadism, is a mortal which encompasses a broad spectrum
threat to the West, an aggressive and of mainstream and militant forces,
totalitarian ideology dedicated to as they try to place their coverage of
random destruction and global subju- news and events (often involving vio-
gation. Fueling American fears is the lence and threats of violence) within
military debacle in Iraq and the ferocity a broader, more meaningful and ac-
of armed resistance and suicide attacks curate context.
against U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies.
Ratcheting the rhetoric, President Bush Mainstream Islamists—that is, Mus-
gathers all mainstream and militant lim Brothers and other independent
Islamists together under the phrase activists—represent an overwhelming
“Islamo-fascists” and calls on Americans majority of religiously oriented groups
to be prepared for a long struggle. (in the upper 90th percentile), whereas
Some U.S. political leaders and pundits militants or jihadists are a tiny but criti-
have gone further and called for an cal minority. The mainstream Islamists
all-out war against all manifestations accept the rules of the political game,
of Islamism or political Islam. claim to embrace democratic prin-
ciples, and renounce violence.
Disentangling myth from reality
about the political Islamic movement— From the 1940’s through the early
whose goal is to establish governments

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 7

Islam

1970’s, the Muslim Brotherhood—the make compromises with secular groups toward attacking Israel and the Western

most powerfully organized of all Is- and rethink some of their absolutist powers, particularly the United States.

lamists, with local branches in the Arab positions. Events have forced them to As a result, an intense internal struggle

Middle East and Central and South and come to grips with the complexity and ensued between local jihadists and

Southeast Asia—flirted with violence. diversity of Muslim societies, though their international counterparts led

Since then, however, they have increas- they still lack a well-delineated vision by bin Laden and Zawahiri. Waged for

ingly moved to the political mainstream to solve their countries’ socioeconomic the soul of the jihadist enterprise, the

and aim to Islamize state and society challenges. More and more, they rec- reverberations of this internal struggle

through peaceful means. Although ognize the primacy of politics over have been felt far beyond the region’s

Muslim Brothers are often borders—in New York,

targeted and excluded from Washington, Madrid, Lon-

politics by ruling autocrats, … many Islamists are gradually becoming don and Paris.
they no longer use force to The vast majority of
initiated into the culture of political realism and militant Islamists, whom
attain their goals.

Mainstream and enlight- the art of the possible. They are learning to make I call local jihadists, did
ened Islamists also play an not join al-Qaeda jihadists
compromises with secular groups and rethink
active role in expanding or global jihadists. In fact,

political debate in Mus- some of their absolutist positions. September 11th showed
lim societies. They have how deep the fissures

forced existing secular within the jihadists were,

dictatorships, such as those and this internal struggle

in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, has escalated now into an

Algeria, Turkey, Jordan, Pakistan and religion and the difficulty, even futility, open civil war. Many former jihadists,

even Saudi Arabia, to respond to their of establishing Islamic states. whom I interviewed in the late 1990’s

challenge to open up the closed politi- and after 9/11, said that while delighted
cal system and reform government in- The Jihadists
at America’s humiliation, they also

stitutions. Without such pressure, these feared that bin Laden and Zawahiri

authoritarian Muslim rulers would have The jihadist represents a tiny fraction recklessly endangered survival of the

no incentive to respond to demands of the larger mainstream Islamist move- Islamist movement. Instead of a river

for inclusion and transparency. ment, which dominates the social space of recruits flowing to Afghanistan, only

Despite their historic opposition in most Muslim societies. Although a trickle of volunteers signed up to

to Western-style democracy, Islamists jihadism is lethal, it does not possess defend the Taliban and al-Qaeda after

have become unwitting harbingers of a viable broad social base like the the September 11th attacks.

democratic transformation. They have Muslim Brotherhood. From the late
formed alliances with their former 1960’s until the mid-1990’s, militant Western Views of Islam

sworn political opponents, including Islamists or jihadists were preoccupied

secularists and Marxists, in calling upon with the fight against Al-Adou al-Qareeb It is a pity that some Western com-

governments to respect human rights (the “near enemy”) Muslim rulers. The mentators still perpetuate the myth

and the rule of law. Mainstream or primary goal of modern jihadism is that the September 11th attacks were

traditional Islamists are not born-again and always has been the destruction widely embraced by all mainstream and

democrats and never will be. They are of the atheist political and social order militant Islamists and even the ummah

deeply patriarchal, seeing themselves at home and its replacement with au- (the worldwide Muslim community).

as the guardians of faith, tradition thentic Islamic states. Far from condoning the September

and authenticity. In Kuwait and Saudi Until the second half of the 1990’s, 11th attacks, mainstream Islamists

Arabia, Islamists vehemently oppose Al-Adou al-Baeed (the “far enemy”) might serve as a counterweight to

efforts to give women the right to vote had not registered on jihadists’ ra- ultramilitants like al-Qaeda. Immedi-

or to drive cars. In Egypt, Morocco, dar screen. It was then that a small ately after September 11th, leading

Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Pakistan and fraction of jihadists—al-Qaeda and mainstream Islamists—such as Hassan

other Muslim countries, they denounce its affiliates—decided to target the al-Turabi, formerly head of the National

any legislation that would enable wom- United States and some of its Western Islamic Front and now of People’s

en to divorce abusive husbands, travel allies and labeled them as the “far Congress in Sudan who, in the early

without male permission, or achieve enemy.” Osama bin Laden and Ayman 1990’s, hosted Osama bin Laden and

full representation in government. al-Zawahiri, his second in command, Sayyid Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah

Nevertheless, many Islamists are launched a campaign to hijack the (spiritual founding father of Lebanon’s

gradually becoming initiated into the jihadist movement. They changed its Hizbullah)—condemned al-Qaeda’s

culture of political realism and the art direction away from attacking the Mus- September 11th attacks on the United

of the possible. They are learning to lim “apostates” and “renegades” and States as harmful to Islam and Muslims,

8 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

not just to Americans.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an

Egyptian-born conservative

Islamic cleric based in Qatar,

issued a fatwa denouncing al-

Qaeda’s “illegal jihad” and ex-

pressed sorrow and empathy

with the American victims:

“Our hearts bleed because of

the attacks that have targeted

the World Trade Center, as

well as other institutions in

the United States,” wrote

Qaradawi, who is widely lis-

tened to and read by a huge

Muslim audience. He went

on to write that the mur-

ders in New York could not

be justified on any ground,

including “the American

biased policy toward Israel

on the military, political and

economic fronts.” (It is little Boys of a Qur’an school. Uzbekistan. Photo by Katharina Eglau.
wonder why al-Qaeda’s lead-

ers, including bin Laden, Zawahiri, and questions in mind. It is certainly pos- as external aggression perpetrated

the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, often sible that a political approach would against their community and religion.

attack mainstream Islamists and accuse have been more effective in combating In my travels in the Arab world, I’ve

them of treachery.) extremism, and terrorism could have met young Muslim teens, with no

Since September 11th, some criti- been reduced to an inconsequential prior Islamist or jihadist background,

cal questions have not been fully phenomenon. desperately trying to raise a meager

addressed in the United States. They What has happened instead is that sum of money to take a bus ride or an

include: militarism has radicalized mainstream airline flight to the Syrian-Iraqi border

Muslim public opinion and provided and join the fight.

• Why did bin Laden and his associ- ideological ammunition to militants. In Instead of taking the easier, more

ates suddenly turn their guns on particular, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq simplistic approach of lumping all

the “far enemy” after having been and subsequent violations of human Islamists and jihadists together, jour-

in the “far enemy” trenches with rights have created a new generation nalists ought to adopt a more nuanced

other Islamists during the 1980’s of radicals who search for ways to join and constructive approach—one that

and 1990’s? the jihad caravan. By exacerbating re- draws distinctions among the many

• Are Islamists and jihadists united gional fault lines already shaking with faces of political Islam. Acknowledging

over attacking the far enemy, or are tension, the militaristic responses may these complexities as a routine part

they splintered and divided over have caused irreparable damage, not of news coverage not only fulfills a

tactics and strategy? just to U.S. global strategy, but also to professional responsibility but it also

• What is the relative weight and influ- international peace and security. contributes to national security and a

ence of al-Qaeda jihadists within the Reverberations of the Iraq War are civil dialogue. n

Islamist movement and the jihadist heard and felt on European streets,

at this time? and they could soon reach American Fawaz A. Gerges, who holds the

• Would it be more effective to try to shores if Iraq fractures and sinks into Christian Johnson Chair in Middle

internally encircle al-Qaeda instead full-scale civil war. At the same time, a East and International Affairs at

of expanding the so-called “war consensus is emerging within the Eu- Sarah Lawrence College, is a Carn-

on terror” and declaring an all-out ropean and U.S. intelligence communi- egie Scholar and visiting professor at

war against real and imagined en- ties that the Iraq War is strengthening the American University in Cairo. His

emies? global jihadists. Tragically, the Iraq War most recent books are “Journey of the

has given rise to a new generation of Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy”

Rarely, it seems, do journalists ap- militants who use terrorism as a rule, (Harcourt Press in 2006), and “The

proach their coverage of the so-called not an exception. More youngsters Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global”

“war on terror” with any of these are deeply affected by what they see (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 9

Islam

The Arab Story: The Big One Waiting to Be Told

‘How do journalists make the lives and aspirations of Arab men and women who will
not succumb to criminality or terror relevant to Western audiences?’

By Rami G. Khouri It is unfair and inaccurate to gen- appetite for stories about Arabs who
eralize too much, of course, but my don’t carry knives, shoot machine guns,
Two things have dominated critique of how this story has been launch grenades, or talk on gold-plated
much of my professional and mishandled stands the test of time. For cell phones.
personal life during the 37 years the past half century, reporting about
since I graduated from journalism this region has been told primarily It is not surprising, therefore, that
school in the United States: following through the lens of conflict, extrem- what I see from office, home and car
American college sports and follow- ism and violence; at the same time, windows throughout the Middle East
ing Middle East politics, society and the realities of hundreds of millions of does not match the images I see on U.S.
culture. Reading the U.S. mainstream ordinary Arabs, Iranians, Israelis, Turks newscasts. The juxtaposition is extreme
press, especially in the early spring, I and other small populations, whose and deeply frustrating. Reporting by
often have a hard time distinguishing daily lives are not defined by warfare the written press is only slightly better.
between American media coverage of or dominated by conflict, have been This circumstance is brought about, in
March Madness and Middle East Mad- largely ignored. The prevalent news part, by the nature of the news media.
ness—both defined by intense emo- and imagery convey—and are defined I know because for 40 years I, too,
tions and extreme confrontation. by—emotionalism, exaggerated reli- have written “newsworthy” leads and
giosity, and deep ethnic or religious headlines. Tension trumps routine yet,
Through my professional lifetime of prejudice, while the underlying human for those, like me, who have worked
experience working for and with qual- rhythms, prevailing moral norms, and to foster better communication, jour-
ity American and European journalists, routine cultural and political values nalistic coverage, and understanding
and following their work daily, what I of the 300 million or so Arabs are not between Arabs and Americans, this
regret most is their tendency to report presented accurately, fully or at all. Be- creates two problems:
on the Middle East almost exclusively tween the intemperance and drama of
as an arena of aberration and violence. Dubayy, Gaza, Fallujah and Hizbullah, 1. JournalistsintheWestaremissingthe
This is only exacerbated (and at times the U.S. news media have very little most important story in the Arab world:
mystified) by the shattering combina- the quest by millions of ordinary people
tion of ignorance and fear of alien to create a better political and socio-
cultures and faiths. economic order, anchored in decent
values, open to the world, pluralistic
Mediterranean beach. Gaza Strip. Photo by Katharina Eglau. and tolerant yet asserting indigenous
Arab-Islamic values. The wholesale
attempt to transform autocracies into
democracies and corrupt and often
incompetent police states into more
satisfying and accountable polities is a
saga of epic and often heroic propor-
tions. Most of the U.S. news media refuse
to acknowledge or cannot even see this
because of a relentless focus on Islamist
violence, Israel, Hizbullah, Iran, Syria,
terrorism, oil and the American army
in Iraq.

2. A high price is paid for covering the
Arab world primarily in terms of its public
and political deviance, rather than its
human ordinariness and the rhythms of
its many different neighborhoods. This

10 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

price is denominated in three inter- A half-century ago
locking and dangerous currencies that
create a cycle of disdain and death that many in the Ameri-
serves to define us today: (a.) a one-di-
mensional and largely negative and usu- can media ignored
ally fear-filled image of the Arab world
set in the mind of ordinary Americans; entirely or provided a
(b.) emotional and political support
for the U.S. government in pursuit of distorted, incomplete
its Middle East policies, with disastrous
consequences for all concerned; (c.) and one-dimension-
the counterreaction from much of the
Arab world, where a large majority of al coverage of Afri-
ordinary people and ruling elites are
contemptuous of American policy; a can Americans, then
very small band of criminal fanatics in
al-Qaeda and associated groups goes called Negroes. Re-
a step further and wages war against
Americans at home or abroad. porters then, as now,

Such coverage of the Middle accurately reflected
East—and Arab countries in it—is an
integral element in perpetuating and prevalent values in
exacerbating existing tensions and fear.
(Arab coverage of Americans shares a much of American so-
lot of these same weaknesses.) All of
this is made worse by the inherent ciety. Journalists did
bias—reflecting long-standing U.S.
government policy and Israeli per- not create this racism Hizbullah volunteers in a Shi’ite-majority village in the south
spectives—embedded in most of this
coverage. And when what is reported or oppression; they tell a bereaved father that his missing son was a fighter mar-
also stresses the Arab’s anti-Israel and
anti-U.S. sentiments of Arabs—and only reflected it in tyred in action. Photo by Iason Athanasiadis.
these are real—little space remains what they covered—
for reporting on the defining reality of
ordinary Arab lives. This reality is the and what they didn’t report on—and, erful religious dictates of charity and
heroic durability and epic stoicism as
ordinary Arabs demand to be treated in doing so, aided in perpetuating its tolerance and, in most parts of the Arab
in their countries as citizens with rights
instead of as subjects, victims and chat- flaws and crime. Something similar is world, they insist on living in pluralistic
tel of modern Arab authoritarianism.
happening in reporting on the Arab societies. And despite the West’s per-
This narrative is all too familiar to
American reporters; they’ve told this world today, as prevailing political ception, almost desperately they seek
story often and with eloquence and
persistence when, for example, Rus- interests and norms, with a nod to to engage meaningfully with Ameri-
sians and Poles fought against Com-
munism, and Chinese students and crass commercialism, defeat what cans, Europeans and others abroad
black South Africans waged struggles
against their oppressive systems, and might otherwise be journalists’ better who would reciprocate the quest for
girls and women in Afghanistan battled
for their rights at great risk. But this instincts. mutually beneficial relations.
story is rarely told in Arab lands, where
instead death and hatreds take center This is a difficult—and even pro- With policies and rhetoric seem-
stage in stories filed by Western report-
ers—stories routinely insinuating the found—professional challenge. How ingly locked in place, along with gun
inscrutability of exotic and alien values
and an inherently violent faith. do journalists make the lives and sights, it is perhaps too much to expect

aspirations of Arab men and women Western political leaders to see this

who will not succumb to criminality or human reality beneath the surface of

terror relevant to Western audiences? the political brutality of a regime such

How do they do this when there is no as Hosni Mubarak’s in Egypt. Or to

iconic image of a solitary man standing understand the mass anger tapped by

before a tank, as happened in Tianan- Moktada al-Sadr in Iraq. I do, however,

men Square? The spirit of Arab defiance expect my journalist colleagues in the

and self-assertion in the face of police Western press to focus on this extraor-

states and foreign occupiers is the stuff dinary human dynamic that defines this

of drama. It is also the force behind entire region.

mass politics in the Arab world—a force It’s a great story. It’s also the most

that is increasingly being exploited and likely route to our mutual salvation

misused by extremist leaders far afield, and exit from the cycle of warfare and

such as Iran’s president. Osama bin extremism that our incompetent lead-

Laden and his gang of criminals has ers have fostered and that degrades

also tried desperately and repeatedly us all. n

to tap into this mountain of discontent,

in most cases without success. Rami G. Khouri, a 2002 Nieman

Masses of ordinary, discontented Fellow, is a Palestinian-Jordanian-

Arabs have refused to turn violent to American national. He is a Beirut-

express their angst as they also refuse based internationally syndicated

foreign hegemony or occupation as columnist (www.ramikhouri.com),

an antidote to their domestic abuse of director of the Issam Fares Institute

power. They cling to religion and tradi- for Public Policy and International

tional social values, while demanding Affairs at the American University

more accountable and participatory of Beirut, and editor at large of The

governance. They adhere to their pow- Daily Star newspaper.

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 11

Islam

When the News Media Focus on Islam’s Internal
Struggles

Journalists highlight the secular Muslim vision ‘because it reflects a Western outlook
that Islam needs to transform and modernize.’

By Geneive Abdo headscarves on the streets of London fensive not only because a small fringe
and New York, should be shunned for is given massive exposure, but also
The blame for September 11th, their backwardness and unwillingness because it is the media, not Muslims,
at one time based on President to adopt the fundamental principles of who have the power to decide who
George Bush’s theory that Western liberalism. speaks for Islam. Giving attention to the
everything happening in the Islamic minority of “secularists” overshadows
world is a response to Muslim envy of This “good” Muslim “bad” Muslim the views of the majority.
Westernization and a longing for the characterization is particularly evident
glorious days of the Ottoman Empire, with stories about Muslims living either The tendency to champion “secular”
has now evolved into a new explana- in the United States or in Europe. In or “moderate” Muslims is also apparent
tion: The root of the problem lies not reporting the internal divides among in journalists’ coverage of the struggle
in a clash between Islam and the West, Muslims, the “good” Muslim is often within Islam over gender equality.
but rather an internal struggle within described as “moderate.” These are Time and time again, Muslim women
Islam itself. Muslims who take pride in their na- opposed to wearing headscarves are
tional identity as American, British or profiled as brazen activists who dare to
This notion, advanced by American French, who at the very least are willing challenge the great numbers of those
journalists here and abroad, is quite to compromise Islamic ideals in order wearing hijab, who say they do so out
convenient not only for the U.S. gov- to fully integrate into a Western society of devotion to the faith. According to
ernment but for public morale. If the and, at the most, publicly criticize other typical portrayals, particularly report-
problem lies in Islam’s conflicted iden- Muslims and Islamic doctrine. ing about Muslims living in the West,
tity as a 1,400-year-old religion trying the headscarf is the litmus test; those
to reconcile its doctrine with the mod- One glaring example was coverage who wear it are less interested in full
ern world, then United States’ foreign on CNN’s neoconservative Glenn Beck
policy over the last half-century in the show in March. Beck devoted an hour
Middle East and in some predominantly of live coverage to what was called
Muslim countries is not at fault. It is “The Secular Islam Summit,” held in St.
also convenient for another reason: Petersburg, Florida. Some of the orga-
The internal Muslim debate allows nizers and speakers at the convention
the media, and by extension public have received massive media attention
opinion, to take sides in the struggle in recent years. Irshad Manji, author
with the intention of influencing the of “The Trouble With Islam Today,”
outcome. There is no doubt that an and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch
intensive struggle exists within Islam parliamentarian and author of the best-
that ranges from theological issues to seller “Infidel,” were but a few there
the role of clerics in governing a state. claiming to have suffered personally
But this should remain a Muslim issue, at the hands of “radical” Islam. One
not one the West should decide. participant, Wafa Sultan, declared on
Glenn Beck’s show that she does not
In the early days of the Iraq War, for “see any difference between radical
example, the Iraqi Sunnis were “good” Islam and regular Islam.”
Muslims who should prevail in govern-
ing the state over the Shi’ites. Similarly, This secular Muslim vision is high-
in Western societies with increasing lighted because it reflects a Western
Muslim populations, it is the “secular” outlook that Islam needs to transform
(good) Muslims who should be wel- and modernize. But for the vast ma-
comed as full-fledged citizens while jority of Muslims, such coverage is of-
religious “bad” Muslims, who wear

12 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

integration than those who do not.

In the United States, a divisive is-

sue within the Muslim community

concerns where women should pray

in a mosque. Across the country, the

consensus is that women should pray

in a different space, whether it is be-

hind men, in an adjoining prayer hall,

or even in a basement. In conservative

mosques, the often male-dominated

mosque governing boards require

women to pray in a space isolated from

the imam delivering the sermon and

the male worshipers. As part of this

internal struggle, an African-American

Muslim activist, Amina Wadud, in the

spring of 2005 decided to bring the

issue out into the open by leading a

mixed congregation of Muslim men and

women in prayer in New York City. The

incident sparked a fierce debate that

included religious scholars from the

Middle East who denounced her ac- Praying man in a mosque. Iran. Photos by Shoes at the front door of a mosque.
tions and declared her an apostate.
Katharina Eglau. Morocco.

For the most part, the extensive

news coverage of this incident sided

with the female activist and dismissed media vision by gaining greater access Muslim views that the United States’s

criticism from Muslims who said her to broadcast and print. More Muslims foreign policy agenda is based upon

actions violated the principles of the are appearing on television and writing Israel’s interest in the Middle East to

faith. Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a scholar opinion pieces in newspapers. But it sentiment that Muslims should be al-

in Doha with a wide following, issued a has not been easy for several reasons. lowed to be Muslims, irrespective of

fatwa in response to the prayer service, Until September 11th, the fractured Western conventions.

saying that all four schools of Islamic Muslim leadership in the United States While Muslims have been success-

jurisprudence were ful in publishing

clear: Women may more frequently in

lead prayers only This ‘good’ Muslim ‘bad’ Muslim characterization is smaller and more
before other wom- localized publica-
particularly evident with stories about Muslims living
en. Many Muslims tions, they have also

expressed similar either in the United States or in Europe. In reporting the arrived at another
views on Islamic Web alternative, however
internal divides among Muslims, the ‘good’ Muslim is
sites. “We need not limited. Muslims are

judge Amina Wadud often described as ‘moderate.' creating their own
only by what she is media. An imam

doing this Friday,” in Chicago created

wrote one writer “Radio Islam” in the

on the site of Al Jazeera, the Arabic- was unaccustomed to participating fall of 2004. Despite its mostly Muslim

language cable network. “We need to in either foreign policy debates or listeners and the frequency—an ethnic

judge her by the pending issues on the public discussions about their faith. radio network broadcast only in the

agenda of her sponsors and support- Over the past six years, they have been Chicago area—the daily show opens

ers. To us, they have crossed all limits. compelled not only to become public with the idea that everyone is talking

To them, they have just taken the first figures but also to break through the about Muslims and Islam. “Now it is

step towards transforming Islam into walls of exclusion that showcase other time for you to talk,” says the radio an-

a ‘progressive’ and ‘moderate’ form voices. Muslims often tell me that nouncer. A leader from the Council on

according to the wishes of the enemies there are certain top-tier newspapers American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an

of Islam.” in the United States that rarely accept advocacy group with its headquarters

Muslims in the United States are op-eds reflecting mainstream Muslim in Washington, D.C., is host to an NPR

trying to respond to this distorted opinion. This opinion ranges from program in Florida. And a Lebanese

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 13

Islam

radio host broadcasts weekly from new faculties since September 11th. ferent from anything Americans have
Pacifica radio in Los Angeles. These And there is another, more profound, encountered. n
are only a few examples. obstacle. Even if American reporters
immersed themselves in courses on Geneive Abdo is a 2002 Nieman
Is there a solution to enlightening Islamic studies, the baggage they—and Fellow. For nearly a decade, she
those in the media and the public? their editors—carry of viewing this reported from the Middle East and in
Not in the near future. The generation religion and ideology through a West- Iran. She is the author of three books
of journalists now covering Muslims ern prism, rather than on its terms, is on contemporary Islam, including
in the East and the West are gener- likely to remain. What is required is a “Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life
ally uneducated about contemporary new intellectual enlightenment about in America After 9/11,” published in
Islam, and universities in the United an ideology and faith that is vastly dif- 2006 by Oxford University Press.
States have been slow to establish

Misperceptions of the ‘War’ in Iraq

An NBC News correspondent—with longtime experience in Iraq—describes many
other visions of the war now being fought.

By Richard Engel

T he war in Iraq is not what it foreign jihadists, former Ba’ath Party holy city of Karbala, south of Bagh-
seems. In fact, there is no “war” members, and criminals supported dad. The television images showed
in Iraq—there are many wars, by al-Qaeda, Syria and Iran, who the Shi’ite devotees flagellating their
some centuries old, playing out on have formed an alliance of conve- backs with zangeel (bundles of chains)
this ancient land. But this is not what nience to reject the democratization and cutting their heads with swords
Americans are often led to believe. of Iraq, each for its own motivation. to mourn the seventh century martyr
The perception portrayed by the White The team’s captains are al-Qaeda Hussein and punish themselves for
House and Iraqi government in Bagh- in Iraq and other Sunni militant not having done more to save his life
dad—and commonly reflected in the groups, Iranian and Syrian agents during a battle in Karbala in one of
news media—is that the violence in and, but not always, radical Shi’ite Islam’s early civil wars.
Iraq is a fundamental struggle between cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi
two opposing teams: Freedom Lovers Army. The pictures showed a man dressed
and Freedom Haters. as Hussein in ancient Islamic battle
While there are certainly elements dress, with a sword, flowing head-
In this Manichaean and simplistic of truth to this narrative, the reality in dress, and a colorful cape, reenacting
view of the fighting here, the tale of this fractured country is much more the battle by single-handedly fighting
the tape is: complex. off a crowd of attackers until he was
overwhelmed and heroically slain.
• The Freedom Lovers: The 12 million The Other Wars Hussein’s martyrdom, many Shi’ites
Iraqis who plunged their fingers claim at the hands of early Sunnis, is one
into purple ink on Election Day in During a break in a diplomatic meet- of the central themes of Shi’ite Islam
December 2005, choosing freedom, ing in Baghdad in March, I was sitting in Iraq and establishes a basic premise
democracy and to shut forever the in a smoke-filled waiting room of the that Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s
door on Saddam Hussein’s dicta- foreign ministry watching Iraqiya, the grandson, and his Shi’ite descendants
torship. Their team captains are state-sponsored television station. It are the true heirs to Islam but were
the Iraqi government, the White was the final day of the Shi’ite festival defeated by Sunni “usurpers.”
House, the U.S.-trained Iraq security of Ashura, and several hundred thou-
services, and the roughly 150,000 sand, perhaps as many as two million, But the footage on Iraqi state TV
American troops in Iraq. Shi’ite pilgrims were gathered in the during Ashura didn’t stop there. In-
terwoven with the images of Hussein’s
• The Freedom Haters: Iraqi radicals, struggle and the mourning rituals was

14 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

current news footage of the aftermath the reality is there are many wars within ister and ex-Ba’ath Party member

of car bombings in Baghdad, the Shi’ite the war. Others include: and western intelligence “asset,” he

al-Askari mosque in Samara destroyed wants to return to power, overthrow

by al-Qaeda militants in February • Moktada al-Sadr: The radical Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, unite

2006, and wounded Iraqi women and leader and commander of the Mahdi Sunnis and Shi’ites under his secular

children. The message was clear: the Army who wants to equal or surpass rule, and bring back divisions of the

attacks on markets, Shi’ite mosques, the influence of his father, one of Iraqi army dissolved by then U.S.

restaurants and university campuses, Iraq’s most revered Shi’ite lead- administrator Paul Bremer.

mostly carried out by Sunni radicals, ers. Based primarily on his family’s • Nuri al-Maliki: Prime Minister

are a continuation of Hussein’s battle reputation, Sadr has tapped into Maliki’s goals are unclear. At times

centuries ago. the frustrations of Iraq’s poor, un- he sounds as though he is read-

As pilgrims marched by our Baghdad educated and unemployed Shi’ite ing talking points from the White

bureau on their way to Karbala, I could community, increasingly fed up House, but he has been reluctant to

hear them chant: “Kul yom Ashura! Kul with the continued presence of U.S. stop Shi’ite militia groups and has

ard Karbala!” or “Every day is Ashura! troops. overseen a Shi’ite-led government

All land is Karbala!” Simply often accused of pursuing a

put, they were saying, every- sectarian agenda.

day and everywhere in Iraq, … it is apparent that many of Iraq’s Shi’ites U.S. politicians and mil-
Shi’ites are reliving Hussein’s

battles in Karbala. There was believe they are fighting a different war itary commanders often
no talk of democracy or the from the one many in the United States complain that the Iraqi gov-
Ba’ath Party, Saddam Hussein ernment “won’t step up and

or the U.S. troop “surge,” or see their troops engaged in here, and for do its job.” The impression
other subjects that dominate different reasons. they give is that Iraqi officials
the Iraq debate in the United are sitting around smoking

States. Instead, it is apparent hooka pipes and refusing to

that many of Iraq’s Shi’ites pull themselves up by their

believe they are fighting a dif- bootstraps, while U.S. troops

ferent war from the one many in the • The Kurds: Iraqi Kurds want indepen- are fighting and dying to “get the job

United States see their troops engaged dence and control of the oil rich city done.” Perhaps the question should be,

in here, and for different reasons. of Kirkuk. Thankful that U.S. troops “Which job?” American soldiers often

Many Sunni groups in Iraq are also rid them of Saddam’s oppression, ask me when the Iraqis will “step up

fighting a war that seems to have little they now want to capitalize on their and fight for their own country.” They

in common with the official U.S. and new freedom by establishing what are already fighting for their country.

Iraqi characterization of the conflict. they have been denied for centuries, Iraqi officials, religious leaders, militia

Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its allies recently an autonomous, prosperous oil-rich groups, Syria, Iran and al-Qaeda are

formed an umbrella group they call state. For Kurds, the fighting in Iraq struggling and dying to get a “job done”

Dowlit al-Islam, or the Islamic State in is not about democracy, but self-de- in Iraq, though it does not appear to

Iraq. After the group claimed responsi- termination. be the job the White House would like

bility for bombing the Iraqi parliament • Abdul Aziz al-Hakim: He is the them to be doing.

building in Baghdad’s Green Zone in leader of the Supreme Council for U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates

April, the group issued an Internet Islamic Revolution in Iraq [now the warned during his April visit to Iraq that

statement explaining its motivation. Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council] who America’s “patience is running out.” If

The group said the suicide bomber wants to control southern Iraq and he’s waiting for Iraqis and the wider

who attacked parliament’s cafeteria carve out a ministate allied with Iran. Middle East to start fighting the war

and killed one lawmaker was motivated His party would rule this emirate, of Freedom Lovers against Freedom

to kill “the traitors and collaborators” containing both the rich oil fields Haters, Americans might need to have

who had sold out to a “Zionist-Per- in Basra and access to the Persian considerably more patience in the

sian” conspiracy to control Iraq. From Gulf. Al-Hakim’s Iranian-backed years ahead. n

what they wrote, they seem to believe militia, the Badr Brigade, renamed

they are fighting Israel, Iran and their the Badr Organization in an attempt Richard Engel is the senior Middle

agents, not the U.S. mission to bring to make it seem more mainstream, East correspondent and Beirut bu-

democracy to Iraq. has gained control of many of the reau chief for NBC News.

These visions of war are just two of local councils and police stations

the competing power struggles that across southern Iraq.

U.S. troops in Iraq are trying to quell; • Ayad Allawi: The former prime min-

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 15

Islam

Fiction Can Be More Real Than Journalism

‘In journalism, the color gray too often comes out a muddy brown.’

By Matt Beynon Rees a powerful sense of adventure, as drawn to its ambiguity.
though I had uncovered an unknown I’m frequently asked—both by
In a cabbage patch on the edge of culture.
Bethlehem, the wife of a Palestin- journalists and others—what I “think”
ian killed there the previous night Seeing the Middle East in about the wall Israel built near the
described hearing the fatal shot from Shades of Gray Green Line to separate itself from the
the rifle of an Israeli sniper. The dead Palestinians. People hold their heads
man’s mother raged and told me she I sometimes joke that I developed an slightly to the side when they ask this
had recognized his body in the dark by early interest in the Middle East because question. It’s a posture of judgment: Is
the denim jacket she recently bought my great-uncle had ridden with the this guy on the right side? Well, the wall
him. I listened and thought: “This is British Imperial Camel Corps during is gray, quite literally, because it’s made
great material—too good, in fact.” World War I, been shot in the backside of concrete. It has prevented Palestin-
near Ramallah, and used to get drunk ian suicide bombers killing Israelis, but
It was 2001, and I was Jerusalem and drop his pants to show us the scar it also has deprived some Palestinian
bureau chief for Time magazine, cov- when I was a kid. But aside from those farmers of their land. It’s gray because
ering the violence of the intifada. The geriatric moments, I grew up in Wales of what it’s made of, and I can handle
dramatic story of this family ended up with no more concern for the Middle that. But journalism can’t.
as the kind of colorful lead you read fre- East than any other educated person.
quently in a newsmagazine, followed Then I fell in love, quit my job in New In news reports the wall comes out
by something along the lines of this: York, where I covered Wall Street, and a muted shade of gray not because of
“To be sure, the Israelis say this and joined my fiancée when she went to the its color but because journalists don’t
the State Department says that and the Holy Land with The Christian Science want to offend those who see the wall
Palestinians—surprise—disagree.” Monitor. My fascination for her sadly as black or white. In the Palestinian-Is-
faded and we divorced, but I remained raeli conflict, journalists have swapped
As the winter wind came cold off rapt by this place and increasingly objectivity for inoffensiveness. Editors
the Judean Desert, I knew that with are keen not to offend the zealots on
the insights I had gathered there I had both sides—a waste of time, since such
to go beyond journalism. As it turns readers are affronted by any hint of
out, I based the opening murder in balance. In journalism, the color gray
my mystery novel, “The Collaborator too often comes out a muddy brown.
of Bethlehem,” on this death.
Fiction is set up to handle gray
Since the first time I set foot in areas because, unlike journalism, it
the West Bank in 1996, I had grown doesn’t depend on what characters
steadily disillusioned with the ability say—it gets inside their heads. The
of journalism to convey the depth of gray matter in there isn’t subject to
what I had learned about the Palestin- self-censorship. It forces a writer to
ians. Back then, I visited the family of build a character who will seem real,
a Nablus man tortured to death in one for example a detective, whose every
of Yasir Arafat’s jails. The news article I thought and concern marks him out
wrote was a good one, uncovering the as belonging to his own society, not
internal Palestinian violence so often a stereotyped journalistic sketch. I
overshadowed by the more spectacular came across the man who would be
conflict with Israel. But my impressions the basis of my sleuth, Omar Yussef,
were much deeper. I was struck by the in Bethlehem. This man, whom I don’t
candor and dignity with which the dead name because it might endanger him,
youth’s family spoke to me; the sheer is an independent thinker in a world of
alien nature of this place thrilled me. fearful groupthink, an honorable man
At the entrance to the family’s house in a dark reality. I believe readers will
in the casbah, an old oil drum held like Omar even at his most irascible,
black flags and palm fronds, symbols because they’ll understand how frus-
of Islamic mourning. Men sat around
smoking under a dark awning. I felt

16 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

trating it would be for a
man of such integrity to
face his dreadful, corrupt
world—that’s why I was
drawn to the real Omar
through the years.

The lawlessness of
Palestinian life also gave
me great characters for
my fictionalized villains.
Unfortunately there are
many Palestinians who
have strong motivations
to kill each other. I’ve
spent a lot of time over
the years with some of
these men, trying to
learn why they take the
path of violence—time
that has led to a deeper
characterization of the
villains in my books.

Hearing the A family gathers in front of their home in Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip. Photo by Alexandra Boulat.
Voices, Knowing
the Words

Of course, because I learned the local ing and people whose perspectives because they were still appearing in
languages, I had an advantage over seemed utterly unlike mine. The New York Times, which was setting
many other journalists in the Middle their agenda—when long months of
East—both in reporting and in devel- In the Middle East, I realized that at intifada had clearly buried any notion
oping a deep enough knowledge to heart I was an anthropologist—where- of peace in a deluge of death.
be able to write fictional Palestinian as editors expect a correspondent to
characters. The role of language is an be a political scientist manqué. Every Ultimately it’s the expression of the
oddity among Middle East reporters. time I go to a Palestinian town, I feel true feelings of the Palestinians I most
Correspondents in Moscow, for ex- alive and stimulated. And that sense of admire that, for me, makes fiction a
ample, seem uniformly to learn Russian excitement led me as far inside Palestin- better measure of reality than journal-
and be rather proud of it. But few here ian society as I could get, listening to ism. They aren’t official spokesmen;
learn Arabic. I speak Arabic, and it’s a ordinary Palestinians, no matter how they aren’t powerful, and they aren’t
difficult language, but I don’t imagine bloodthirstily and lengthily they spoke even quotable because they would be
it’s so much harder than Russian. I also to me. I also sought out the Palestinian in fear of their lives. But they’ve told
speak Hebrew, but I’ve noticed that military leaders who’d been passed me what’s in their hearts, and none of
correspondents who do so are often over for promotion in favor of Arafat them are the cartoon victims or one-
seen as somewhat suspect, as though yes-men. They became my best sources dimensional villains found on the pages
it makes one pro-Israeli—a taint of about what really happened inside the of newspapers. n
bias that adheres to Arabic speakers Palestinian Authority.
only if they speak the language par- Matt Beynon Rees is the author of
ticularly well. I was able to write about the ways “The Collaborator of Bethlehem,”
in which Arafat’s regime of patronage the first in a series of novels about
I’ve always viewed language as a tool undermined and divided Palestinian Palestinian sleuth Omar Yussef. Rees
that carries with it no sense of commit- society at a time when the stories of was Jerusalem bureau chief for Time
ment to the cause of the people who most foreign correspondents could from 2000 to 2006 and previously
speak that language (I speak French, have been summarized as “today good/ was based in the Middle East for
but that doesn’t mean I think Britain bad (delete one) for peace process.” Newsweek and The Scotsman. He is
should swap sterling for the Euro). I Looking askance at Arafat was seen as a contributor to Time, blogs at www.
considered it important to learn Arabic implying a pro-Israeli position back mattbeynonrees.com, and lives in
and Hebrew, because I wanted access then. Most reporters continued to write Jerusalem.
to places I’d never have imagined go- their peace-process stories—and my
editors persisted in asking for them,

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 17

Islam

Photo Essay

Emotions Speak Through Images

By Anja Niedringhaus

Iraqis seek cover as British tanks open fire on Iraqi Army positions in the outskirts of Basra.
March 30, 2003.

During this 2003 battle for Basra, the around Basra. Once in Iraq, I covered the four tires were flat. One of my colleagues,
second largest city in Iraq, the outskirts fall of the city with my Associated Press a Lebanese cameraman, had shrapnel close
of the city saw heavy fighting. (Coalition colleagues. I remember watching a fierce to his heart and was immediately operated
troops eventually took the city on April battle around the city’s university. Shells on by a British Army doctor in a make-
6th.) Even the International Red Cross started to land nearby, and most journal- shift tent. We were flown out to Kuwait
wasn’t allowed into the city’s center. In a ists left the scene. I had just put on my for further treatment. Three days later I
lull in the fighting, civilians sought refuge bulletproof vest when another shell landed returned to Iraq in a rented Jeep from Ku-
by leaving Basra. I had crossed from Ku- so close to me that it injured three of my wait. I called it “Toyota Sheraton,” and it
wait earlier that month, hidden in a Ku- colleagues. I escaped with bruises and was became my home until I reached Baghdad
waiti fire brigade truck that had been sent able to drive them to safety in our Jeep, six days later.
to help extinguish the burning oil fields even though it was also hit, and two of its

18 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Marines from the 1st Division raid a house in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad, Iraq. Context and Complexity
November 2, 2004.
For the first time I was embedded
when I joined a unit of Marines—Lima
Company—weeks ahead of their major
assault on Fallujah. The occupation
of Iraq from a soldier’s point of view
was very different. I had only worked
with Iraqis before, getting to know
their families, and tried to understand
the situation through their eyes. What
struck me most was how young the
Marines were—just out of school,
young boys. One day I joined them on
a house raid in the Abu Ghraib district
of Baghdad. It was the house of a local
city council chairman. The Marines
started to search for weapons while
the women and children took refuge
in the kitchen. I sensed that my pres-
ence during the raid—since I wasn’t
wearing a military uniform and being a
woman—helped the women and chil-
dren feel safer. Perhaps they felt that a
nonmilitary person, a journalist, would
help keep them safe. I felt only sadness
and embarrassment when the Marines
found an old, rusty, small gun in the
garden and arrested the city council
chairman.

Two months after a major assault on
Fallujah, civilians returned to the city.
They faced several checkpoints set up
by U.S. Marines and the Iraqi Army.
After covering the initial attack, I em-
bedded again with Lima Company to
see what had happened to the city. Very
few civilians had returned. Troops sur-
rounded the area, and heavy weaponry
was still in place. Lima Company’s
base was a hospital on the outskirts of
the city. I was glad to see the Marines
I’d come to know again. The assault
had been difficult and dangerous,
and a bond had grown between us. I
wouldn’t say they were friends, but I
cared about them.

A head of a child’s doll is mounted on a stick at a checkpoint leading into the heavily
guarded city of Fallujah, Iraq. February 6, 2005.

Photos and words by Anja Niedringhaus.
Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 19

Islam Bosnian Muslim men attend a funeral ceremony at sunset to be more protected
from sniper fire. Sarajevo. July 20, 1993.
Sarajevo was besieged for more
than four years with sectarian
violence dividing the city into
Muslim and Serb-orthodox parts.
Shelling and sniper fire from
surrounding buildings became a
kind of normality. Many times
funeral ceremonies came under
sniper fire with people taking
cover in ditches next to coffins.
At this funeral, three Muslim
family members—two broth-
ers and their mother—were to
be buried. The men arrived at
sunset and placed the coffins on
the street next to Sarajevo’s Lion
Cemetery since the surrounding
buildings gave more cover against
sniper fire. After the funeral
ceremony, the coffins were buried
in darkness.

Gaza is a narrow strip of land A Palestinian man reads the Qur’an during the last day of Ramadan at the beach
that hugs the coast. It’s one of outside Gaza City. December 4, 2002.
the most densely populated areas
of the world. The refugee camps
are so depressing and sad, but
this beach always held something
special for me. It’s like a refuge
from surrounding chaos: quiet,
with the bluest of blue water,
and soft sand. Often I would go
there in the morning to watch
the young men fish as they bal-
anced on boats not much bigger
than surfboards, casting their
nets deftly into the sea. This
seemed one of the few signs of
normal life in Gaza. It was on
the last day of Ramadan that I
saw this man saying his midday
prayers; he sat a little further up
the beach where no one else was
near.

Photos and words by Anja Niedringhaus.
20 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

I’d had a fruitless and boring
morning at the Rafah border-
crossing waiting for a fifth day
to see whether it would open. It
did not. On my way back to Gaza
City, I saw a group of schoolgirls
enjoying a ride at an amusement
park. The machinery looked old
and rusty, but they didn’t care.
And when this ride was over, they
ran from ride to ride, laughing
and giggling with one another.

Palestinian girls enjoy a ride in an amusement park I was traveling down the newly
outside Gaza City. March 26, 2006. opened coast road near Rafah when I
saw women and girls playing joyfully
Palestinian women kick a ball at the beach in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. March on the sand, something I’d never seen
22, 2006. happen before. Palestinians had not
been able to use the beach because
it was beyond the Gush Katif settle-
ment. But in the summer of 2005 the
8,000 Israeli settlers had to leave as
part of the disengagement plan, and
Palestinians were able to visit this
beach again. After watching these
young women enjoying a peaceful
early evening, I jumped out of my car
and right away a soccer ball came in
my direction. I kicked it back, and
we played for a few moments before
I started to take some pictures. It
was such a beautiful evening, and I
stayed nearly an hour, chatting with
the girls. They were so thrilled to test
their English, which they had learned
in school, and when I told them that
I was from Germany they were eager
to learn some German words.

Photos and words by Anja Niedringhaus.

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 21

Islam

I only learned her name, Emina,
and age, six, after she died. I
first spotted her while I was
walking up a hill to get into an
area in Sarajevo that had come
under heavy attack the night
before. She and some of her
friends were riding small wood-
en sleds down the hill, enjoying
a quiet, sunny but cold winter
morning. I passed the girls and
was touched by how children
can cope with war, how they
can forget it for a few moments
and pretend life is normal as
they run and sled and play.
When I was on top of the hill, a
shell landed where the children
were playing in the snow, and I
ran down to see what happened.
There was Emina lying next to
her sled; shrapnel had hit her
on the neck and cut the main
artery. At this moment, she still
looked alive.

Family members arrive to attend to Emina, a six-year-old Muslim
girl, who died after a shell landed near her in Sarajevo. January 11,
1993.

Photos and words by Anja Niedringhaus. Anja Niedringhaus, a 2007 Nieman Fellow, is an Associated
22 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 Press traveling photographer. In 2005 she received the Interna-

tional Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage Award. She has
worked as a photojournalist in many areas of conflict and was

part of the team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking
News Photography for their coverage of the war in Iraq.

Context and Complexity

Islam Today: The Need to Explore Its Complexities

A scholar finds in most coverage of Muslims ‘a striking lack of clarity and an
atmosphere of incomprehension that can only generate suspicion and fear.’

By Tariq Ramadan

Never before have Islam Islamic enemy (a far more
and the Muslims been serious matter), it is in fact a
held up to such re- projection.
lentless scrutiny. Never before
The time has come to call
have journalists devoted so upon intellectuals and jour-
nalists to broaden their frame
many articles, interviews and of reference. The time has
come to learn to apprehend
analyses to the “Muslim world” the Islamic dynamic in its own
terms, through its own termi-
or to “Muslims in the West.” nology, internal categories,
and intellectual structures.
And yet never has knowledge The time has come, as they
enter into another referential
of Islam, of Muslims, and of universe, to make every effort
to distinguish between that
their geographical, political which gives that universe its
unity and that which eluci-
and geostrategic circumstances dates and makes possible its
diversity.
been so superficial, partial and
Islam’s Levels of
frequently confused—not only Diversity

among the general public, but In the broadest sense, there is
only “one” Islam, as defined
also among journalists and even by the unity of its Credo (al-
‘aqîda, the six pillars of faith),
in academic circles. and by the unity of its practice
(al-‘ibadât, the five pillars of
When confusion is wide- Islam). This unity, in both
Sunnite and Shi’ite traditions,
spread, the dominant note is draws on shared recognition
of two bodies of founding texts (the
suspicion. Terms of reference Qur’an and the Sunnah). There may be
disagreement over the authenticity of
are rarely defined, nuances certain texts, but common recognition
of scripture-based sources and of the
barely acknowledged, areas of unity of faith and practice point to rec-
ognition of a single Islamic reference.
research sketched out in the At this level, the supreme level of unity
with which all the world’s Muslims can
most desultory fashion. Far too identify, Islam is one.
There exists, however, a first level
often journalists or public intel- of diversity as old as Islam itself. From
the very beginnings, and particularly
lectuals present their findings among two of the Companions, Abd

in research projects, articles,

television or radio broadcasts

with the assertion that they

have taken pains to distinguish

between radicals and conserva- Ornaments. Morocco. Photo by Katharina Eglau.
tives or average Muslims. But

when we examine their offer-

ings more closely, we note a striking “fundamentalists.” Not surprisingly, the

lack of clarity and an atmosphere of former invariably seem to be those who

incomprehension that can only gener- share “our” values, leaving all others

ate suspicion and fear. to be classified as dangerous, either

Let us begin with a simple proposi- outright or “potentially.”

tion: The world of Islam is as complex Large numbers of politicians, intel-

as those of Buddhism, Judaism or lectuals and journalists have adopted

Christianity, in terms of its intellec- such a system, with a fine dusting of

tual, spiritual and religious currents. sophistication. It is a system as scien-

Conversely, we must not begin by tifically untenable and intellectually

classifying Muslims according to the superficial as it is politically dangerous.

schemas inherited from the colonial Drawn either from ignorance (a seri-

era, dividing them into “good” and ous matter in and of itself) or derived

“bad” Muslims, into “moderates” and from the ideological construct of a new

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 23

Islam

Allah ibn Umar and Abd Allah ibn long quite specifically to one particular propagating the image of “moderate

Mas’ûd, there were notable differences culture or another. Arab, African, Asian, Islamism” to lull the West.

in reading and interpretation of the North American, or European Muslims Analyses of this kind are legion in

texts. Literalist, traditionalist, reform- all share the same religion but belong Europe, where “experts” and journal-

ist, rationalist, mystical and strictly to different cultures—a fact that wields ists have generated a stream of reports

political readings and interpretations a determining influence on their identi- and studies of the apparently mono-

appeared early on—a reality that has ties, their sense of belonging, and their lithic universe of “political Islam.”

continued down to the present day. vision of contemporary issues. Any scholar daring to apply such an

Not only was the history of Islam to approach to Christianity, Judaism or
witness the rise of more than 18 legal Islamism and the Perils of
schools (nearly 30 when counting the Reductionism Buddhism would be immediately dis-

missed on grounds of superficiality

Shi’ite tradition), diverse ways of read- and for the unscientific nature of his

ing the texts also developed. Over the Many observers will easily recognize, in or her conclusions. Indeed, would it

centuries, schools of thought emerged a broad sense, this elemental diversity be possible to reduce political activity

that reflected interpretations ranging in Islam. But they too hastily fall into by Christians (political Christianity) to

from the literalist and traditionalist, to another kind of reductionism, which fundamentalism?

the mystical or reformist. Intellectual can be equally nonfunctional and ulti- We know there are liberation theo-

and often political confrontations ac- mately fraught with peril: the tempta- logians who reject a dogmatic reading

companied and shaped the coexistence tion to set Islam—with all the diversity of biblical scriptural sources who are

of these trends. deeply involved in politics

All of this understanding Religious outlook has, in fact, very little on the left of the political

takes us far from the binary spectrum. More toward

classification systems of correlation with political posture: A the center, and sometimes
“good” and “bad” Muslims. quite to the right as well as
rationalist or a liberal viewpoint in religious
Religious outlook has, in to the left, we find Christian

fact, very little correlation terms does not necessarily correspond with Democrats who are active
with political posture: A in politics in the name of
a democratic outlook in the political sense,
rationalist or a liberal view- their Christian religious

point in religious terms does just as all conservatives are by no means convictions. But who could
not necessarily correspond possibly justify—in the
supporters of dictatorship.
with a democratic outlook analytical terms of the

in the political sense, just social and political sci-

as all conservatives are by ences—relegating all these

no means supporters of Christians to one single

dictatorship. Western journalists have we have outlined—against “Islamism” category, that of “fundamentalist—or

often been misled—and have misled seen as an object of rejection or even even radical—political Christian-

their public—by reductionism of this opprobrium. Even though it is little ism?” Who could claim that the most

kind (which would not be tolerated more sophisticated than the first vari- “moderate” of them are nothing but

in reference to Judaism or Christian- ant, this reductionism shifts perspec- the objective, concealed allies of the

ity, where the fine points of political tives. But it is ultimately founded on the “fundamentalists:” that the liberation

orientation are better known and same simplistic binary mode: “good” theologian Leonardo Boff is nothing

understood). Muslims vs. “bad” Islamists. but the prettified face of Mgr. Marcel

Moving beyond this first level of The definition of “Islamism” is often Lefebvre? One could only smile at

diversity, we must take into account vague, depending on the journalists, such a fantasy-like approach to the

the multiplicity of cultures that today intellectuals and scholarly studies Christian referential universe, but it

influence the way Muslims express involved. We frequently hear of “po- seems that it can be quite easily accom-

their belonging to Islam. Though litical Islam” in the broad sense, of modated—either through ignorance or

grounded in a sole Credo and in the “Salafists” or “Wahhabis,” of “radical ideological bias—when the subject is

same practices, the world’s Muslims Islam” or even of al-Qaeda. The lines “political Islam.”

naturally partake of a multitude of of demarcation between the different
cultural environments. From West to trends are rarely elucidated. All avail- Political Islam’s
North Africa, from Asia to Europe and able evidence points to the conclusion Complexities

North America, stretches a rich variety that there is such a thing as a single

of cultures that make it possible for “political Islam,” that it constitutes a Yet the study of Islamism—of “political

individuals to respect the principles of threat, that whatever distinctions exist Islam”—reveals complexities equally as

Islam while adopting lifestyles, tastes, are at best insignificant and, at worst, significant as the study of Islam itself.

artistic expression, and feelings that be- the result of manipulation by Islamists Between the positions of the promoters

24 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

of political liberation through Islam,

such as al-Afghani and Abduh in the

20th century and the extremist posi-

tions of the leaders of al-Qaeda today,

lies an ocean of difference, both in

terms of the understanding of Islam

and of political action.

What holds true for the study of the

historical timeline applies as well to the

comparative study of the words and

actions of the modern-day movements

that are active in politics in the name

of Islam. It is impossible to reduce the

Turkish experience under Recep Tayyip

Erdogan, or the 25 years of Islamic

political power in Iran, or the 80 years

of activity by the Muslim Brotherhood

in Egypt to the same reading of the

sources, to the same position on the

political spectrum as that of al-Qaeda

ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is Tiles. Tunisia. Photo by Katharina Eglau.
quick to condemn both his predeces-

sors and his contemporaries as traitors

to the cause, even within the confines or that political-religious thesis, but of must become aware of the existence of

of political Islam. dealing scientifically with the matter a multiplicity of views and of the mil-

Whether one agrees or not with under study. lions upon millions of Muslims who,

the theses of these movements, in their extraordinary political

systematic study and a serious and religious diversity, daily turn

effort to understand the forces Our political simplifications may their backs on violence, strive
at work within political Islam for democracy and freedom, and
well reassure us, but they lead
require a triple approach: reject extremism. It is time for

1. A study of the theological and us only toward fear of the world. all of us to demonstrate humil-
ity, to appreciate the complexity
Reconciliation with the complexity of
legal underpinnings of the that demands greater study, and

movements (literalist, reform- the Muslim world will, paradoxically, the suspension of hasty and thus
ist, mystical or other). risky judgments. The hallmark of
have the reverse effect.
2. Knowledge of the historical respect for others is to recognize

depth of these manifestations; in them the complexity we find

numerous movements and/or in ourselves, to acknowledge

leaders, such as Erdogan in their thirst for human dignity,

Turkey and Ghanoushi in Tunisia, Intellectuals, the general public, and to realize that it, like ours, asks

have changed their positions in the and journalists often find themselves only to be respected. n

course of their political involve- pressed for time. Yet time, further study,

ment. greater effort, and intellectual humility Tariq Ramadan is a professor of

3. A detailed study of the national are what are needed to understand the Islamic Studies (www.tariqramadan.

realities that have impinged on the reality of Islam and of Muslims today, com). He is Senior Research Fellow at

growth and evolution of Islamist as well as the broad diversity of belong- St Antony’s College (Oxford), Doshi-

movements. ings and the demands expressed by sha University (Kyoto), and Lokahi

political Islam. Our political simplifi- Foundation (London) and a Visit-

Only this kind of three-pronged cations may well reassure us, but they ing professor at Erasmus University

examination can provide us with a lead us only toward fear of the world. (Holland). He has written more than

proper framework for understanding Reconciliation with the complexity of 23 books, including “In the Footsteps

the phenomenon of political Islam, the Muslim world will, paradoxically, of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life

far from ignorant reductionism or have the reverse effect. of Muhammad,” (Oxford University

ideological manipulation of “the Is- Instead of seeing the “Other” as an Press, 2007) and “Western Muslims

lamist threat.” This inquiry is not about emanation of “evil,” a goal that extrem- and the Future of Islam,” (Oxford

agreement or disagreement with this ists pursue each day in the media, we University Press, 2004).

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 25

Islam

Deconstructing ‘the Other’—And Ourselves

‘In American eyes, moderates are the ones most like us. Those who are not
are the enemy.’

“… they came to a certain point and
the mufti said, ‘Well, now I’m going
to pray.’ And he was silent. And the
pope clasped his hands sort of at his
waist, and bowed his head, and even
seemed to be moving his lips.
“… And later, I watched it on Turkish
television, and the announcer said
they prayed to the same God. Now,
that may not be true; that is probably
not true, except in a very cosmic sense.
But it shows what impact the pope’s
gestures have had here apparently on
Turkish public opinion.”—Margaret
Warner, PBS

By Robert Azzi Young woman. Iran. Photo by Katharina Eglau.

W hen the Lehrer NewsHour’s immediately marginalized, and battle Virginia Tech spread, I prayed, “Please
correspondent Margaret lines were drawn. God, don’t let the shooter be a Muslim
Warner reported from Is- or Arab.” Surrounded by hate speech,
tanbul in November 2006 during the The Fourth Estate followed. Suc- xenophobic politicians, prejudice, bias
pope’s visit, she casually dismissed cumbing to its own fears, intimidated and an incurious press, many American
centuries of understanding about by prewar rhetoric and patriotic spirit, Muslims and Arabs feel isolated and
Abrahamic monotheism by suggesting and handicapped by its ignorance, the vulnerable.
that the pope was praying to a different American press became nearly impo-
God than was the grand mufti. tent. It took years to summon courage This isolation was recently spot-
enough to challenge the reasons why lighted in the $20 million PBS series
Such insensitivity to matters Islamic the United States invaded Iraq, and mo- “America at a Crossroads.” A magnifi-
or Arab is not uncommon, whether at mentum grew as deceit was exposed. cent Orientalist production conceived
PBS or in a wider American press. In Whether their watchdog reporting was by Michael Pack, who had come to the
the wake of 9/11, America had a choice: motivated by “gotcha” journalism, or Corporation for Public Broadcasting to
either demonize and attempt to disen- outrage over the deceptions, or by a bring conservative voices to PBS, this
franchise from the global community combination of the two, is unknown, 11-part series of documentaries pur-
one-sixth of humanity known as Mus- but the ignorance persists. ported to be a balanced examination of
lims, or respond, engage, educate and America in the years after 9/11.1Hosted
forge partnerships with peace-loving What the press has yet to challenge, by éminence grise Robert MacNeil, seen
peoples in order to isolate, delegitimize however, is the intellectual and aca- strolling through a mosque, its vision
and destroy the criminals that executed demic basis for the declared “war on of post-trauma America highlighted
such violent acts. terror” and the concomitant prejudiced Western truths, Bush’s truths, neocon
attacks on Islam, Muslims and Arabs. In truths, but few insights. Its set-up had
The Bush administration chose the April 2007, as news of the shooting at
first path, and most Arabs and Muslims,
like those Iranians who spontaneously
held candlelit vigils in Tehran on 9/11
in sympathy with America’s pain, were

1 www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/
26 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

perfect bookends—to start, there was among “enlightened”
“Jihad: The Men and Ideas Behind
al-Qaeda,” and to end, “The Brother- Muslims). Yet she has
hood,” with a headline on its Web page
posing the question: “Spreading funda- parlayed her book—and
mentalist Islam—but does the Muslim
Brotherhood also support terrorism?” its backlash—into a plat-
Implied, yes, but like much of the rest
of the series it was an exploration short form of visibility that led
of facts and long on speculation.
to her having a featured
From Fear to Terror
role in this documentary.
Tucked between these two programs
were tales of valiant warriors, unre- She was likely chosen
pentant neocons, and a schizophrenic
episode on Indonesia. Its message: see, because she fits the
they have transvestites, so there must
be some enlightened Muslims on this Western notion of an
globe. By the end of this series, it is
likely that most viewers found them- unconventional, enlight-
selves entertained but still singularly
uninformed, with prejudices intact. ened, liberated Muslim
After all, who could have imagined a
scenario in which one of the architects whom they would like to
of war, Richard Perle, gets to star in a
self-serving piece justifying the war? have as a neighbor. Her
Or another in which Irshad Manji, the
author of “The Trouble with Islam To- supporters are those Ori-
day: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her
Faith,” becomes the voice of Islam? entalists who would like

In American eyes, moderates are the her to be a poster child Father with baby. Iran. Photo by Katharina Eglau.
ones most like us. Those who are not for Muslims, much like
are the enemy.
Ahmad Chalabi was an
Paul Wolfowitz, in an interview with
Vanity Fair, perhaps inadvertently came Iraqi poster boy for the neocons. now of Fouad Ajami, Frank Gaffney,
closest to identifying the myopia that
afflicts both the government and the Absent from this discussion—or Jr., and Richard Perle telling us what is
press in its approach to the Middle
East when he said, “I think the greatest any other in this series—was the vig- wrong about the Middle East.) If this is
mistake is assuming that people will
behave, well it’s a version of mirror orous debate taking place within the the kind of reporting public television
imaging, I guess. People will be rational
according to our definition of what is ummah, the worldwide community of offers us, is there little wonder that
rational.”
Islam, led by voices of women such as cable outlets like Fox News and talk
Manji’s program about Islam, “Faith
Without Fear,” was particularly trou- Ingrid Mattson, the first woman ever to show hosts like Glenn Beck (among
bling. She is a Muslim, raised in the
West and with few academic or intel- lead a national Muslim organization, his favorite guests: Irshad Manji) feel
lectual credentials and no constituency
within the Muslim community (even and Ithaca University professor Asma free to attack using language that would

Barlas, author of “‘Believing Women’ not be tolerated if said about any other

in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Inter- ethnic, racial or religious group? A

pretations of the Qur’an.” Where was press that rightly took Don Imus to

long-time journalist Geneive Abdo, au- task for his racism and sexism gives a

thor of “Mecca and Main Street: Muslim pass to hate speech when applied to

Life in America after 9/11”? And where the Middle East.

were voices of influential Muslim men And it was an act of journalistic

such as University of California at Los negligence to avoid facing the Palestin-

Angeles professor Khaled Abou El Fadl, ians, since the Palestine-Israel conflict

author of “The Great Theft: Wrestling is central to peace in the Middle East.

Islam from the Extremists” and “Islam Since 2000, thousands of Palestinians

and the Challenge of Democracy,” and and hundreds of Israelis have died,

Tariq Ramadan, turned away from his the victims of terrorist attacks, intifada

teaching position at the University of uprising, Israeli reprisals, and the

Notre Dame by U.S. Homeland Security, Israel-Hizbullah war that destroyed

whose grandfather founded the Mus- Lebanon’s infrastructure.

lim Brotherhood? [See Abdo’s article
on page 12 and Ramadan’s article on Words Rise and Fall

page 23.]

By limiting the range of experiences Conflate all of this with the frenzy that

and scholarship, PBS limited the op- greeted the John Mearsheimer and

portunity for a growth in insight and Stephen Walt essay, “The Israel Lobby,”2

understanding. (I’ve heard enough by when the London Review of Books

2 The extraordinary volume and content of the response to their article led the
London Review of Books to hold a debate called “The Israel Lobby: Does it have
too much influence on American foreign policy?” at Cooper Union in New York City
in September 2006. A video of this debate can be seen online at www.scribemedia.
org/2006/10/11/israel-lobby/

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 27

Islam

published it in March. Similar in their Bush administration, a full examina- in any way but might serve to make
attempt to discredit the author were tion by the press of their geostrategic rapprochement between the parties
responses—often vicious, with anti- value vanished, as well. possible.
Semitic charges—to former President
Jimmy Carter’s book, “Palestine: Peace With regard to Palestine, journalists These evident patterns in cover-
Not Apartheid.” Dissent on some issues need to learn to parse history. For ex- age—of this region, its people, and
seems not to be tolerated. ample, for more than 40 years the West its conveyors of the narrative—dem-
dismissed Arab narratives surrounding onstrate the limits of commitment by
More recently, when three disparate the formation of the State of Israel in much of the Western press to seeking
voices wrote about Middle East poli- 1948 as propaganda. It was not until the necessary knowledge. This leads
cy—Robert Novak in The Washington Israeli historians like Tom Segev, Benny to a constraint of what gets discussed
Post, Nicholas Kristof in The New York Morris, and Avi Shlaim challenged the in public arenas and jeopardizes the
Times, and George Soros in The New Israeli narrative that Arab claims car- American public’s ability to make well-
York Review of Books—their words ried credence. Thus, while it was in- informed decisions about issues of
were greeted with silence. Harder to dependence for Israel, it was al Nakba, national interest, policy and political
attack these authors as anti-Semitic, catastrophe, for Palestinians. leaders. In difficult times like ours, such
their words sank to the bottom of constraint can be dangerous. n
the pond with barely a ripple. What Arab identities, positions and chal-
could have engendered debate on lenges need to be seen within their Robert Azzi, a 1977 Nieman Fellow,
issues critical to America’s role in the cultural context, not simply in rela- is a photojournalist who has covered
Middle East died a quick death. So, tion to Israelis’ interests and narra- the Middle East since 1968. He is
too, once the conclusions of the Iraq tives. To acknowledge the humanity working on a book of photographs of
Study Group were dismissed by the of Palestinian people—their struggles the Middle East.
and pain—would not diminish Israel

Exposing Extremism—No Matter Where It Is Found

What happens when journalists fail to separate what is evil in people from what is
good in those who share their religious tradition?

By Bruce B. Lawrence of Western civilization. a Sceptical Muslim,” the 2004 book
What both approaches ignore are chronicles Sardar’s efforts to find true
Robert Benchley, the American Islam (a) by looking at how young Mus-
humorist, once quipped that Muslims—as individuals, families, lims face real world challenges and (b)
“there are two categories of groups and networks spanning the by exposing the mirage of a top-down
people in the world, those who con- spectrum of possible identities. Those Islamic theocracy where the shari’ah,
stantly divide the people of the world who self-identify as Muslims may be or Islamic law, becomes, in the words
into two classes, and those who do not.” pious or mystical, high-minded or of one of Sardar’s fellow Muslims, “a
Less funny, but persistent is the reflex ritual bound, educated or illiterate, bar of soap and the only way to apply it
to divide all approaches to Islam into cosmopolitan or parochial. There is no is to force people to scrub themselves
two categories. The first are those who single Islam and no essential, unchang- silly with it!”
seek the truth in Islam. They ask: What ing Muslim reflex. There can be, and
are the various forms of Islam? How can probably are, more Muslim secularists Why then do so many non-Muslims
we determine which is the true form than fundamentalists. ignore the zestful sincerity of “secular”
of Islamic belief, and how do we know Muslims such as Sardar or not hear the
what are authentic norms for Islamic Muslim secularists may seem like a voices of the many observant Muslims
conduct? In opposition, there are those surprising concept, but suspend judg- who condemned not just 9/11 but all
who have already decided there is no ment and pick up the self-mocking violence committed in the name of Is-
truth in Islam. Instead, they regard autobiography of the British public lam? Why does a diverse and permeable
Islam itself as the true enemy—the intellectual, Ziauddin Sardar. Titled community of more than 1.2 billion
enemy of global peace, the enemy of “Desperately Seeking Paradise,” and adherents continue to be viewed by
civil society and, above all, the enemy carrying the subtitle, “Journeys of

28 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

many Americans as alien at
best and violent at worst?

Questions Journalists
Should Ask

While there are several an-

swers as to why the view of

Muslims and Islam appears

to veer in a negative direc-

tion, a major one must be the

reductive tendency of journal-

ism. Not just reductive, but

sensationalist (“If it bleeds, it

leads.”), many stories about

Muslims and/or Islam are

prone to a striking absence of

context or nuance, often lack-

ing a connection to the reality

of the daily lives and apolitical

beliefs of most Muslims.

Too often, these scream-

ing headlines are mirrored in Destruction in the wake of war. Lebanon. Photo by Katharina Eglau.

scholarly writing about Islam.

The Crusades ended in the

12th century, yet the Crusader mental- the world.” Time stated that “Sultan’s ought to try to follow the path of Islamo-

ity still thrives in the 21st. Consider influence flows from her willingness to phobic ideas—and how they travel. The

Bernard Lewis, a Princeton historian, express openly critical views on Islamic Institute on Religion and Democracy,

pundit and advisor to President Bush extremism that are widely shared but a neoconservative, Washington, D.C.

who became a best-selling author after rarely aired by other Muslims.” That think tank, has mailed out thousands

9/11. The octogenarian Lewis supports statement is untrue since Sultan, hav- of copies of “Islamic Imperialism” to

the Crusader mentality, arguing that ing renounced Islam, is not like “other mainstream Christian clergy, not just

the main problem with the Crusades Muslims;” she is an outsider to both endorsing but also spreading its hate-

was that their duration—too short to the religion and its members in the ful message.

be effective—did not achieve a “per- current debate. The message is more than hate-

manent” solution. Lewis is also in the company of other ful, it is also inaccurate. Religions,

With writing such as his affecting like-minded scholars, such as Martin onto themselves, are not and cannot

policy decisions, one would expect to Kramer and Efraim Karsh. Both Kramer be imperialist, since they possess

have some in the press scanning the and Karsh write about Islam as though neither a disposition nor attitude. It

scholarship and motives of advisors it were a political scourge. In “Islamic is the people—members of specific

who advocate for war and occupation. Imperialism—a History,” published by groups in actual places in recorded

It would be regrettable, but inconse- Yale University Press in 2006, Karsh of- history—who nurture ambitions, some

quential, if Lewis acted or thought or fers a thesis at once stark and simplistic: being imperialist, others democratic,

wrote alone; yet a host of Islamophobes Islam is nothing but empire, or rather but most apolitical. Ascribing motives

supports his tendentious, binary and persistent yet failed imperial ambition. or reflexes to abstract entities, such as

hostile approach to Islam. He is joined He excuses Christian empire building religion, should not be done, yet under

by ex-Muslims who have produced in a sentence: “Apart from the Third the guise of scholarship, authors, such

best-selling books of their own that Reich, Christendom had lost its impe- as those mentioned above, present

lampoon their former faith; among rial ambitions by the mid-twentieth themselves as “detached” from their

such authors are Ibn Warraq, Ayaan century.” Not so Islam. On the contrary, subject, at the same time that they are

Hirsi Ali, and Irshad Manji. intones Karsh, “Islam has retained its being supported by institutions headed

In 2006 Wafa Sultan, an Arab-Ameri- imperialist ambition to this day.” by those with political agendas. In turn,

can psychologist from Los Angeles, Just as journalists do stories in which these institutions nurture relationships

was named by Time in a list of 100 they “follow the money” to analyze the with journalists, often generalists them-

influential people “whose power, tal- influence of financial contributions selves, who too rarely question the

ent or moral example is transforming to policy decisions, so investigations motives of their sources or the factual

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 29

Islam

basis in the argument put forward by most mainstream Christians, one might and an ignoring of differences among
the “scholar.” wonder what their views have to do Muslims. Islam and Muslims are more
with journalism and Islam. Ostensi- and more presented in monolithic
Questioning such claims and mo- bly nothing. Arguably the Christian ways—as timeless opponents at once
tives of conflicting narratives is the right are just Protestant sectarians intrinsically opposite and irreducibly
journalist’s job. For example, among who protest too loudly, but when oppositional, with a goal of justifying
Muslims, the most extreme funda- a religiously based political agenda limitless warfare as divine mandate and
mentalists are the Wahhabis/Salafis. commits to establishing a Christian political necessity.
Relative upstarts in the long view of nation in America and supports Israel
Islamic history, each of these groups against “the Antichrist” by encouraging There is a way beyond the deadly
grabbed headlines post-9/11 as repre- suspicion, intolerance and bigotry of theater of righteous warfare. While
senting the most combative version “the Other,” questions must be asked. competition and conflict might be
of Islam. Though the 9/11 hijackers So far, journalists have failed to do an necessary, warfare is not the sole or
primarily came from Saudi Arabia, adequate job in tracking this story and most desirable outcome of religious
even their presence there is recent, learning more about how these views differences. Christianity differs from
being less than a century old. Equally affect the debate about and the security Judaism, just as each differs from Islam,
open to question is their place in the of America in a post 9/11 world. It is and Islam, in turn, is neither reducible
hierarchy of Islamic norms and values. a story that deserves telling—when to a Hindu inclusiveness nor a Buddhist
Wahhabis/Salafis not only hate Jews and scholars such as Lewis, politicians denial of being. Religious differences
Christians, they are also takfiris, that is, such as Delay, and some neocon think will endure, with competition between
they denounce other Muslims as apos- tanks assert that the Crusades need to believers divinely sanctioned. As the
tates. If the takfiris are the true—and be revived, perhaps with a new name Great One said to Abraham (Gen. 12:3),
I would argue that they are the only and ideology but with the same intent “in you all the families of the earth shall
true—Muslim terrorists of our time, of displacing Muslims not just from be blessed”—not unified or eliminated
they oppose not just Jews, Christians, Jerusalem but from the entire Land of but “blessed” in their distinctive and
and Shi’i Muslims but also other Sunni Israel (problematically also claimed differing states.
Muslims. They hate and want to kill by Palestinians, both Christian and
those most like them in creedal/ritual Muslim). Their further goal is to force As much as journalists might resist
allegiance. Indeed, they advocate the the Muslim world to submit to the engagement in this complex arena
overthrow of all current political rulers will of Christian America; they want of difference and distinction, their
in majority Muslim countries. Their to vanquish the barbarians and keep voices—probing and striving for ac-
only political “heroes” are the deposed them from Western portals. curacy—are essential in representing
but increasingly active Taliban. Muslims and furthering a collective way
Transforming Muslims Into forward beyond religious warfare. n
Opposing the Taliban, yet ironically ‘the Other’
mirroring them in their enemy-an- Bruce B. Lawrence, an Islamicist, is
nihilating mindset, is what I now call With each of these visions of extremists, the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Hu-
“Christian Crusaders.” Their “crusade” dichotomy is intolerable; one group manities Professor of Religion and
is wide-ranging. “Left Behind,” coau- must win, the other must be elimi- Director of the Islamic Studies Cen-
thored by Tim LaHaye, asserts not as nated. In a world in which religious ter at Duke University (www.duke.
apocalyptic fiction but as fact that the freedom is cherished, dichotomous edu/web/muslimnets/mcw_bio/bruce/
end will come in the near future and be thinking stubbornly persists—within, index.htm). His most recent book,
marked by a soul harvest. The few who as well as beyond, religious bodies. “The Qur’an—A Biography,” was
survive the Tribulation, the Antichrist To counter impulses such as these, published by Grove/Atlantic in 2007.
and Armageddon will be saved.1 This up-front in our dialogue it must be With his Duke colleague and spouse,
crusade is abetted by a ministry, neocon said that Islam is not evil, nor is there miriam cooke, Lawrence coedited
speakers’ bureaus, press releases, talk a single Muslim enemy. Instead, what “Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip
show hosts, video games, op-ed pieces, we encounter appears to be the steady Hop,” published by the University of
and appearances by politicians, such transformation of Muslims into “the North Carolina at Chapel Hill Press
as former congressional leader Tom Other,” a defining of Islam as evil, in 2005, as part of a series he also
Delay and others. coedits on Islamic Civilization and
Muslim Networks.
If Delay and his ilk do not resemble

1 The ostensible goal is merely scriptural: to reclaim Jerusalem for the Jewish people.
Yet, in this scenario, the Arabs who remain in Jerusalem and Palestine transform it
into the territory of the Antichrist. It is Arabs who have to be killed in the Battle of
Armageddon. Only with the removal of the Arab/Muslim beast can Jerusalem, together
with the entire Land of Israel, be reclaimed for the People of God. However, like the
Taliban, their goal is exclusivist and contrary to American interests.

30 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

Western Journalists Report on Egyptian Bloggers

An observer of press coverage of cases involving Arab bloggers and government
pressure notices some troubling trends in whether and how stories are told.

By George Weyman

A bdel Moneim had already following the Kareem verdict. Even
boarded the plane when the the Fox News Web site featured a
police came for him. He was story about Kareem.
probably looking forward to some
Clearly the Kareem case had
sleep ahead of his gruelling tour of touched a nerve. How could the
Egyptians be getting freer in the
seven Arab countries reporting on age of the Internet—as government
officials in the West would assert
human rights for the British satellite that they are—when citizens are
being thrown into jail on charges
channel, Al Hiwar. It was one o’clock so contrary to international human
rights norms?
in the morning, Sunday, April 15th.
Kareem’s predicament is, indeed,
He thought he would be spending shocking and totally unacceptable.
But few of the many commentators
the next few hours before daybreak and reporters covering his case
even mentioned that his blogging
in the skies; instead, he spent them “friends” and supporters were re-
viled by much of his commentary.
being interrogated in Cairo’s notori- For example Sandmonkey, who de-
plored Kareem’s sentence, described
ous Mahkoum prison. his writing as “pretty much hate speech”
in a debate he participated in with Arab
On hearing the news, fellow Egyp- Media & Society.3 Other Egyptian blog-
gers expressed distress that Kareem
tian bloggers rallied to his cause. was hijacking their cause.
It certainly is the case that bloggers of
“Bad news … blogojournalist and An Egyptian blogger’s Web page in support of all stripes are not the best team players
friend Abdel Moneim Mahmoud1 fellow blogger Abdel Moneim. around, and Egypt is no exception in
was detained by Mubarak’s Gestapo this. But they stand up for each other
in times of trouble because each de-
early Sunday 1 am,” reported leading pends on the oxygen that is freedom
of expression online. In the case of
Egyptian activist blogger Hossam el-Ha- pro-U.S., secular, libertarian”—who Kareem, I often heard it argued that
he cynically aimed to get himself into
malawy. Wary of the threats facing the described Kareem’s sentence as a “huge trouble, knowing full well where the
red lines were, as a justification for
country’s nascent blogosphere after blow” to freedom of expression in seeking asylum in the West. Others
close to him questioned his psycho-
the sentencing of Abdel Kareem Nabil Egypt in a Washington Post editorial. logical health; still others described

to four years in prison in February for That expression was typical of the press

extremely provocative posts deemed response in the United States, riling

“anti-Islam” and insulting to Egypt’s at Egypt’s “zero tolerance” for secular

President Hosni Mubarak, democracy democratic dissent.

activists were learning fast how to Elsewhere, the man who became

draw international attention to state famous when he blogged from prison,

infringements on free speech. Alaa Abd El Fattah,2 appeared on ABC

Kareem’s story was something of a News highlighting the threats faced by

test case for Egyptian bloggers. Never Egyptian bloggers in light of Kareem’s

before had they succeeded in bringing sentence. Correspondent Wilf Dinnick

a fellow blogger’s plight to so wide a concluded his story by describing Fat-

global audience. Articulate and well- tah as a “young Egyptian willing to risk

connected, prominent Egyptian blog- everything” to bring real democracy.

gers gave interviews and courted the The Financial Times published a feature

Western press. At the top of the pile was on another dissident blogger, Moham-

Sandmonkey—a self-styled “snarky, med al-Sharqawi, who feared the worst

1 http://ana-ikhwan.blogspot.com/
2 Fattah’s Web site can be found at www.manalaa.net/
3 Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey was part of a debate called “Blogging Impact in Egypt,”

and the audio can be heard at www.arabmediasociety.org/audio/?item=6

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 31

Islam

him as naive. But almost all bloggers on this case is crucial: It is another have followed the story, but few other
argued that by courting the regime’s example of a situation when what news outlets have taken it up.
wrath so wantonly, Kareem had given does not fit the prescribed narrative
the authorities a perfect excuse to set does not make the final cut. The Why did one blogger’s jailing receive
a dangerous precedent, one that could arc of the story seemed precon- so much attention in the Western press
see many of the savvier, more politi- ceived—a young freethinker turns while another’s has not?
cally engaged activist bloggers ending away from his traditional schooling
up in jail. at the Islamic Al Azhar University Abdel Moneim Mahmoud is at the
and becomes a democracy activist forefront of the new generation of
Of course, these arguments are only to be jailed for his views. Muslim Brothers activists. I have inter-
fraught with problematic questions, 2. This leads to the second element viewed him on several occasions, most
which refuse to go away. Why should behind reporting of Kareem’s case: recently with The Guardian’s Timothy
a blogger—with no history of violence, Kareem was speaking out against Garton Ash, and found him to be a
subversive political activity, or anything what many Western commentators committed reformer and supporter of
that would imply an imminent threat— see as the twin roadblocks to re- democratic elections—in fact just the
be put in jail under any circumstance? form in the Middle East—Islam and kind of person Western governments
Whether Kareem’s posts were driven authoritarian states. Therefore, he should be dealing with in the Middle
by cynical intentions or not, he surely could be neatly pigeonholed as yet East. That he supports Kareem’s right
did not deserve what he got. Liberal another independent liberal thinker to pursue his inflammatory “anti-Islam”
commentators from the West could who overstepped the line. blog shows that Abdel Moneim really
claim, perhaps justifiably, that Kareem’s does aspire to greater political open-
sentence was enough to prove the This brings us back to Abdel Mo- ness in Egypt, not just a greater role
failures of Western efforts to enhance neim. He is also a blogger, a democracy for Islam. But as a member of Egypt’s
democracy, pluralism and free speech activist, and a freethinker. He was also largest opposition group—the Muslim
in Arab countries. In fact, British politi- detained without charge solely, we as- Brothers—he faces a constant threat
cal commentator Nick Cohen, writing sume, for expressing himself. His story from Egypt’s authoritarian regime
in The Observer, argued that Kareem’s does not match the newsworthiness of with the quiet complicity of Western
case showed that Western liberals had Kareem’s four-year prison sentence—at states.
turned away from their “allies in the the time of this writing, Abdel Moneim
poor world.” has not been charged or sentenced— Despite this, Abdel Moneim’s dedi-
but it still relates very closely to the cation to the online debate of critical
Western Reporting on Arab same issues of authoritarianism and issues is hard to question. Writing in
Blogging freedom of speech. Yet reporting on Arab Media & Society, Marc Lynch,4
Abdel Moneim had been very slow off a Williams College political science
But despite all this, there is a subtext the blocks, if nonexistent. professor who blogs about Arab me-
to Western reporting of Kareem’s case dia, points to the incredible similarity
that needs to be acknowledged. It In late April, The Wall Street Jour- between the “Free Kareem” campaign,
comprises two elements: nal published an excellent report by which so caught the attention of the lib-
Mariam Fam about the emergence eral West and the press, and the online
1. In all of the reporting about Ka- of Muslim Brothers bloggers that in- efforts to free Brotherhood members,
reem’s case, there was virtually no cluded a reference to Moneim roughly led by Abdel Moneim.
rigorous analysis of the makeup of a week into his detention. But the issue
the Egyptian blogosphere. Why did of constraints on freedom of expres- Blogs in the Arab Middle East have
reporters fail to spot that Kareem sion was certainly not the lead to this empowered pro-American liberal
was a figure of distrust for his allies in story. Nor was this issue the central secular voices, and they have also em-
the blogosphere, as much as for state theme to James Traub’s extended New powered those whose primary political
security? While it is true that blog- York Times Magazine feature analyzing reference is Islam. Yet as these debates
gers supported his right to express the Muslim Brotherhood’s democratic have emerged online, Western report-
himself, few of them supported what credentials (Traub did not mention ers have tended to focus their reporting
he was saying. And if they did, they Moneim’s detention or even bloggers). attention only on specific aspects of
would not say it publicly. The omis- Elsewhere , Global Voices Online and this debate and discussion. In reading
sion of this insight from reporting the Committee to Protect Journalists their coverage, it is clear that many of
them mistakenly think that only those
sharing a Western vision of modern
society can freely exchange ideas and

4 Lynch’s book, “Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al Jazeera, and Middle East
Politics Today,” was published by Columbia University Press. He also blogs at http://
abuaardvark.typepad.com/. His article, “Blogging the new Arab public,” can be read at
www.arabmediasociety.org/index.php?article=10&p=0

32 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

take part in engaged debate online. the Middle East as has often dominated ciety.org. He received a graduate
Without reporting more broadly—and in the past—blogs or no blogs. n degree in Modern Middle Eastern
that means providing informed con- Studies from the University of Oxford
text for those who encounter their George Weyman is the managing edi- and has worked at the Panos Insti-
reporting—Western journalists will tor of Arab Media & Society, which tute and Sky News.
regurgitate the same skewed view of can be read at www.arabmediaso-

An Essay in Words and Photographs

A Photojournalist Immerses Himself in the
Story Being Told

By Iason Athanasiadis

My father introduced his seven- since then. I grew up, studied Arabic, derstood and misrepresented is not so
year-old son to international and began covering the Middle East. much a Western conspiracy, as public
politics in the cosy environs The immediate consequence of this opinion would have it in the Arab or

of a provincial Greek pizza joint. It was career choice was the loss of any ves- Persian street, but rather reflects its

the mid-1980’s, and the Iran-Iraq War tigial traces of innocence. Now, every seemingly infinite layers of complexity.

was in full swing. The mud-drenched time I return to Greece, I feel more In an area whose cultural norms often

battlefields of western Iran appeared disconnected to an ever wealthier, ever appear diametrically opposed to the

impossibly faraway to my childish more carefree society that looks only West and where the barriers of language

mind. They were Hobbesian land- Westwards as it drifts apart from the and culture are almost insurmount-

scapes, on which tens of thousands of realities of its neighborhood. able, I often found that simple images

people sacrificed themselves in told the story more effectively

epic offensives that seesawed a than sentences encumbered by

few meters back and forth over … simple images told the story more qualifications, complicated by
slowly decomposing bodies parentheses, and clogged by
effectively than sentences encumbered by background. My outsider’s eye
across a disputed border.

While the steaming slice of qualifications, complicated by parentheses, saw distinguishing details that
pizza on my plate appeared local familiarity overlooked,
and clogged by background.
decidedly more captivating while living in the region

than relentless slaughter in enabled me to recognize the

the name of Islam or Arab na- images that count and capture

tionalism, one of the things my them.

father told me that day stuck. In the Middle East, the work

An evening news report about the war “Don’t become a journalist,” one of Western journalists is further compli-

flickering in the background must have unmarried, 50-something British cor- cated by across-the-board official and

prompted him to introduce me to the respondent advised me on a Greek popular suspicion. Much of the blame

concept of hypocrisy. The example he summer afternoon as I was just start- must be shouldered by Middle Eastern

used was the just-erupted Iran-contra ing out on my career. “You’ll make no governments. An official in the press

affair, in which Washington and Tel Aviv money, have no stability, and a terrible ministry of one of the region’s most

had armed both sides with low-tech personal life.” difficult-to-access countries minced

weaponry designed to maximize the He was right on all counts. But there no words in telling me that visiting

slaughter and prolong the stalemate. are few more challenging or rewarding Western journalists without fluency

I remember that not even the taste of occupations than covering the Middle in Persian or a deep understanding of

the delicious pizza could obscure the East as a freelance journalist. That the culture are preferable to foreigners

shock I felt at this revelation. the world’s premier news-producing who have attained insider knowledge.

More than 20 years have passed region is also among the most misun- The revelation was offered after that

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 33

Islam

A girl who returned to her house in the village of Aita Shaab, Lebanon, surveys the and lives resolutely outside the Green
damage. Photo by Iason Athanasiadis. Zone. A 17th century tapestry depict-
ing Alexander the Great’s death in
country’s intelligence ministry vetoed The switch of allegiances to the Babylon dominates his living room
my sixth application for a press resi- West only came in the 19th century, in the kidnapping-scarred diplomatic
dency, and the official took pity at my after the Great Powers helped Greece district of Mansour. His professional
despair. At a dinner party, a local analyst win its War of Independence. There performance is likewise infused with
for a Western embassy explained that is still residual mistrust over the Cru- an historical perspective. As he points
the government feared the “cultural saders’ sacking of Constantinople on out to visitors, Alexander died just 10
intelligence” that journalists provide their way to Jerusalem and the lack kilometers from Baghdad; “We’re the
on the societies they write for—exactly of help sent by Genoa as the Turks only country that has the right to offer
the charge on which Canadian-Iranian scaled the capital of Byzantium. After lessons in democracy around here,”
intellectual Ramin Jahanbegloo was World War II, Greece remained firmly he quips in a barely concealed barb at
jailed for after it was discovered that within the Western orbit and became the American mismanagement of their
an American NGO commissioned him the first line of defense against the Iraq occupation.
to create a map of his country’s civil Soviet Union. In the post-9/11 world,
society. Greek politicians have continued the Greece’s man in Tehran similarly
tradition of the intermediary, most draws heavily upon history in his
Being Greek—In the Middle notably when former Greek foreign dealings with Iranian officials. His
East minister and Colin Powell confidante enthusiastic and repeated claims that
George Papandreou passed messages Greece and Iran share 5,000 years of
Ever since studying Arabic and making from the Bush administration to the shared civilization may owe more to
the region my beat, my focus has been Taliban prior to their overthrow. Greek Athens’ dependence on Iranian oil
to live within the societies I report on construction companies were trusted imports and an innate proclivity to
and express their peoples’ realities, by Arab leaders to construct much of exaggerate than to historical fact. But
rather than cover the choreographed, the Gulf ’s infrastructure, build clan- the excellent ties between Greece and
sometimes delusional public relations destine military bases in Libya, and Iran reveal how important a shared
ploys of some of the planet’s more au- erect palaces in Saudi Arabia complete cultural background is to a bilateral
tocratic politicians. Being Greek makes with secret escape routes in case of an relationship.
me a quasi-insider: We have been pres- antimonarchical revolution.
ent as a regional power from antiquity When I was a child in Athens, my
through to the Byzantine Empire. Later, A fine example of the “intermediary mother would lull me to sleep with
as Christian subjects of the Muslim Greek” is that country’s current ambas- stories from the “1001 Nights.” Today I
Ottoman Empire, the Greeks were its sador to Baghdad. Panayiotis Makris live in the territories that inspired these
bankers, merchants and diplomats to was educated in Alexandria’s Victoria myths, and their politics are no less
the European West. College, speaks fluent Egyptian Arabic, complicated or treacherous. Though
packs a pistol in his leather briefcase, the stories I contribute from the Middle
East are decidedly less fairytale-like
than the adventures of Sabah the Sailor,
my work is well done if they go at least
some way towards furthering mutual
understanding. n

Iason Athanasiadis, a journalist
based in Tehran, will be a 2008 Nie-
man Fellow. He has written for The
Christian Science Monitor, the Finan-
cial Times, the International Herald
Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, The
Guardian, the Toronto Star, The
Washington Times, and Australia’s
leading current affairs magazine The
Diplomat. His March 2007 article,
“Persian Culture and Iran’s Defiant
Diplomacy: A View from Tehran,” can
be read at www.worldpoliticswatch.
com/article.aspx?id=668. Athanasia-
dis’s photos follow.

34 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

A Shi’ite youth plants
the Hizbullah flag
and rests the Shi’ite
zolfaghr scimitar
upon the rubble of
the Shi’ite-majority
al-Dahieh suburb of
Beirut.

Photo and words by Iason Athanasiadis.
Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 35

Islam

Kurdish muhbo-
land (long-haired)
Sufis in mid-zikr in
Iranian Kurdistan.

Bathed with light
from tall stadium
lights, Casnazani
Sufis take a rest
after the zikr cer-
emony in their
military base-like
khaneqah in North-
ern Iraq.

Photos and words by Iason Athanasiadis.
36 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity
The African-like drum
is pounded during the
ceremony to create the
mesmerizing rhythm
of the zikr, a remem-
brance of Allah (God)
through verbal and
mental repetition of
His divine attributes.

At the end of the zikr
ceremony, Casnazani Sufis
offer final obeisances.

Photos and words by Iason Athanasiadis.
Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 37

Islam

A Master Narrative About Iran Emerges

‘… the surplus of news outlets has had the paradoxical effect of increasing our
information and reducing our knowledge.’

By Ali M. Ansari Media coverage in Britain and guilt. Indeed, at times the anti-Iran
other Western countries was driven hysteria—bolstered by words appear-
The mishandling by the British by a master narrative that contained ing on the editorial and op-ed pages
Ministry of Defense of the return within it a number of assumptions of news outlets—reached such a high
of the captured British service related to Western supremacy. (This volume that a distinguished Princeton
personnel from Iran has been greeted characterization does not hold for all academic such as Bernard Lewis could
with indignation and anger through- media outlets; however, while some write an op-ed for The Wall Street
out the political establishment. Inept broadsheets might opine of diverse Journal that declared—with no sense
media management, in particular the views on their opinion pages, the un- of irony—that Armageddon may be
seemingly abrupt decision to allow the derlying narrative followed the same upon us. Certainly such an extreme
personnel to sell their stories to the pattern expressed among the more view would not be published without
mass media, has been seen by many sensationalist tabloids.) Moreover, some consideration of its authority and
as having heaped insult upon injury with 24-hour newsgathering and dis- impact. And because it is well known
and effectively handed a propaganda semination, reflection and analysis is that Lewis has been a close advisor to
coup to the Iranians. often replaced, if not determined, by the White House and is considered an
the need to provide rapid assessments “authority” on issues Arab and Islamic,
It is indeed remarkable, and perhaps and new information. What’s happened publication of these words sent a mes-
a salutary lesson for our times, that is that the surplus of news outlets has sage that reverberated beyond the
without a shot being fired the Iranians had the paradoxical effect of increas- op-ed pages.
succeeded in not only humiliating the ing our information and reducing our
British Armed Forces—ridicule from knowledge. Lewis’s piece might be an extreme
allies proved particularly hard to stom- example of a narrative arc gone wild,
ach—but also brought a British Defense Nuanced analysis—insofar as it ex- but both the writer and the newspaper
Secretary to the brink of resignation. ists—is replaced by stereotype, and are of sufficient weight to alert readers
But for all the talk of humiliation, the among the most obvious is the Man- as to the extraordinary social depth of
real lessons of this latest confrontation ichaean division of the world into good this narrative. Yet nobody thought to
between Iran and the West have yet to guys and bad guys, with the Western alli- query such an extraordinary claim.1
be digested. ance most definitely among the former. Furthermore, in developing this narra-
In the post 9/11 world, this is a view tive through the war in Lebanon during
Among the most evident, and the that has been enthusiastically endorsed the summer of 2006, it was remarkable
least appreciated, is that this was an by Western politicians, encouraging a that no Iranian official was approached
exchange in soft power, in which the “You’re either with us or against us” at- to offer an opinion.
media were the weapons of choice. titude, which was embraced to a great
Moreover, the greatest wounds were extent by the press. The British Sailors
self-inflicted, and Iran effectively re-
bounded from what might have been An explicit example can be found A quite similar narrative construction
a public relations disaster not through in the relationship between Fox News could be seen with the recent experi-
design but through the ineptitude of and the Bush administration. While Fox ence involving the British sailors. This
its opponents. This is not the only time rushed to explicitly condemn Iran as was particularly apparent among the
this has occurred—similar experiences the chief protagonist during the war British right-wing press although, more
were had during the war in Lebanon in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, interestingly, some cracks could already
in 2006 and in the various bouts of more sober news outlets similarly be seen in the edifice. Implicit assump-
nuclear negotiations—but this experi- bought the Bush narrative of Iranian
ence was explicit as much as it proved
to be politically trivial.

1 Bernard Lewis: “Does Iran Have Something in Store?” The Wall Street Journal, August
8, 2006 and, in a similar vein, William Kristol’s article in The Weekly Standard, July 24,
2006, “It’s Our War: Bush should go to Jerusalem—and the U.S. should confront Iran.”

38 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

tions were made of the righteousness one-dimensional villains had clearly note, and one that might hold impor-
tant lessons for the future, is the way in
of the British cause and her actions, not crossed anyone’s mind. Indeed, it which the master narrative finds itself
confronting an unreceptive audience.
and they were juxtaposed against the would be fair to point out that but for a While during the war in Lebanon a
few voices—from within the United
obvious perfidy of the Iranians (a nice few tentative attempts to try to discern Nations, from some politicians and
commentators—were raised to oppose
mirror image of the narrative in Iran); motive and understanding in the print the call to war, there was little willing-
ness to challenge the fundamental
some commentators even began to media, real knowledge about Iran and narrative of Iranian villainy. With the
sailors’ capture, however, the British
question what they considered to be its grievances barely grew. public were polarized in their support
or condemnation of the government,
British government timidity in the face Two interesting developments are with some refusing to believe, post Iraq,
that their government would tell the
of such a blatant affront. Indeed for illuminated by this crisis, and to a truth. This failure on the part of gov-
ernment to convince similarly played
some this was a paradox that could greater or lesser extent are reflected a significant role in ensuring that the
sailors’ stories were told.
not be reconciled and demands were in the broader media confrontation.
The tragedy of this dynamic, howev-
soon being issued for “action.” It is striking how the portrayal of Iran er, is that it remains resolutely internal.
Iran is almost incidental to the process
Quite what this action might be was by much of the media is mirrored in as debate revolves around the efficacy
of narratives propounded by the gov-
not obvious but clear, unsympathetic Iran itself: There was and remains a ernment. It was government failure,
not Iran, which ultimately undid the
comparisons were being drawn be- widespread assumption in the duplic- Blair administration, and as such it
should come as little surprise that few
tween Blair and Thatcher—since by ity and mendacity of the Iranians, as will have come away better informed
or enlightened from the experience.
fortunate happenstance, Britain was cunning and calculating to the core. After all, while some journalists have
belatedly sought to reflect on their poor
commemorating the 25th anniversary In this narrative, there is no room for performance during the walk-up to the
Iraq invasion, few lessons appear to
of the Falklands War. Indeed as right- mistakes or incompetence. What hap- have been absorbed. Signs abound that
too many journalists are making similar
wing American commentators joined pens has been planned and, while on mistakes in their coverage of Iran, as
skepticism and hard questioning give
their British counterparts in berating occasion Iranians are characterized way to a slippage back into worn-out
narratives. n
Blair for his apparent weakness, the de- as great “chess players,” by and large
Ali M Ansari is Reader in Modern
bate became curiously internal—with any strategic aptitude is regarded as History at the University of St An-
drews and Director of the Institute
Blair contending with the image he’d inherently malevolent. for Iranian Studies, and Associate
Fellow of the Middle East Program at
created and Iran almost incidental to This is, of course, precisely the image the Royal Institute for International
Affairs (Chatham House). His most
the whole process. of the United States and Great Britain recent book is “Confronting Iran: The
Failure of American Foreign Policy
This sense of implicit righteousness presented in the Iranian press, which and the Next Great Crisis in the
Middle East” (Basic Books, 2006).
drove the decision to allow the sailors never tires of reminding readers that

to sell their stories. Once the truth it was an Anglo-American coup that

was out, it was conjectured, the true overthrew the nationalist Prime Min-

extent of Iranian malevolence would ister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953.

be understood. The notion that the It came as something of a revelation

Iranians might be anything more than to the British media, for instance, that

Iranians consid-

ered them just

as perfidious as

they regarded

the Iranians.

And while Ira-

nian historical

recollections

are undoubt-

edly simplified,

people there

nonetheless

seem to have

a better appre-

ciation of Anglo-

Iranian history

than their coun-

terparts, who

seemed more

preoccupied

with imperial

history.

The other de-

The BBC’s online coverage of Iran’s release of the British sailors. velopment of

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 39

Islam

Finding Ways to Bridge the Abyss of
Misunderstanding

‘… to travel in ignorance when insight and understanding are possible is to drive a
wedge between Islam and the West.’

By Khaled Almaeena

Iam perplexed by much Western distrust and suspicion. Disinformation “merciless” are regularly used when
writing about Arabs and the Islamic and misinformation abound in what discussing Islamic tenets or teachings,
world, whether by 18th and 19th gets said in the press about those who and the religion is regularly portrayed
century Orientalists or by modern practice Islam. This is less so, it seems as “violent.” There are violent Muslims,
“experts” and pundits. Include cover- to me, when Jewish or Christian sub- as well as savage, brutal and merciless
age by journalists today, in print or jects are discussed, since efforts are ones, but similar claims can be offered
on the air, and my puzzlement only made not to offend adherents of these about members of other groups and
increases. There have been, of course, two great monotheistic religions. But religions. Identify the individual, and
cogent, careful chroniclers in all four when the subject is Islam, the tone of offer evidence for the adjective chosen
centuries—offering observations and coverage can be mocking, an attempt, as a description, but to label an entire
commentary as nonjudgmental out- it can seem, to divest the third great group based on the actions of a few is
siders as they record and recount the monotheistic religion of the heritage faulty logic and erroneous reasoning.
routines and perspectives, the customs it shares with Judaism and Christi- To perpetuate this use of language and
and traditions of the Muslim world. For anity. Given that many readers are to travel in ignorance when insight and
the most part, interest of this sort was unaware of this shared heritage—and understanding are possible is to drive a
scholarly, and the readers were schol- don’t know what is common among wedge between Islam and the West.
ars, too. Each usually brought a high the three religions—too many accept
level of knowledge, informed insight, what is reported as being an accurate Countering Misinformation
and understanding to their writing portrayal. Acceptance translates all
even if, as an Arab who practices Islam, too easily into bias and prejudice, in Arabs, despite their economic clout,
I might not always like what was written thought and sometimes deed. have not done well in their efforts
about me or my fellow Muslims. to counter such misinformation and
Let me share a small—but relevant— untruths. Where is the Arab answer
Turn from the scholarly to “popular” example of why words matter from a to The Middle East Media Research
writing on these topics and words in- story I read in a major American news- Institute (MEMRI), which was founded
evitably start to bulge with the offensive paper. In coverage of an embassy party, by Israelis in 1998 to monitor news
language of stereotypes and general- these words appeared: “The Indian coverage published in Arabic, Persian
izations, half-truths and inaccuracies. ambassador’s wife wore a green sari. and Turkish? Every day, MEMRI trans-
Most egregious are what appear often The Colombian ambassador regaled lates articles into English, German,
to be the media’s calculated misuse the room with his diplomatic adven- Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish and
of words, resulting in a distorted and tures, while the PLO representative was Japanese, and provides “original analy-
inaccurate picture of a culture, a reli- lurking around the corner.” Lurking? sis of political, ideological, intellectual,
gion, and its people. When such misuse The word carries connotations of some- social, cultural and religious trends in
happens regularly, over a sustained thing unsavory, illegal or even criminal. the Middle East.”
period of time and by a wide variety of It’s possible the PLO representative had
media organizations, reality gradually heard the ambassador’s tales before MEMRI has virtually no competition
becomes subsumed by a new layer of and was uninterested in hearing them in the Arab world. How many Saudis,
misinformed belief—and this belief again. The reader doesn’t know why I wonder, are fluent in Hebrew or any
can be difficult to shake. he wasn’t a part of the regaled throng, of these other languages, so they can
but would the same word, “lurking,” know what is being written and said
There was a time when I thought this used without a modifying phrase or about issues that affect the region of
was only a sin of omission, but regret- clause, have been used to describe the the world in which they live? How
fully I’ve come to believe that many location of another diplomat? many Arabs are paid to read foreign
who write on these subjects set out to language newspapers and asked to
create mischief and end up spreading Words as “savagery,” “brutality” and

40 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

translate them for an Arab readership? But nearly six years later, ignorance perceptions. That seems inevitable.
How many Arab governments want is still being allowed to galvanize the Yet to understand the need to attempt
foreign language articles translated for ill-informed Americans, escalating the to set aside those preconceived ideas
their citizens? animosity for Arabs and Muslims. and approach reporting with an open
mind would be a promising first step
After 9/11, voices hostile to Arabs I often ask what we, as Arabs and to finding a way to build bridges across
and Muslims—many of them carried Muslims, are doing—or can do—to the abyss. From that would come an
in news accounts—became deafening. counter the tension and animosity. At increased awareness of how and why
And truth became an early casualty times I fear that too often we counter word choice matters, and this second
as experts (real and imagined) pon- it with our version of tension and ani- step would draw us closer still. n
tificated at length about the attack on mosity, creating a vicious circle offer-
America. Less widely heard from—and ing either side little chance of escape. Khaled Almaeena is the editor in
often not listened to—were special- Neither side is blameless; on both chief of Arab News, based in Jeddah,
ists in Arabic and Middle Eastern at sides, error and unfairness abound. To Saudi Arabia, an English language
universities. Actual knowledge they recognize the problem is a first step; daily founded in 1975 as part of
could provide was less appealing to seek solutions to stopping what is a an independent publishing group,
than stereotypes and generalizations reckless and heedless descent toward the Saudi Research and Publishing
that struck a chord in a time of anger an unimagined abyss must follow. Company, which has 15 publications
and grief. Through the build-up to in five different languages. Almaeena
two wars—one in Afghanistan, one in Minds must be opened—on both is also a social commentator, writing
Iraq—the demonizing of Arabs and Is- sides—and this means that preconcep- for several Arabic and English publi-
lam escalated, as can happen when the tions must be set aside. Every journalist cations.
need for an identifiable enemy is great. arriving at a story brings to the coverage
a certain set of cultural and societal

Reporting the Arab and Muslim Worlds

It is hard to see ‘ourselves—our actions and their consequences—in the picture.’

By Marda Dunsky A special collection on Islam, published Nonetheless, when I sat down with
in 2005. my interlocutors—two men and a
In the summer of 1989, following woman—there was tension in the air.
the annual season of pilgrimage to I began by explaining that I aimed to
Mecca, I proposed to my editors write a story about the meaning that
at The Jerusalem Post a story about the hajj held for them, how they had
the meaning and lived experience interacted with Muslims from around
of the hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime the world, and how the rituals of
journey incumbent on all Muslims in the hajj served to connect them to
good health and of sufficient means. Islamic history. But before I could get
I was an Arab affairs reporter for the much further, one of the men spoke
Post—in an era when the paper’s edi- bluntly: “You’re an American. So your
torial outlook was a good deal more image of Islam and Muslims must be
liberal than it is today—and my beat negative.”
was the Palestinian minority in Israel,
the majority of whom are Muslim. My I was taken aback but tried to
idea was to delve beyond the usual maintain momentum. I explained that
wire-service story details about the perhaps Americans were more in the
mass circumambulation of the ka’bah dark about Islam than hostile to it; I
and the sheer logistical challenges of offered that the perspectives of Islam to
moving two million Muslims through which I had been exposed while doing a
the many pilgrimage sites. And so I master’s in Middle Eastern studies had
set out for an Arab village to interview been anything but negative. Still, the
three returned hajjis. hajjis remained skeptical and posed a
pop quiz: Could I name the five pillars
A friend of mine who lived in the
village had arranged the interview.

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 41

Islam

of Islam? The question was easy, and represented nor were condoned by whose members were rendered as
I answered it. By demonstrating that the vast majority of Muslims at home three-dimensional human beings,
I knew something about my interview or abroad. secure in their Muslim identities
subjects’ faith, which was at the root of against the backdrops of the quintes-
the experience that I wanted them to Studying What’s Been sential American sin city and the often
share with my readers and me, I earned Written—And What Hasn’t treacherous political climate in the
the privilege of their trust. wake of 9/11.
By the time of September 11th, I had
I am often reminded of this vignette, moved from the realm of newsroom In the summer of 2005, U.S. News
because it foreshadowed the consider- to that of academe, and the sheer & World Report published a special
able journalistic challenges in report- volume of reporting on Islam and collector’s edition on Islam; its pieces
ing on Islam and the Arab and Muslim Muslims led me to create a seminar on the tenets of the faith and its his-
worlds that would emerge more than course called “Reporting the Arab and torical and cultural aspects were illu-
a decade later and that remain appar- Muslim Worlds.” In order to increase minating. However, its cover headline,
ent today. The seminal events of Sep- their media literacy and knowledge “Secrets of Islam,” and accompanying
tember 11, 2001 have had a profound of topics including Islamic diversity, photograph (a woman’s head peering
and lasting effect on the American U.S. public diplomacy in the Arab and out from behind a black veil) coupled
public’s exposure to and understand- Muslim worlds, the concept of jihad, with much of its interior photos and
ing of Islam and Muslims and, for most the role of women and the question of pieces on conflict between Muslim
Americans, the conduit of information Palestine, students assess the strengths societies and the West, bore a distinct
has been the mainstream media. For and weaknesses of U.S. mainstream Orientalist tone. In April, New York
the past six years, reports on Islam and reporting by juxtaposing journalism Times reporter Andrea Elliott won
other aspects of the Arab and Muslim with academic writing while applying the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for feature
worlds have appeared on a near-daily five criteria. These are: reporting for her three-part series “An
basis in print and broadcast media as Imam in America,” a richly detailed
U.S. engagement in the Middle East • Balance: The range and mix of portrait of an immigrant imam leading
and South Asia has broadened and sources Muslim congregations based in and
deepened. around New York City. [See Elliott’s
• Point of view: From whose perspec- article on page 55.] Also this spring,
Immediately after September 11th, tive/s the story is told? the Chicago Tribune ran a front-page
journalists faced a steep learning curve feature on Muslims’ concerns over the
in covering Islam and Muslims at home • Voice: Who is quoted/who gets to certification of halal food, slaughtered
and abroad. Beyond reporting on the speak? and blessed according to Islamic law.
core beliefs and practices that Muslims Indeed, these examples show that in
share, making journalistic sense of • Context: Relevant historical, politi- recent years, U.S. media coverage of the
the sheer diversity of Islam and the cal and/or cultural factors Arab and Muslim worlds has given voice
Muslim world has proved much more and three-dimensionality to Muslims,
challenging. The lack of a central cleri- • Framing: Which issues are included their history and lived experiences.
cal authority in Islam, the differences and which are omitted?
between Sunnis and Shi’ites, and vari- The Absence of Context
ous customs prevalent in some parts The steady stream of U.S. main-
of the Arab and Muslim worlds that are stream media reporting on the Arab As a body of work over time and across
dictated by patriarchal social structures and Muslim worlds during the past platforms, however, the reporting still
rather than by religion, per se, combine six years has provided a wellspring of faces a major challenge of contextual-
to make reporting on “what Muslims source material. It is a body of work izing the conflict between the Muslim
believe” and “what Islam says” on a that over time and across media has world and the West (and in particular
wide range of topics (from women’s indicated mixed results—many of the United States). While this conflict is
roles in society to jihad) a complex them positive—as several examples not only a function of Muslim actions
undertaking. At least two other factors illustrate. and attitudes but also the result of U.S.
further complicate this journalistic policy and intervention in the Muslim
task. Prior to 9/11, Islam and Muslims A masterful journalistic account world over the course of the last half-
were unknown to most Americans of the Shi’ite majority in Iraq, which century, the reporting more often than
because Muslims have not been as vis- tackled historical complexities and not reflects the former while minimiz-
ible in American politics and popular diversity of perspectives from within ing or excluding the latter.
culture as other minority groups and, that community, was reported by David
after 9/11, the spate of reportage on Rieff in The New York Times Magazine This is evident in U.S. mainstream
Islam and Muslims was generated by in February 2004. In August 2004, the reporting from and/or about Iran, Is-
the wholly negative context of those Los Angeles Times published “Muslims rael/Palestine and Iraq (among other
horrific events—events that neither in Las Vegas,” a five-part series by Peter venues), which repeatedly imparts the
H. King based on multiple reporting
trips over a year’s time that yielded
an evocative portrait of a community

42 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

details of conflict from a U.S. policy accounts of the horrifying violence throughout the world regard and react
point of view but leaves important and instability there and the escalating to us. We need to understand that these
contextual questions unasked and political battle at home between Con- policies are carried out in our name,
unanswered. Reporting on the Iranian gress and the White House; however, and they shape Muslim perceptions
“nuclear crisis” tends to focus on po- there is little if any attention paid to not only of our government, but also
tential threats posed by a nuclear Iran; how a sustained American corporate of us (as citizens who freely elect it).
left unaddressed are Iran’s concerns and military presence in Iraq will affect Toward this end, the journalism must
for geostrategic parity in a region its future long after most U.S. troops not only give voice to Muslim attitudes
where the United States tolerates the are withdrawn. but also probe and contextualize his-
nuclear capacities of its allies (India, torical and political facts upon which
Pakistan, Israel). Then there is the un- Incorporating balanced, critical they are based.
derreported fact that the U.S.-Iranian treatment of these sensitive but crucial
relationship was originally strained not issues is the key challenge in report- Without this perspective, the report-
by the taking of American hostages in ing on the Arab and Muslim worlds ing will remain incomplete and along
1979 but by the CIA-backed overthrow today. The metaphor of my experience with it Americans’ understanding of a
of the country’s elected secular leader with the Palestinian hajjis more than a part of the world that is increasingly
in 1953 and U.S. support for 25 years decade ago is instructive but caution- tied to our own interests and well
of oppressive rule by the shah. ary. Getting the easy details right is being. n
important, but it is only the first step;
Reporting on the Israeli-Palestin- seeing ourselves—our actions and Marda Dunsky is a scholar and writ-
ian conflict, whose 60th anniversary their consequences—in the picture is er. She has worked as an editor and
will be marked next year, rarely takes much harder. reporter at four newspapers, includ-
into account the pronounced effects ing the Chicago Tribune. She teaches
that decades of U.S. military aid and This means that the American public, “Reporting the Arab and Muslim
diplomatic support for Israel have had and American journalists acting on its Worlds” at DePaul University. Her
on the trajectory of the conflict—in behalf in reporting on the Arab and book, “Pens and Swords: How the
many ways making prospects for peace Muslim worlds, must understand that American Mainstream Media Report
more distant (especially vis-à-vis Israeli the history of U.S. policy and interven- the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” will
settlements). The tragic and bungled tion in these regions—from the begin- be published by Columbia University
U.S. war in Iraq is reported daily via ning of the cold war until today—is Press in the fall.
intimately connected to how Muslims

An Essay in Words and Photographs

Visual Contours of Middle Eastern Life

The Middle East is a place of a By Katharina Eglau forms to its religious practices and to
thousand facets and many con- the starkly divergent roles of men and
tradictions: it is the cradle of me to return many times, attracted by women and the relationship between
civilization, the lynchpin of the global the challenge of capturing on film the them. Men often dominate public life,
energy network, site of humankind’s quiet, often unnoticed details of daily unabashedly occupying most of the
oldest empires, the birthplace of Juda- life in a region best known for its tur- public space in the streets and in cafés.
ism, Christianity and Islam as well as bulent politics. Three aspects of Middle Women usually dominate the domestic
of the alphabet. It is also, of course, East culture have drawn my eye closer space. There are exceptions to this, of
one of the world’s greatest geopoliti- to them: the stark separation between course: In Iran, for example, women
cal trouble spots, a region of political private and public spheres; the lavish comprise 60 percent of the student
instability, religious fanaticism, social traditions of abstract art that finesse the population at universities.
tension, and ethnic violence. Islamic prohibition on human imagery,
and the surprising diversity and opu- Religion is unavoidable in public life,
I traveled there for the first time lence of the region’s landscapes. most notably through the traditional
15 years ago and, since then, my Islamic calls to prayer, broadcast five
photographer’s instinct has compelled The rift between “indoor” and “out- times a day, starting at dawn, over
door” life marks many aspects of Middle
Eastern culture—from its architectural

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 43

Islam

Family on a motor-
bike. Iran.

Children stand
nearby as women
pray. Iran.

loudspeakers in most city streets. At on human imagery has not hindered fruits and vegetables—that are proudly
the same time, though, Islam has a very the blossoming of a rich visual culture, displayed in the area’s plentiful and
intimate and personal side. Devout though it has spurred concentration busy markets. n
believers routinely attend mosque and creativity. Indeed, artists have
to quietly pray and read the Qur’an. often turned to nature for inspiration, Katharina Eglau is a freelance pho-
Equally surprising is the rich tradition as Middle Eastern art has long drawn tographer with the German agency
of abstract ornament and calligraphy upon the opulence of the region’s na- Joker. Her photographs can be found
in the region. The Islamic prohibition ture and the natural products—spices, at www.katharina-eglau.de

Photos by Katharina Eglau.
44 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity
Wall between Jerusalem and
Bethlehem in the occupied
territories. Palestine.

Man in a teahouse.
Syria.

(Right) Door handle and the hand
of Fatima. Morocco.

(Far Right) Details of a door with
doorbell. Tunisia.

Photos by Katharina Eglau.
Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 45

Islam

A man bows in
prayer. Iran.

Window grille Coffee with milk
with satellite in a coffeehouse.
dishes. Morocco. Morocco.

Photos by Katharina Eglau.
46 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007

Context and Complexity

Swamp Speak: Then and Now

A former CIA officer draws on journalist Walt Kelly’s experience to illustrate the value
of objective, in-depth analysis in intelligence reporting and journalism.

By Ray Close

Today I search for lessons gained A Shi’ite youth sits in the scoop of a rubble remover on the afternoon of the cease-fire in
from 55 years of personal in- the 2006 Summer War in Lebanon. Photo by Iason Athanasiadis.
volvement in the Middle East,
including 37 years during which I lived lectual honesty in the face of constant consideration the fundamental social
in predominantly Muslim countries. temptations to tailor the message to and political realities that motivate
Throughout this half century and more reinforce the preconceptions and sat- people of other nationalities and cul-
I’ve been, as I remain, an avid consumer isfy the prejudices of our respective tures whose actions and policies we
of information and analysis produced “customer bases.” presume to judge and whose destinies
by a consistently excellent corps of in- we sometimes arrogantly undertake to
ternational journalists reporting from Failure to See What Needs to control directly.
this part of the world. Because I was Be Seen
for 26 years a producer of intelligence Nowhere is that unfortunate procliv-
about the Middle East for the Central In- With these observations in mind, I will ity more evident than in our dealings
telligence Agency’s (CIA) Clandestine now speak strictly from the perspec- with the Arab and Muslim worlds,
Service, I have a special appreciation tive of a loyal but deeply concerned where imprecise technical terms like
of the extraordinary challenges that alumnus of the CIA. Let me start by “covert action,” “regime change,” and
confront those in both occupations emphasizing my view that the most “preventive war” are casually tossed
who strive to understand and explain dangerous threat facing the United about nowadays. These phrases are
to others the complexity of develop- States early in this new century is the used to describe activities that have,
ments—especially their underlying difficulty Americans seem to have, in- by some perverted process of logic,
causes and long-term effects—through- dividually and collectively, in hearing come to be accepted as legitimate
out this fascinating region. and understanding viewpoints dif- instruments of U.S. national policy,
ferent from our own. As a result, we even as the same practices continue to
In looking back, I am often struck experience persistent failure either in be regarded as unacceptable behavior
by the similarities, rather than the dif- appreciating or taking adequately into under international law.
ferences, between these two otherwise
strictly compartmented professions Often I’ve observed and deplored
of intelligence collection and news
reporting. I therefore hope to give
no offense to my many valued friends
in the Fourth Estate if I make the
observation that successful spies and
successful news hawks often impress
me as being products of the same gene
pool—individuals who are by nature
inquisitive and persistent, with keen
powers of observation and analysis—all
dedicated to mastering the art of per-
suasive communication.

Being cousins of a sort, intelligence
officers and journalists share a critical
responsibility to convey to readers
the meaning behind events that they
observe and report. This calls for the
special qualities of sensitivity to nu-
ance, clarity of vision, objectivity and,
ever more important these days, intel-

Nieman Reports / Summer 2007 47

Islam

the shallow limits of official Washing- Lebanon’s Lessons for prosperity among the society’s diverse
ton’s institutional memory, and so I Journalists Today
ethnic and religious communities.

would like to illustrate my point by Most people recognized that unless

briefly recalling an event that occurred For those who remember and revere Lebanon’s traditional balance was deli-

five decades ago. It was a time when, in Walt Kelly, the cartoonist who became cately preserved, its unique climate of

my view, failure of intelligence report- one of the icons of political journal- political and religious tolerance, as well

ers (of which I was one) to appreciate ism, this historical anecdote will have as its extraordinary commercial vigor,

and convey to Washington the human particular appeal. This circumstance could turn into chaos very quickly.

dimension of a particular Middle East involved Kelly during the 1957-58 in- This was indeed a situation that is in

situation led to the employment of ternal and violent conflict in Lebanon, many ways analogous to the political im-

unwarranted and il- passe facing Lebanon

legitimate methods of today. Unfortunately,

covert intervention; … successful spies and successful news hawks often the United States was
these actions sowed impress me as being products of the same gene deeply imbued at this
the seeds of future time with cold war

political instability and pool—individuals who are by nature inquisitive and attitudes—although
violence in this specific persistent, with keen powers of observation and the term “neocon” had
country and through- not yet been invented.

out the region. analysis—all dedicated to mastering Anyone exhibiting out-
Today many analo- the art of persuasive communication. ward signs of not be-
ing openly “with us”
gous situations have

developed with simi- was automatically ac-

lar causes and re- cused of being “against

sults. In all of these us.” And so it became

cases—from Iraq to Iran, Palestine which was, in essence, an incipient civil America’s self-appointed task to teach

and Lebanon—I have felt that much war that culminated in the interven- Lebanon that “good guys” should feel

of the responsibility for incompetent tion of about 20,000 U.S. Marines and obligated in the name of freedom and

and unwise policymaking falls on the soldiers in the summer of 1958. democracy to confront and defeat “bad

shoulders of those who have failed A vocal and violence-prone minor- guys,” by hook or by crook. (Is this

adequately to inform and educate in ity faction of Lebanese was infected beginning to sound familiar?)

depth the people who need to know. by Gamal Abd-al-Nasser’s radical Arab As the conflict was nearing its height,

And these people include not only nationalism, which was then at the the U.S. Embassy in Beirut received a

policymakers and legislative repre- zenith of its popularity in the region. semiofficial visit from Walt Kelly, cre-

sentatives but the American general Another minority, dominated by die- ator of the memorable “Pogo” cartoon

public. We are the ones who must be hard right-wing Christian elements, strip. Kelly was not there to draw funny

well informed about the true causes was equally in favor of public alignment pictures, however. He was there in

and subtle complications of the critical with Washington’s anticommunist and his capacity as a political journalist,

situations when we expect our leaders anti-Nasser Eisenhower Doctrine. It a serious investigator, who wanted

to resolve them wisely and with mini- was this latter “pro-American” group, to observe first hand the fascinating

mum harm to all concerned. firmly in power at the time, with which complexities of Lebanese politics.

Professional ethics and discipline Washington was openly aligned. And With that purpose, he asked to meet

strictly prohibit both intelligence the CIA supported this Lebanese group a spokesman of the “opposition.”

professionals and journalists from through a covert action program con- Embassy officials, however, declined

attempting consciously and deliber- sisting of large secret subventions of to oblige, presumably out of concern

ately to influence governmental policy cash to individual political candidates for diplomatic propriety.

through their reporting. However, both during a critical parliamentary election A gentleman named Saeb Salam, a

can and should contribute to a better and the provision of lethal weaponry family acquaintance whom I admired

understanding on the part of all citizens to private paramilitary forces loyal to as a friend and respected as a national

of the underlying political conditions these pro-American political factions. leader in Lebanese politics, was then

and social attitudes affecting motiva- (As a direct participant in both activi- a prominent spokesman for the group

tions on all sides of an international ties, I can speak with authority on the in opposition to open alignment with

controversy. It is in this spirit that I subject.) the United States. In these cold war

invite journalists to consider the ex- As it happened, however, the times, this meant he was regarded by

ample I’ve chosen to share as a way majority of Lebanese wanted their Washington as a dangerous adversary.

of offering them a tool for evaluating government carefully to maintain the A former student of my father’s at the

the effectiveness of their reporting and country’s uncommitted status—essen- American University of Beirut, a Sunni

analysis today. tial, they felt, to preserving peace and Muslim and a former prime minister,

48 Nieman Reports / Summer 2007


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