Wednesday, October 03, 2007

From the AngryArab

"Regarding the very favorable and sympathetic coverage of the protests by Buddhist monks in Burma. If Muslim preachers in Saudi Arabia or Jordan or Egypt were to stage a peaceful protest against the oppressive government in those places, do you think that the US or European media would provide favorable coverage of their protests?"

4 comments:

saint said...

Q: Why you did not mention Syria on the list?.
Answering your question, in my opinion they will cover it, but in this electric atmosphere they might not cover it favorably or enthusiastically. I would like to add that in each of the above counties the preachers varies in their messages, even if all call for Islam. Even in Burma, what I understand, the rising up is mainly against the dictator and religion preachers sided with freedom seekers in the public.
Tell you the truth, I wished the same for some other countries to get rid of their dictators. Please do not blame me; I thought this way and I hate to admit, because it seems to me the religion could be the tipping factor in the struggle for freedom. Rightly or wrongly, Bush ( or the US evangelical church) gave religion new rule in politic, how long will last I think we do not know.

Maysaloon said...

Hello Saint,
Welcome. Firstly, the quote is fro As'ad Abu Khalil (aka the Angry Arab). I liked it because I share the scepticism of Western Media in general when it comes to the portrayal of events worldwide. I also feel that something like this would be presented differently if it happened in Saudi Arabia. As for why not mention Syria, well good point, but I think he didn't mention it because those countries are allied to America and so the coverage would be changed. If this happened in Syria we would be seeing the Burma treatment I suspect, simply because Syria is currently in the "Axis of Evil" so to speak.

saint said...

Hi Wassim, thanks for replying,
I think the quotation from angry Arab has the connotation of outward complain in a way it release us from responsibility and from the effort to make a change of heart. This worked pretty well with regime from all kinds in the region. They hate us theory. The favoritism of the big power toward anyone else should be taken as a given and our effort and work should be directed to make a change. For me this comment is it: new news, no news or good news. And I would say, it is no new and same old same.
So, my question to you, what prompt you to put the quote and why no one mentioning what is happening in Burma and the struggle against the dictator, don’t we have something in common?
The other thing, if our religious leaders and scholars, dressed in white walk out the street, demanding for example, open multi party system, or removing the emergency law, what do think the government would do?

Maysaloon said...

I think it's an old debate, blame it on inside factors or on outside factors. I suspect the answer is always somewhere in the middle, but my reason for quoting this post remains because I share his views on this matter as I said earlier. You will find elsewhere in this blog I am also critical of the regimes mentioned in the post but the focus of my blog and will remain on "Western" influences on the region. Should I move back home my focus will shift considerably I'm sure.

I make no mention of Burma because Burma, like Darfur is only being focused on because of it's immense gas reserves, something which China has been making great use of and that other countries would like to be involved in. I also have grave concerns about the "democracy" being peddled around the world as a miracle cure for everything. I believe it is not and my view of politics and power is based on a different foundation.