Immediately, my attention was captured and taken hostage for the next forty minutes...I was taken on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and horror..I was aware of the general state of affairs that took place during the time between the U.S and Iraq, however I was never exposed to any other perspective.
Al Jazeera, launched in 1996, is one of the most controversial Arabic news channels and was called as "Osama Bin Laden's mouthpiece" by former U.S President George Bush.
The viewpoints of the Senior Producer Samir Khader and firebrand journalist Hassan Ibrahim are conveyed along with the opinions of an American Lieutenant , in charge of the Central Command,the American military headquarters of the east.
Another aspect which I had not thought of was that the media people of Al-Jazeera would be under enormous amounts of pressure and apparently have their hands tied when it comes to showing the Iraqi troops in bad light. However the channel does not hesitate to air the American soldiers' being inhumane or cruel. They do not even think twice about showing very graphic and disturbing images of violence or complete squalor.
What fascinated me was how many assumptions that one side would make about the other...so many misunderstandings either due to lack of or an unwillingness to communicate.
Khader makes a general statement about humans, "People like victory, they don't like justification."
All in all, I learned that one cannot judge anyone or any place just by assuming that since their opinion or ways are different, they are wrong, and we are right. If anything, one should be more open and awake...Khader stated that he wishes to "teach the people something called democracy...to wake up rigid society..."
I feel that this is a lesson that we all should learn...I hope we wake up soon from our seemingly eternal slumber!
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