I also learned Foreign Editor for The Australian Greg Sheridan has this to say about a group of Semitic people.
Most Arab political cultures are awash in the most bizarre paranoia and conspiracy theories ... Much of the paranoia in Arab culture has a racial element.
On what basis can Mr Sheridan make such an extraordinary remark? Does he speak Arabic? Has he made a detailed study of Arab political cultures and/or the political content in Arabic literature, Arab cinema or Arab art? And just how paranoid is the Arab political culture? Would it share the same degree of paranoia as, say, Andrew Bolt's side of the blogosphere? Or how about Fox News?
This is an extraordinary claim for the foreign editor of a broadsheet newspaper to make. But then, Sheridan's other arguments in his column made little sense. For instance ...
But the real purpose of Obama's speech was his broader pitch to the Muslim world. Much as I love Indonesia, it probably is true that this had a greater resonance in the Arab world by being delivered in Turkey (not that Turks are Arabs) than it would have had if it had been delivered in Jakarta. The speech was carried live on al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya television networks.
Yes, and? Is Sheridan suggesting that Indonesians also don't have access to cable and satellite TV channels? Or don't Indonesians have access to the internet, where they could have watched the speech on the President's own channel on YouTube?
Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf
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