...They call for democracy in Syria...in the mouthpieces of Saudi princes; they call for freedom for Syria...in publications that have excelled in racism against the Syrian people (An-Nahar and Al-Mustaqbal); they call for the safety of the Syrian people...in publications that have been responsible for creating the climate that led to the murder and abuse of Syrian workers in Lebanon; they call for secularism while aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood; they talk about gender equality, and yet a woman who writes what they don't like is attacked in the vulgar manner of Saudi preachers...
I know that Syrian regime supporters cannot stomach Angry Arab, but one has to recognise that he has been consistent in his criticism of Arab regimes and Arab political movements, something rarely achieved on blogs, not to mention the overtly biased majority of mainstream Arab media...
Since March 29th 2006
11 comments:
I'm deeply disappointed with the As'ad to be honest. I expected more from him.
It's always a knee jerk "they're both wrong" and then running back without presenting solutions or predictions. His blog has always been about humour, but I know that he takes himself seriously. He says that addounia, Syria TV are worse than al khanzeera. Really? Seriously? Care to back that up with evidence? He has none. The two are miles apart. Though Syrian TV tends to "lie through omission", they never out-right fabricate information and they stand by what they declare.
I can't help but picture him as a clown jester, no matter how accurate this passage is.
SC,
I don't share your view, even though I think that the actual regime is the least worse option for Syria now but it needs to be reformed, a healthy doese of criticism won't kill, especially when this criticism is based on some principles and not on some political agenda to make the regime look bad and the others look good.
I think that AA's attitude is one of principle and sometimes in real life principles can seem unhelpful when we have to face some realities. The question is to which lenght one is ready to compromise with principles. For AA, compromise is zero, but we also know that in real life, when we have to act, zero compromise is impossible.
SC,
And let's not forget that a criticism of the liberal syrian opposition voiced by AA is more valid than any other criticism because it doesn't result from a political bias but from a position of principle. His criticism is a damning one.
So even if in real life principles are sometimes obstacles and unelpful, theoretically speaking they can be powerful.
My problem with AA lies elswhere, it is in the fact that nobody in today's political landscape is speaking from his position because nobody cares about objective and principled criticism and that can cause principled people to be misunderstood. It is like you have a child and you tell him to be good and when he goes out in the world he finds himself at a disadvantage because GOOD is not a shared value.
Sophia - will you be silent on the 16 protesters killed by Assad's troops today July 15, 2011?
How many more will kill before being pushed out of office? The tide is against him.
Anonymous,
Assad is not going away anytime soon.
I deplore the loss of civilian lives as much as I deplore the agitators who are pushing Syria into civil unrest and using its civilians to advance the zionist agenda.
Do you agree that Israeli politicians are corrupted and that Israel needs regime change? Do you agree if someone finances armed groups to spread civil unrest in Israel? Israel has been doing just that for its whole existence. But there is a wind of change, we have a strong resistance now and there is an Arab awakening. While Israel still plays the same game against Arabs, we have a variety of ways to deal with these destructives games now. First we are getting slowly rid of our corrupt leades who go Israel's way and second we will liberate Palestine. The process is irreversible.
Sophia, Comrade -- As'ad is a Media Critic, and I expect him to be as relentless as he has ever been in finding fault. He is a fault-finder and a furious voice against against against.
That said, I find this article disappointing. He names exactly two names that he IDs as 'illiberal' and leaves the impression he has devastatingly exposed the illiberality/alliance with MB elements.
Has he done so? I don't know.
What place does his bete Ali Atassi actually take in the 'opposition' movement? Yasin Hajj Saleh is who?
I look forward to the appearance of his promised publishing of essay/s that take issue with his article.
Sophia - Assad will be gone within a year.
Israeli politics and media are more transparent than any other in entire middle east. Corruption is prosecuted, even at the highest levels. Current government was elected due to failure of withdrawl from Gaza: withdrawl leads to rockets.
We've heard your doomsday rhetoric for 60 years.
Why can't there be 1 Jewish homeland, when there are 15+ muslim homelands? Must Jews always be the dhimmi in Arab countries, imperiled like in Iran today?
The reason for the intolerance of Israel is because Arab world is embarassed by Israel's success. So they must invent stories like fake organ theft, etc.
William,
A blog is not a place for an academic paper. But As'ad opinion is informed and althoug he did name few, one can find this tendency he is talking about among many of the vocal Syrian opposition in exile who are by the way not known from the general public so we have to judge them on what they say in public and As'ad is judging them on this basis.
>It is like you have a child and you tell him to be good and when he goes out in the world he finds himself at a disadvantage because GOOD is not a shared value.
You said it better than I could, this is the problem I have with him. I'm on the same page as you.
I never claimed to be pro-government, I want change, but not at the cost of the nation.
Syria now stands at the gate of hell thanks to the Saudis, I hope there is enough time to pull back.
That said, look at this crap from As'ad:
"Yesterday, I watched Syrian regime TV: they lie so blatantly. According to the regime, there is still a roving criminal and terrorist network that travels around the country and shoots at protesters and at regime security men (they call them "law preserving forces" which in Arabic can also mean "regime preserving forces"). The narrator read a propagandistic report accompanied by footage of kids throwing rocks (presumably to prove that they are "terrorist"--the Syrian regime must have learned that from Israel). Yesterday, they thought they found evidence of the terrorist network: they showed a grainy picture of a guy shooting. Kid you not. I don't know what North Korean TV is like, but they remind me of it for some reason."
Seriously, can he pull his head out of the sand for JUST a minute. 3 corpses of security forces were found, burnt to death, a targetted killing. Then he writes this crap? He is the liar, not Syrian television. We announced these stories ourselves using social media. I wish he would listen to us.
SC,
I have great respect for him. That's all I can say and I do not like personal attacks on people for their ideas Unless these ideas are highly problematic, in which case it is justified to attack the ideas and not the people.
Post a Comment