Islamist voices
So Ariana Huffington and the Huffington Post empire are promoting Islamism via their new website, from what the Independent says:
The refusal of Western news organisations to involve Islamist voices in the debate on the future of the Middle East is acting as a recruitment driver for Isis and al-Qaeda, one of the region’s leading media figures has claimed. The accusation that global news groups are “pushing people to become extremists” was made last week to The IoS by Wadah Khanfar, the former managing director of the Al Jazeera network.
Mr Khanfar is Arianna Huffington’s partner in the new Huffpost Arabi website, which has been embroiled in controversy since it launched eight weeks ago. Critics have denounced the site for giving a platform to extremists and allowing them to voice comments criticising gays, atheists, and the practice of taking selfies.
If that’s true, what on earth is Ariana Huffington playing at? Aren’t there enough sites giving platforms to theocrats who hate atheists and gays and by the way women?
Khanfar says Huffpost Arabi isn’t just more pesky secular liberal thought translated into Arabic. It’s better than that.
He accused Western news media of failing to understand the complexities of Islamism. “Political Islam is a phenomenon that is about 100 years old – it started after the First World War. The phenomenon evolved and transformed in many ways,” he said. “It became part of the politics of the region and is not outside the politics of the region. You need to deal with all the components of the region and isolating one segment means imbalance in the solution you are introducing.”
Oh? So by the same token the Independent and the Guardian should be publishing opinion pieces by fascists, sex traffickers, doctors who practice FGM?
No. News organizations are allowed to choose among voices.
“..pushing people to become extremists.”
Yeah, sure, it’s all the West’s fault, Muslims are so easily manipulated aren’t they? They can’t possibly be autonomous individuals who are animated by the tenets of a violent, aggressive and oppressive religion.
Yes, this is an obvious attempt to legitimise ISIS and its repugnant ideology, I wonder how many Muslims have a sneaking admiration for ISIS and all its ‘achievements’.
Huffington seems like a complete ‘useful idiot’.
Has Wadah Khanfar, the former managing director of the Al Jazeera network, not noticed anything besides and preceding Huffpost Arabi that might (also) motivate violent hostility towards the West and all its ways?
RJW @ # 1: Huffington seems like a complete ‘useful idiot’.
Only if she fails to profit from her (shall we say) noble experiment in bridge-building. So far it would seem that AH herself adeptly makes use of ~millions of idiots daily to generate millions of $ yearly.
Howsomever, I would like to know whether “embroiled in controversy since it launched eight weeks ago” was part of the business plan.
Maybe not: Ariana’s Arabian Adventure™, alas!
Don’t forget people who take selfies!
Huffington has a long tradition of gutless credulity around ‘culture,’ ‘spirituality,’ and pseudo-science. Just the kind of waffly shallowness that Islamist want to see in the West.