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Friday, July 16, 2010

Al-Jazeera: Channel of The Mobs

What really bother me about this channel are:

The selective and biased coverage: I really never knew that Qatar was an utopia! And you can not air religious programs on a news channel. Create Al-Jazeera Islamic channel and air as much Islamic programs as you want, but you can not shove Zaghloul El-Naggar's humbug on the scientific miracles of Islam down our ears as if that was real news.

Demagoguery and intolerance is what they promote: While they claim that they promote freedom of speech and other things that sound civilized, they really do the opposite. Programs such as "The Opposite Direction" - I recently learned that its anchor, Faisal al-Qassem, holds a degree in drama, and was a bit disappointed that I could not figure this out on my own - are all about shouting and slandering. I mean where on earth do you find a news channel where people call each other "traitor" while discussing their different opinions and views?

Irresponsible journalism: The channel deliberately mistranslated and added to a scientific paper that was published in 2009. The paper recommended a small change in the twig of hominins in the tree of life, but Al-Jazeera claimed that this paper nullified the theory of natural selection. (I wonder how many times this theory was nullified according to Muslims?) This reckless journalist blasted into smithereens any faint hopes for tolerating this theory in the Islamic world for the coming few decades, and the channel never apologized for this mistake. Not like this is the only scientific or historical mistake they have perpetrated.

The worst sports commentary on Earth: During world cup 2010, I was really shocked by some of the comments I heard by this channel's commentators: lamenting Mussolini's days, calling the whole of South Americans irrational, and labeling Japan as a developing country, to name only a few. Makes you thank "God" for the option of muting in TV sets.

16 comments:

  1. Hehehehe, just like me i hate that hypocrite channel and it's rival al-arabyia.

    They are so biased when it comes to qatar that when one of their higher ups went to Israel they didn't show it nut god forbid one of egypt or jordan did that you will get abd-albari atwan, bakri and the rest of the gang saying there bla bla bla.

    Al-Itijah almo3akes can be described as the arabic verison of jerry springer show(i don't know if you know it) and since people loves drama in the t.v. why not give them the ultimate drama. This show just shows us that we are far behind civilized debate.

    evolution theory kills them, it will always go back to the idea of it says we are descendant of Apes, i don't know from where they got that idea from what i know about that theory, this is not true, and since zaglol didn't prove evolution theory then it's not valid so we have to show it as a lie.

    Arab News channels sucks, all of them have some sort of hidden agenda, this is the only conspiracy theory i believe in

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  2. I find that funny, actually, that Al Jazzira represent the view-point of modern Arabs, and not of freedom of opinions. For example, like the day they had a Sheikh who issued a fatwa (I think) allowing little immature girls (who have not hit puberty yet - 5-year-olds and such) to be married. I understand his point of view is disgusting, but the two hosts mocked him more than argued with him.

    Evolution is deeper than us coming from apes. Why has Biology suddenly turned into a symbol of modern atheism? I find that very sick! If Islam is true (and IT IS VERY TRUE in my opinion,) then why can't we sit with these people and prove evolution wrong in a religious-scientific way?

    Ah well, I gave TV up anyway.

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  3. Ahmad,

    I should have known that the idea of alitijah almo3aks was not even theirs!

    Qatar denied a whole Qatari clan their citizenship and they said nothing about it! Unbelievable!

    Another problem, this guy named Zaglol keeps lying, and as if this was not enough they consult him about anything that has to do with science be it medicine, biology, physics anything that he has nothing to do with! And his lies are always ready to be aired!

    RoxMySox,

    They are not professional that is for sure! Regarding the evolution thing, and Ahmad is included in this as well, I just really can not understand why religious people hate this theory? I mean, I am sorry but no body can go head to head with this theory and emerge victorious, because it is already proven, it is a fact!!! They should accept its reality and change their understanding of Adam and Eve's story, instead of arguing against it without understanding what it even talks about!

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  4. In all honesty you can rarely find an unbiased tv channel but as for Al-Jazeera they are completly ridiculous and news in America use it as if it is the only source of news or information

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  5. @Haitham:

    For me, personally, Evolution is void. Whoever proved it didn't convince me. Studying Biology made me disbelieve in it even more (putting religion aside). Did all this complication in human mind and body and earth and moon and sky develop by mistake? Nah. People to this day are still arguing it while the rest are happy the found 'something' that makes sense (and yer doesn't make sense).

    I'd just simply quit T.V. May we never know much about this world.

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  6. Douja,

    Bias in such things is acceptable to some degree, but to be deliberately biased is unforgivable! They air what their audience wanna hear, not the truth!

    RoxMySox,

    That is your right to believe or not =) I too would have quited tv if it was not for a couple of channels =)

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  7. Aside from the content of this post! Damn dude, I didn't know a Jordanian with your ideas existed, a refreshing breeze indeed!

    I almost fainted when I read that post in Al Jazeera's website on the evolution thing, "ادري تبطل نظرية دارون" that's how it went to my memory, I wrote a long email and included all the references I could collect and emailed it to them back then, but my email hit deaf ears.

    I am disgusted by the fact that evolution is looked at as a questionable matter in the Arab world, people like Bahlool al Najjar set my nerves on fire, but it's massive, I do not think there has ever been such a case in which people lived in that blinding denial from a fact like that, but then again, if Ibn Baz, a prominent Saudi scholar, would boldly declare in 1985 that the sun revolves around the earth and anyone who believes in the western evil propaganda of the opposite is not a Muslim then no wonder a theory like evolution remains in the shades like this.

    The problem to me is not in uneducated people, the massive problem is with those with half education, those who go to universities and become doctors and engineers yet remain illiterate in their brains, it is someone that becomes a great surgeon and still harshly believe in Adam and Eve.

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  8. Hey Omar,

    Thanks for the kind words =) but I think there are many educated Jordanians out there, the only problem that prevent them from speaking their minds is the hypocrisy of this society!

    I know Ibn Baz, Ibn 3thamen and the rest of those scholars, seems we all share the same journey path on our road to unlearning what they used to teach us back at the school =)

    People here do not understand the difference between an educated person and a degree holder! They do not understand that not everything they hear from a guy with a beard is correct! And they are not even sticking to the bright side of Islam!

    So the mission of enlightening this society is really hard! We should change their mentality, but I say lets just focus on the coming generations, it just takes 20 years to revolutionize a society!

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  9. @RoxMySox:

    I think you're confusing evolution with other theories about the creation of the universe. Evolution only concerns "living beings", the earth, moon and the sky are not living beings, how they were created or were they came from has nothing to do with evolution.

    The idea that evolution suggests that everything was created by mistake or accident, is nothing but a myth, evolution suggests no such thing.

    Evolution is by "natural selection", please read about that topic, it is the opposite of "mistake".

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  10. I always wonder whether sheikhs who give fatwas truly understand the topic at hand, especially scientific issues. Do they really understand cloning? Or evolution? Their duty is to study these topics and make sure they understand, and then, and only then, issue a logically clear fatwa. I surely hope they do.

    Moreover, how much should people trust the fatwas issued by scholars? Should they just follow blindly what other people say? If God created your brain, does not that mean that He wants you to use it? Shouldn't there just be a bit of healthy skepticism? I mean, when the guy came out with the breast-feeding fatwa, everybody objected based on common sense. Why not object when the logic of the fatwa is not clear? There has to be some scholar out there with sufficient understanding and reasoning to issue fatwas on such topics.

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  11. http://www.bambamworld.com/blog/?p=85
    been ages since i complained about il mozaghlel so i think you'll be interested in reading this ...

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  12. Ehab,

    I am 100% sure they do not! I discussed this issue with many scholars at the Sharia collage, they have a very awkward understanding of this theory! One of them once asked me, if evolution is true, then why monkeys still exist? And why we did not evolve to have horns?! Now that was awkward and I had to stop because the whole class was laughing at that moment! So yes they do not understand this at all!

    Bambam,

    Thanks for the post! Btw I never really knew you find theology interesting!

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  13. @Anonymous

    That sounded weird. The earth, moon and sky weren't meant for the Evolution part. They were meant for the atheist part.

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  14. Irrelevant comment: Haitham
    Please send me contact information on d.batshon[at]gmail[dot]com if you're interested in a bloggers conference thingy.

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  15. Even shouting you want to deny us that? Ajazeera rocks period , there are no channels that focuses on arab affair like aljazeera, it has won the most powerful news organisation on the world by Time
    Magazine Unlike aLARABIA OR i LIKE TO CALL IT ALEBRIA العبريه

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  16. Anonymous,

    I am not denying you a thing! I just hate all of the news channels, be it Arabia, CNN, or BBC I really hate all of them!

    They can shout all they want, but reverting to slandering is not democracy!

    Being listed as the most powerful news organization does not mean that it is a good news channel! Its demagoguery is what makes it popular in the Arab world!

    One last thing, it is just my opinion, and am glad you expressed yours =)

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