The Middle East and the Media

**To say the Middle East has received a bad press over the last ten years is a monumental understatement. Indeed, three centuries of Orientalism look positively benign compared to the West’s current terrorist-related paranoia and Islamophobia.**

Islam has replaced Soviet Russia as the bogeyman in the West’s collective imagination. Until the collapse of the Russian empire, ideologically driven Soviet imperialism was seen as the primary threat to a free democratic West: the ominous Other, shrouded by a cloud of Marxist mystery. Now we fear the Muslim hordes, free from the yoke of American backed dictatorships, now free to form independent Islamic states. We know Jihad is out there, but doubt our ability to find it, let alone do anything about it.

More recently – and adding to the West’s confusion – the “Arab Spring” has proved to be impervious to Western analysis; I for one am unconvinced that anyone really understands what has, or will happen. Events are yet to fully unfold, but as one American journalist put it, “The tiger is out of the cage, and she isn’t going back in.” Perhaps it is hardly surprising that groups such as the English Defence League are on the rise in Britain; ordinary people are still trying to figure out what is going on inside their own increasingly multicultural countries. Should they really be expected to comprehend what is happening in the Arab peninsular and North Africa given that even the experts are unclear as to exactly what is going on?

The answer I believe, should to some extent, be yes. However, due the perpetuation of neo-conservative ideologies and policies, and to increasingly sloppy, irresponsible and ill-informed journalism, (what on earth is going on with the British press at the moment?) a climate of anxiety, irrationality and hatred has been promulgated to such a degree that it is practically self supporting now. Certainly in America, this state of affairs is (in part) due to the post-Cold War induced gulf between academics and government, and the resulting growth of think-tanks, whose professional pundits are sought by the media (in the place of scholars) to explain, analyse and (inflame) current affairs for the masses.

This is something I have “known” in a rather vague and detached way for sometime now. As university students we are (meant to be) taught how to think critically for ourselves, and digesting the news with a pinch of salt is part of this. Don’t believe what you watch on TV, they say. Well, having just returned to Turkey (where I am living for a year) from a three-week excursion around the Middle East (Lebanon, Jordan, Israel) I feel like I can drop the quotations marks, I know I do not believe what I watch on TV.

My observations are not exactly groundbreaking, and I will not pretend that backpacking has furnished me with some divine insight into the socio-economic or political intricacies of the region. However, it has become almost impossible to visualise the very simplest and most human of realities of the region through the thicket of polemical propaganda, and it’s a great shame we only see the most fractious and violent moments on the news. But after all it isn’t well grounded, thoroughly contextualised, representative and possibly mundane information that sells newspapers, it’s fomenting hysteria.

So let me try to tackle some assumptions…

Islam

I did not feel like these countries (Lebanon/Jordan) were overbearingly Islamic, in fact the centre of Beirut (which, if I was a studious History student, I would have known) is remarkably Christian. One huge mosque in central downtown is marooned in cityscape of Christian- mostly Maronite, Churches. Everyone I met was at least tri-lingual, infuriatingly well educated, dissenting, opinionated, but never dogmatic. Oh and the nightlife is fantastic. Jordan, perhaps less cosmopolitan, and certainly less politically complicated than Lebanon, also seemed fairly relaxed in terms of its adherence to Islam. Certainly the Bedouin I met (who make up 40% of the population) knew how to enjoy life, and their philosophy, which was made up of remarkable collection of idioms and witticisms, seemed to come from a much older, nomadic, desert tradition- infused with Islam, but essentially made their own.

Women

I’m small, blonde and fairly smiley. I was travelling with one other girl, small, brunette and perhaps objectively less smiley. Our plan to meet some friends in Jordan fell through when none of us had phones that worked and we missed each other in Aqaba. So for over two weeks it was just the two of us on our own. The only problem we had was with a teenage boy in Petra, who asked for a photograph but instead just tried to pinch our midriffs and breathe suggestively down our necks. My friend, who is Muslim, reminded him what he was doing was Haram and threatened to call the police, by which time some Bedouins heroically rode up and in not-so polite terms told him where to go. When it comes to sexual harassment laws in these countries can be surprisingly draconian and it’s fairly easy to throw off an unwanted suitor through recourse to the law. As a western women you do draw attention, but are also automatically given the status of man, and as such people are both courteous and usually respectful. The men can be a little clingy at times, but a stern no suffices. I got the impression that most of the time the men hassling us weren’t particularly sinister, but just a bit sexually frustrated- and it’s hardly surprising given the restrictive sexual culture.

I cant speak for the women who actually live in Jordan, and I didn’t get the chance to ask them, because their public presence is fairly limited where I was staying in the South. However, there were signs of change. We were lucky enough to be in Petra during elections, and the festival atmosphere was magnetic. It was encouraging to see posters of female candidates, and despite being on separate balconies, groups of women outside polling stations. All in all I felt a lot safer than I expected to. And this was a pleasant surprise.

Politics

Lebanese politics is a minefield, and the country is a volatile seedbed of sectarian violence. I’m nowhere near comprehending the multitude of opinions and agendas at play, but I had some very surprising conversations. We met a French educated gay man and spent the night drinking with him Beirut’s trendy quarter Gemmayze. He was from a Christian background, and as a gay man, the last person I would expect to support Hezbollah, but he did. I also met Muslims who despised Hezbollah, and a multitude of people in between.
Politics there is intricately tied up with events in Syria, and while the situation worsens, Lebanon’s destiny seems uncertain. On the surface Beirut is keeping it together while Tripoli is falling to pieces. I couldn’t believe how brave, and friendly, and generous the people I met were, determined to get on with living their lives, even in the face of such adversity. Despite a spate of violence last October following the explosion of a car bomb in Beirut, the youth of Beirut seemed determined to carry on as usual.

Jordan is perhaps less scarred, and the monarchy is supposedly taking steps towards democratisation. However the Islamic brotherhood and the communist parties all boycotted the elections for not being democratic enough. After an increase in petrol prices last year, the country experienced rioting but the monarchy enjoys widespread support- especially from the Bedouin, and the chances of revolution- at least at the moment, seem unlikely (but not impossible).

To conclude…

I realised how important it was just to speak to people, and to remember above all that they were people, with conflicting, varied and human opinions, that in no way pertained to the threatening Muslim monolith conjured up by our media.

If we continue to fall into this trap of ignorance, we do so at our own peril, and we ignore the more exciting possibility that, not only do we have many things in common with the people there, but also much to learn from, and appreciate in one another.
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