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Fridays of Rage reveals Al Jazeera's surprising rise to that most
respected of all Western media positions: the watchdog of
democracy. Al Jazeera served as the nursery for the Arab world's
democratic revolutions, promoting Friday as a "day of rage" and
popular protest. This book gives readers a glimpse into how Al
Jazeera has strategically cast its journalists as martyrs in the
struggle for Arab freedom while promoting itself as the mouthpiece
and advocate of the Arab public. In addition to heralding a new era
of Arab democracy, Al Jazeera has become a major influence over
Arab perceptions of American involvement in the Arab World, the
Arab-Israeli conflict, the rise of global Islamic fundamentalism,
and the expansion of the political far right. Al Jazeera's
blueprint for "Muslim-democracy" was part of a vision announced by
the network during its earliest broadcasts. The network embarked
upon a mission to reconstruct the Arab mindset and psyche. Al
Jazeera introduced exiled Islamist leaders to the larger Arab
public while also providing Muslim feminists a platform. The
inclusion and consideration of Westerners, Israelis, Hamas,
secularists and others earned the network a reputation for
pluralism and inclusiveness. Al Jazeera presented a mirror to an
Arab world afraid to examine itself and its democratic
deficiencies. But rather than assuming that Al Jazeera is a
monolithic force for positive transformation in Arab society,
Fridays of Rage examines the potentially dark implications of Al
Jazeera's radical re-conceptualization of media as a strategic tool
or weapon. As a powerful and rapidly evolving source of global
influence, Al Jazeera embodies many paradoxes-the manifestations
and effects of which we are likely only now becoming apparent.
Fridays of Rage guides readers through this murky territory, where
journalists are martyrs, words are weapons, and facts are bullets.
Sam Cherribi is a Moroccan Muslim who became a naturalized Dutch
citizen and member of the Dutch Parliament. In this book he draws
on his personal experiences with European politics and media,
extensive fieldwork in Dutch mosques, and interviews with imams. In
recent years, the Netherlands has been swept by the same forces of
change that have swept the rest of Europe: the consolidation of the
European Union, a massive influx of Muslim immigrants and the
rising voice of Islamic fundamentalism. Cherribi argues that this
small country has amplified these forces, providing a useful lens
through which to examine trends in all of Europe. The portents are
troubling, he notes, as evidenced by the murders of journalist Pim
Fortuyn and filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, after which riots broke out,
mosques were burned, and Muslims were openly reviled by the public
and the media. Cherribi himself was voted out of Parliament in the
anti-migrant fervor that engulfed the Netherlands after these
murders and, like many other Dutch Muslims, he emigrated to the
United States. Looking back on these events, and bringing to bear
his skills and training as a sociologist, Cherribi provides an
invaluable account of one country's encounter with some of the most
troubling trends of our times.
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