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Yigal
Carmon started the Middle East Media Research
Institute in 1998 for a simple reason. He wanted to
provide Western journalists, academics and
government officials with something they could find
nowhere else -- reader-friendly translations of
original Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew news sources and
the latest political, social and cultural trends in
the Middle East.
Since 1998, and particularly since 9/11, everyone
from Brit Hume of Fox News to former CIA director
James Woolsey has plugged MEMRI (memri.org) as a
timely, trustworthy, reader-friendly source of
newspaper editorials, TV broadcasts, school
textbooks, government documents and Islamic sermons
from the Middle East.
I talked to Carmon, 58, a retired Israeli
military-intelligence colonel, on Wednesday by
telephone from Jerusalem.
Q: Generally, is the Arabic media anti-U.S.A.?
A: Very much so. Unfortunately. "Why do they hate
us? Why do they hate us?" Well, to a large extent it
is because they are indoctrinated to hate through
the education systems, through the media ... and
sermons -- everything that shapes public opinion in
any country and the Middle East as well.
Q: Has U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East --
particularly the war in Iraq -- forever made America
the enemy to most Muslims?
A: No, I think that did no permanent damage at all.
There are those who hate America, and they are
supporters of the old regime and Islamists of all
types. But there are the progressives and those who
want the new Iraq, a democratic, liberated Iraq.
They do not hate America. They appreciate America.
And if they have the upper hand, then things will
change in the indoctrination and things will be
different.
Of course the battle is still raging, and there are
many enemies of a new Iraq. There are many who say,
"How is it possible for Iraq to be a democracy?" Of
course it won't be a democracy like America or like
Sweden. It will be more of an ethnic democracy.
Namely, that no Shiite will vote for no Kurd, and no
Kurd will vote for any Shiite, but there will be a
civilized partition of the power and the assets of
the country between ethnic groups. This is how a
democracy begins. ...
(T)he majority of Shiites respect America. The
majority of Shiites follow (Ayatollah) Ali Sistani,
and Sistani stands for the elections. Sistani has
published a fatwa, a religious edict, not to fight
American soldiers. This very thing, which is so big
in terms of news, did not get any coverage in the
American media. This is unbelievable. This is huge,
historically and in other ways, and yet the media
did not publish it.
Q: Despite what you and MEMRI did?
A: Of course. But we are talking about the damage
that was done by the war in Iraq. No, it's a
temporary thing. When those who stand for a
liberated, democratic Iraq take the upper hand, then
you will see something else. You will see a regime
making clear to the public that America deserves
appreciation, and support and honor and respect.
Q: What do you know about what is going on in the
Middle East now, in terms of political or social
trends, that all Americans should know and be
worried about?
A: The bad news is that for 20 years Saudi Arabia
has distributed its education all over the Muslim
world and to Muslims all over the world. They have
sent their money to every single Muslim community
for mosques, for community centers, for schools, for
everything. And they promoted their Islam, Wahhabi
Islam, which is the most extremist -- the bin
Laden-type of Islam -- and they are proud of it. ...
What has been done cannot easily be removed, so we
are facing a long battle with Islamist communities
that have been supported for two decades.
Q: What should we know about that will give us hope
that the Middle East might one day become a region
where there is relative peace and civility?
A: The agenda of the Middle East today is one, and
it is reform -- everywhere in the Arab and Muslim
world. There are those who try to fool around with
that, not really meaning it, and those who really
mean it. Regimes and establishments and elites and
intellectuals and institutions, this is the one
agenda -- reform.
And how did it happen? First of all, I must say it
began right after Sept. 11. It looks like some among
them felt that this savagery is going so far that
they cannot stand it. They rose up immediately after
that. But then came the war in Afghanistan and the
war in Iraq and pressure by the Bush administration
for democratization of the Middle East.
All this created a momentum for reform. The number
of progressives and reformists in the Arab world
today is unbelievable, unprecedented.
You can find (all of the reformers) on our Web site.
We translate them. Some are in the West -- thinkers
and writers and columnists and authors. But there
are also quite many in the Middle East itself, in
the Arab and Muslim world, and they are under threat
and they are courageous and they are admirable.
Q: Does that make you an optimist or a pessimist?
A: Absolutely optimist. ... Some people tell me that
until the Middle East becomes secular, all this talk
doesn't mean much. They say, "OK, there will be some
movement toward reform but no real thing happening."
But when I look at it from another perspective, and
when I look at the Middle East today as compared not
to the ideal future, but to what it was just three
years ago, it makes me absolutely optimistic. There
is an effect of a snowball not only for bad things,
but also for good things.
Bill Steigerwald is the Trib's associate editor.
Call him at (412) 320-7983. E-mail him at:
bsteigerwald@tribweb.com.
http://pittsburghlive.com
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