25 March 2002

Media and the "Clash of Civilizations"

"The true clash of civilizations ... is not being forged on the battlefields of war but in our very own living rooms and in our mind-sets," reads the preface to a new book about the Al-Jazeera satellite network based in Qatar.

Speaking in an interview with the Washington File's Mofid Deak, the book's authors, Mohammed El-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar, discussed the newly released "Al-Jazeera," not only to highlight the role of the Arabic media service in the Arab world, but also to put it in the context of the popular notion of a "clash of civilizations" between the West and the Arab/Muslim world, and possible ways to bridge gaps between the two.

In 1996, Harvard University Professor Samuel Huntington published "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order," in which he put forward the theory that the major conflicts of the world will be caused by cultural differences and competition between major groups of people, such as a "Western" civilization and an "Islamic" civilization.

"I think that the media, both here in the United States, and in the Arab world, have unfortunately embraced the clash of civilizations mantra. It seems very convenient for them to look at things from a very unitary perspective," said El-Nawawy.

In their preface, El-Nawawy and Iskandar write that "the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the ensuing war on terrorism reflect an absence of meaningful understanding between peoples. We do not subscribe to such prophesies of doom, yet they are increasingly difficult to counter given all the rhetoric about 'unbridgeable differences' between West and East, Americans and Muslims."

"Unfortunately, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy," said Iskandar. "If we think that people are different then we will automatically see difference. I mean, we're just looking for differences."

Both authors emphatically reject any notion that differences between the Arab/Muslim world and the United States are completely unbridgeable, arguing that those who are convinced of an inevitable collision do not take into account the "simplicity of the common humanitarian reality between the Arab world and the West," said Iskandar.

"The one thing that we do try to emphasize here in the book is that there is a very, very real connection between the Middle East and the United States, in the sense that people want freedom," said Iskandar.

"Stereotypes do exist on both sides. It's not just in the American media. It's also in the Arab media. These stereotypes have been nurtured and enforced by years of ignorance on both sides, unfortunately ... What we need now is more communication, and we need more encouragement." Said El-Nawawy.

Both authors offered several suggestions of how to overcome gaps between American and Arab societies, emphasizing that an increase in dialogue between the two would lead to a better understanding of their common humanity.

"There have been a lot of very positive initiatives in American society and elsewhere with interface dialogue, and where there are a lot of communal organizations doing work to raise awareness," said Iskandar.

As an example, El-Nawawy mentioned the Fulbright Scholarship Program, which has been a venue for educational exchange.

"I think this has been a very effective and successful way of communicating between the two sides, and it actually dismisses this assumption that the gap is unbridgeable because the Arab students would go to the West and get some education, and go back to the countries and implement these things that they acquire. So that is communication on the educational level," said El-Nawawy.

Another example is the social interaction of Arab and American students at the American University in Cairo. According to El-Nawawy, some Arabs have sought out and befriended Americans. But most importantly, he said there have been Arabs willing to participate in discussion groups in order to try and correct misconceptions some Americans have had about Arabs and Muslims.

"Many [Americans] are very curious and they are very hungry for information, but they just cannot get it ... A lot of these people don't actually know our issues, but once they do, they are willing to change positions and show understanding," said El-Nawawy.

"Americans are a fair people," said Iskandar. Arabs and Arab-Americans need to explain to them the "general Arab anguish about the political situation in Israel and the Palestinian controlled territories."

In conveying these messages, El-Nawawy feels the best ambassadors to the American people would be Arab and Muslim Americans.

"We need to get active and explain to our fellow Americans who we are, what we stand for and we don't. And the media needs to open up to us and let us do that." El-Nawawy

He called upon the American media to seek these individuals out in order to give them the chance to make their voices heard.

"Give them the opportunity to voice their opinion on air, explain their position on political issues, or otherwise explain to the mainstream American viewer or listener how they situate themselves in society," said El-Nawawi.

The authors also called upon traditional national broadcasters in the Arab and Muslim world to focus upon the average American civilian, or "common man in the street," rather than U.S. government officials.

"The average American civilian is absent in most representations of America in the Arab media. The Arab media is usually full of critiques of U.S. government and government policy, and the American citizenry is not represented whatsoever," said El-Nawawy. "There are a lot of Americans that are very sympathetic with Arab causes. And they need to be represented as well."

In their book, El-Nawawy and Iskandar sought to explain not only the emergence of Al-Jazeera as a popular Arabic media outlet, but also to tell "the story of peoples' quest for freedom of opinion and expression," according to the preface.

"That is the idea of this book. This is not an academic book. It is a popular book that anybody can read, and in it we describe the Arab world and the Arab media as seen through Arab eyes," said Iskandar.

To Iskandar, Al-Jazeera's existence as a network valuing journalistic freedom is analogous to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

The station serves as a means of bridging a gap between the peoples of the Arab/Muslim world and the United States because "the quest for human freedom and freedom of expression is a commonality between the Arab, Muslim world and the United States," said Iskandar.

"There is a very integral connection between Al-Jazeera as a network and that quest for freedom in the Middle East," he continued. "We felt like there was almost a duty, a responsibility for us to tell this untold story to the American public."

Following is a transcript of the Washington File's interview with Mohammed El-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar, authors of "Al-Jazeera":

Deak: A lot of people, especially after September 11th, have been saying that basically the gap between the Arab and Muslim world on the one hand and the Western world, particularly the U.S. on the other, is unbridgeable. Those doomsayers are basically saying West is West and East is East, and they will never meet. But in the prologue to your book, you're saying there is actually a way where we can bridge these differences. Can you both tackle this question? Let's start with Adel.

Iskandar: I think that this notion that somehow the differences between the Arab world or the Muslim Middle East, and the United States are completely unbridgeable is false. It also reinforces those kinds of age-old ideas that are very archaic and very ancient about how people who are different from ourselves cannot possibly comprehend us.

So that's one of the complications that we come across. And, unfortunately, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we think that people are different then we will automatically see difference. I mean, we're just looking for differences.

But also, a lot of these sorts of theories or ideas came about before September 11th. For instance, in the classic and famous book "Clash of Civilizations" that came out long before, the author Samuel Huntington almost prophesized that both cultures are on an unavoidable collision course.

Islamic civilization, or the Muslim Middle East, and the West are on a collision course. But, what these people don't take into account is the simplicity of the common humanitarian reality between the Arab world and the West.

The one thing that we do try to emphasize here in the book is that there is a very, very real connection between the Middle East and the United States, in the sense that people want freedom. And that's where the Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera comes in, and where the First Amendment comes in as well.

So the quest for human freedom and freedom of expression is a commonality between the Arab, Muslim world and the United States. Unfortunately, the region has not had a long history of that. But we cannot assume that because those people are not living in a society that promotes freedom, it means that they are innately or biologically against freedom. We cannot assume that it is something about who they are, and that they are born to be anti-American. Yet we believe that it's something about who they are. And that's not entirely true.

So part of bridging the gap and dispelling the clash of civilizations notion is to understand that every reaction is an action to something, and that if people are antagonistic towards the United States, or if we're antagonistic towards the Arab world, that all of these sentiments are instigated by something.

There is a real day-to-day reaction to some kind of felt animosity, and that's what needs to be understood for us to dispel the clash of civilization.

Deak: Mohammad, let me ask you this. How do you think the United States and the Arab world, especially in light of September 11th, can reconnect again?

What kinds of things do both parties probably have to undertake in order to really reduce this gap? I think differences between people and cultures are okay. There are differences between any one culture and the other cultures. That's part of the human history. But how could they work on at least reducing these differences, whether in reality or in perception?

El-Nawawy: Well, first, let me start by saying that I agree with Adel that I think it is a very pessimistic assumption that the gap between the Muslim Arab world and the western world in general, and the United States, in particular, is unbridgeable.

If we take that assumption into consideration and act based on that assumption, it's going to get worse, as far as communication between the two sides is concerned.

I think there are several venues that have already been in effect. For example, the Fulbright Scholarship Program, on an education level, has been successful, actually, quite successful in several Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan.

I think this has been a very effective and successful way of communicating between the two sides, and it actually dismisses this assumption that the gap is unbridgeable because the Arab students would go to the West and get some education, and go back to the countries and implement these things that they acquire. So that is communication on the educational level.

Many Arab countries also have good relations with the United States on an official level. You'll find a country like Egypt and moderate countries, Jordan, led by King Abdullah, and King Hussein before him.

Now we have an unprecedented opportunity on the media level, in that Al-Jazeera is giving an opportunity for both the Arab side and the American side, to appear on this great channel and express their points of view not just for minutes or short interviews, but hopefully for longer, more analytical interviews through which they can express and explain their policies to the Arab audience.

What we are seeing here is that stereotypes do exist on both sides. It's not just in the American media. It's also in the Arab media. These stereotypes have been nurtured and enforced by years of ignorance on both sides, unfortunately.

When you find people saying, "Well, the gap is unbridgeable," I think we don't really need this assumption right now. What we need now is more communication, and we need more encouragement.

Deak: Adel, what role can the Muslim- and Arab-American community play in bridging this gap between the Americans and the Arabs, or America and the Muslim world at large?

Iskandar: To reinforcing what Mohammad said, there are a lot of positive initiatives. We automatically assume that after 9/11 everything just completely collapsed. All of a sudden we're in two camps. You're either Arab, or you're Western, or American, and it's completely untrue.

In fact, there have been a lot of very positive initiatives in American society and elsewhere with interface dialogue, and where there are a lot of communal organizations doing work to raise awareness. So I think the responsibility of Arab-Americans, or Arabs who reside here in the United States, is to try and raise awareness about how Arabs actually think, feel, and live their lives.

There are obviously very, very obvious misconceptions. Whether they're reinforced in the media or otherwise, there are a lot of questions of the media. But I think that it is truly the responsibility of Arab-Americans to take the initiative in that regard to try and promote the positive aspects of the Arab society.

I also think they need to explain a lot of the phenomenon happening in the Middle East that almost seems exotic. They need to explain to people the general Arab anguish about the political situation in Israel and the Palestinian controlled territories. I mean, being able to explain these matters to the average American will help them conceptualize, help them understand the context, and based on that, hopefully they will try to come together. Americans are a fair people. Before peace can be established on the negotiating table, it needs to be done in the public sphere between citizenry of America --

Deak: People-to-people, basically, this kind of dialogue.

Iskandar: Absolutely, absolutely.

Deak: On people-to-people dialogue, I was going to ask you if you could actually expand on this.

What would you suggest that both Arabs and Americans do, on a people-to-people level? What could they do to really mutually understand each other, and reduce this gap that seems to be widening, especially after 9/11?

El-Nawawy: I totally agree with Adel that the best ambassadors to America are Arab and Muslim Americans. I think we, ourselves, are ambassadors. I try to explain to my colleagues at the university some of the misconceptions that they have about Islam, about the Arab world, and about the media.

Many of them are very curious and they are very hungry for information, but they just cannot get it. I feel very satisfied when I try to fill the gaps and fill the void for them about some of the misconceptions, and about some of the areas that are totally unconquered by the media. So, part of our job is to educate our fellow Americans about the issues that we care about. A lot of these people don't actually know our issues, but once they do, they are willing to change positions and show understanding.

Deak: How about Americans? What do Americans need to do to dispel a lot of these misconceptions? Don't you think that this should a two-way street?

El-Nawawy: I went to the American University Cairo, which is a very interesting phenomenon, and not just in Egypt, but also in the Arab world because this is a place where you find many Americans, American scholar students and professors, who would try to have social gatherings outside of classes, and try to talk about the American culture. They try to invite the friends they make of Egyptian or other Arab nationalities, to come and visit them in the United States.

And, on a personal level, I have my wife, whose brother likes to make friends with many Americans. He just visited us last summer. He also visited his friends in different places, and it's a very satisfying feeling to have this kind of communication on the individual level.

He was part of a discussion group in which he tried to correct some of the misconceptions about Arabs after 9/11, and through which Americans expressed their sorrow and their agony after what happened for the Arab families who lost lives too. He was trying to correct any kind of misconception and stereotype that would have lingered on for years. So I think this would be a good and excellent venue for that.

Deak: How would Arab and American media help in this endeavor? How could they play a more constructive role? In other words, what do you see wrong in the Arab and American media that is actually widening this gap?

El-Nawawy: I think that the media, both here in the United States, and in the Arab world, have unfortunately embraced the clash of civilizations mantra. It seems very convenient for them to look at things from a very unitary perspective. You're either Arab, or you're Western, You and us, me and you, we and them. That perspective has been very, very counterproductive and very detrimental for further dialogue. It really has widened the gap quite a bit. I think that, if anything, the media now needs to be more responsible than it has ever been.

In the past, it hasn't been held accountable by the very same standards. But because the conflict is as sensitive as it is, they need to be a lot more conscious of what impact some of their coverage has, not only on the American public, but also on the Arab public, and elsewhere around the world.

So, my recommendation for the media here in the United States is to seek out Arab-Americans, give them the opportunity to voice their opinion on air, explain their position on political issues, or otherwise explain to the mainstream American viewer or listener how they situate themselves in society.

Arab-Americans are an integral part of American society. They are doctors, physicians, and lawyers. They are part of the fabric of American society, and we need to recognize that and accept them as members of this community. We need to get active and explain to our fellow Americans who we are, what we stand for and we don't. And the media needs to open up to us and let us do that.

Also, there is the burden of closing the gap that also comes from the traditional national broadcasters in the Arab world who, unfortunately, have not really looked at the United States and the American civilian, the American common man in the street.

The average American civilian is absent in most representations of America in the Arab media. The Arab media is usually full of critiques of U.S. government and government policy, and the American citizenry is not represented whatsoever.

So, the Arab media is responsible for portraying the typical American, and how the typical American feels about these issues. There are a lot of Americans that are very sympathetic with Arab causes. And they need to be represented as well. I think that Al-Jazeera is in many ways trying to do that. The fact that they are an Arab network, an Arab language network out of the Middle East that aspires to present the real story from all different perspectives using the western journalistic traditions is a way of bridging gaps, in and of itself.

That's one way of bringing West and East, through the western journalistic tradition, and from the Arab perspective. I think that, in itself, is brilliant.

Iskandar: That's why the Arab audience really thinks that Al-Jazeera is very credible and authoritative, you know. I think the problem with the United States launching new networks to present their messages in the Middle East is that they are not going to be as successful as Al-Jazeera because the Arabs are going to be always suspicious about the intentions of these networks.

They're going to say at the end of the day 'we have Al-Jazeera. We trust this channel. They have adopted our views for freedom of speech. Why don't you guys appear on the channel and express your points of views through the channel?'

There is another point I want to mention. We, as scholars and academics have an individual responsibility. I have done many academic conferences and I see scholars, talk for hours about how to bridge the gaps.

At the end of the day, how many people attend these conferences? Maybe 10 or 15 people, or maybe 30 people, if it's really a successful session.

It's our responsibility to reach out to the average Americans, and talk to them about our media, our backgrounds, and to try to explain to them in layman's terms what Al-Jazeera is about, and what the Arab world is about.

That is the idea of this book. This is not an academic book. It is a popular book that anybody can read, and in it we describe the Arab world and the Arab media as seen through Arab eyes. This was our main objective behind that. And I think this should be the responsibility of every academic and every scholar.

Deak: Let me keep it right there for a second. In light of September 11th, there have been a lot of ideas floating in the Arab world as to how the Arab world and Muslim world can best explain itself to America. You must have heard many ideas floating around: some of them want to do a magazine in English; some of them want to do a specialized English channel, satellite channel that targets America and the West; some are talking about doing an online service. What are your suggestions as media specialists as to what the Arab world can do back there to explain themselves to America, to the American people?

El-Nawawy: We can talk about launching venues. But the question is, is that easy? Is it competitive in markets like the United States? Is it going to be that easy?

I enjoyed watching Christopher Ross on Al-Jazeera one day, and he was questioned by the Arab scholar -- Abrahim Alush, I think, who is an Arab scholar. He was questioning the American diplomat in Arabic in the aftermath of the bombing of Al-Jazeera offices in Kabul.

And so, the Arab scholar was talking about a monopoly in the American media and how few media organizations actually own the media in America. And Chris Ross told the questioner that, if you want to start your own media organization, we are an open society, but this is not all that it takes.

You know, at the end of the day, this is a very competitive market. Even if someone has the money, has the capital, we still need to lobby in the right way, and we have. There are many Arab entrepreneurs like prince AL Waleed Bin Talal. But how many people know AL Waleed Bin Talal?

Deak: Exactly. Adel, let me ask you again just about the idea of this book. How did the idea of this book come about? And what was your motive to write a book about Al-Jazeera to an American audience?

Iskandar: Mohammad and I have been working on scholarly research studies about Al-Jazeera for a couple of years. Immediately after 9/11, obviously, Al-Jazeera was catapulted into international media fame with the Bin Laden videos, and the exclusive coverage out of Afghanistan, Kabul, and Kandahar, at least for the first part of the war.

All of these things brought Al-Jazeera to the limelight. All of a sudden it became a household name. When that happened, we started to feel a little distressed because, along with the celebrity that Al-Jazeera got, it also received a lot of unwarranted criticism and we wanted to dispel that.

We initially thought about putting an academic book together with an edited volume, but then, as Mohammad said, we thought that maybe that won't accomplish the task that we want to go out and do.

So we thought the best thing to do is to approach the mainstream American public and help them understand. So, the book really concentrates on Al-Jazeera and the quest for freedom in the Middle East even though it also tackles how the station emerged, the philosophy behind it, what it's doing, and what it's done in the past, prior to 9/11.

That's the message that we wanted to get across, that there is a very integral connection between Al-Jazeera as a network and that quest for freedom in the Middle East. We felt like there was almost a duty, a responsibility for us to tell this untold story to the American public.

Deak: And, Mohammad, do you think there is a need for maybe an Al-Jazeera in English?

El-Nawawy: Oh, sure. In fact, one of the things that we call for in the book is that we should start an English service for the many Americans come to me and say, "Well, we really want to watch Al-Jazeera, but we cannot since we don't speak Arabic."

If they can start an English service, they will do it. But I think there are financial complications right now. The channel is really struggling and striving just to keep operating.

There are still many talks about the channel going out of business. Advertisers in the Arab world, as I mentioned in this session today, are more concerned about politics than they are about ratings and making money.

The governments have a big say in what advertisers say in their messages and which venues to use. The channel is in a very critical situation because there are many pressures on the Arab advertisers not to advertise through Al-Jazeera.

I think the fact that the Qatari government is still financing the channel is important when we're talking about an English service.

It's easy to ask, "Well, why don't you start an English Channel?" But when it comes to actual facts on the ground, I'm sure if they get the opportunity to do that they will do it.

Deak: Great. And, Adel, How difficult was it to get this book published? Were you really welcomed by the few publishers you approached, or was it a struggle?

Iskandar: I don't think it was a struggle, per se. We were fortunate in contacting a publisher that was familiar with Al-Jazeera. The individual that we spoke to is indeed the publisher and the vice president. She had read articles about it in the New York Times and was aware of the impact that Al-Jazeera has, and how important getting this message out would be.

So we were fortunate in that regard. We didn't have to search too much to be able to find an interested party. But perhaps Mohammad would be a better person to talk about it because he did most of the communication with the publishers.

El-Nawawy: It was a matter of logistical aspects of having to go through a literary agent rather than political aspects. You know, 'send us the manuscript and we'll respond maybe in a couple of months.' But many publishers have not realized how timely this issue is. Again, I think it is the responsibility of the publishers to give the opportunity to people (inaudible).