Sunday, December 05, 2010

Noah Feldman learns about Lebanon (and about Al-Akhbar) from Hariri reporters

Look at this racist, Noah Feldman (who does not believe that Arabs act rationally), only managed to talk to one side in Lebanon:  "I discussed the rise of Hezbollah with Hanin Ghaddar, the managing editor of Now Lebanon..."  He did not mention that Now Hariri is a propaganda outlet for Hariri family.  And here he dares to talk about Al-Akhbar (a man who writes about Ghazzali and other Islamic theologians based on the translation of their work in English--at least in his last book which I had reviewed here--see below):  "The cultural page of Hezbollah’s newspaper, Al-Akhbar, features articles about Jorge Luis Borges and photographs of women in tank tops and jeans—hardly the stuff of stereotypical Islamist propaganda. Hezbollah affiliates not only write reviews of the latest art shows, some of them actually participate in arts events organized by the leading secular-minded curators of Beirut."  A man who does not read Arabic and is pleased with himself because he studied Arabic--we know what a few years of Arabic would do to your fluency in the language.  It is obvious that his few days visit to Lebanon relied on the briefings by the likes of Now Hariri reporters and editors.  No one in Lebanon except the Hariri family refers to Al-Akhbar as "Hezbollah's newspaper."  But Feldman is really really that ignorant.  It is not that he is dumb--that is another matter--but he is really genuinely ignorant about his subject matter. When I read Feldman about Islamic law, I really sincerely miss every classical Orientalist who ever wrote about Islam.  He is that ignorant.  Tell that ignorant visitor to Beirut that Hizbullah does not support gay rights--which the newspaper supports--unless he believes that Hizbullah is now a feminist organization which advocates gay and lesbian rights.   But what do you expect from a guy who learns about Lebanon from reporters at the most vulgar propaganda outlet, known as Now Lebanon.  I mean, all those who know about Lebanon talk about that site but only to mock it and mock its coverage.  This is a site that was founded by `Uqab Saqr--for potato's sake. Enough said.