WEB MEDIA | The war in Lebanon has set Arab blogs, discussion forums and portals alight. Ahmad Humeid surveys some of the features of the electronic conversation
The ‘Sandmonkey’, a self described “extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled” young Egyptian blogger recently announced that his blog has attracted 2 million hits. That’s hardly a surprise after seeing the huge amount of reader comments that some of the Sandmonkey.org blog posts attract (sometime hundreds).
The Sandmonkey is not shy of controversy. His confrontational ‘anti Jihady’ and recent anti Hizbollah rants are part of his trademark. During the Danish cartoon war, when the majority of Arab and muslim blogs was erupting with anti Denmark feelings, he was one of a number of Arab bloggers who put ‘Buy Danish’ buttons on their sites.
Some call him a self-hating Arab. A recent reader commented that he should be granted an honorary Israeli citizenship for what he writes. Indeed many of the Sandomonkey’s readers seem to be Israelis and right-wing Americans. You can love or hate the Sandmonkey, but one thing is sure, his blog is a landmark in the Arab blogoshere.
Contrast that with Jordanian Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah (sabbah.biz), the Bahrain-based blogger who also writes in English. During the past month of war in Lebanon, the man has been churning out one post after another detailing Israeli war crimes in Lebanon and Palestine. He too is a landmark of Arabia’s web.
The cartoon war was the first global crisis in the age of the Arab blog movement. In that, it was like a dress rehearsal of what is happening today as the Arab web reacts to a very real war in Lebanon.
A war of words, propaganda, solidarity, activism and dialogue are all occurring at the same time. And while the majority of Arab blogs have an expected pro-resistance and anti Israeli stance, the self publishing revolution is exposing the fact that the spectrum of opinion reflected on the blogoshpere is much, much wider than what we might encounter on the Arab ‘mainstreamosphere’.
This diversity of opinion was not lost on the Egyptian blogger who posts under the name ‘ibn_abdel_aziz’ in his Arabic language ‘Justice for Everyone’ blog (justice4every1.blogspot.com). His site’s tag-line is ‘an attempt to redefine fundamentalism’. On the contrary of the Sandmonkey, Ibn_abdel_aziz is a self-confessed religious man who does not believe in separating state and religion. But interestingly he is not a supporter of today’s dominant Islamist movements.
In his recent Lebanon related posts, he observed how most Egyptian blogs are euphoric in their support of Hizbollah and ecstatic in declaring the Party’s victory over Israel, while, on the other hand, Lebanese blogs tend to be dominated by a humanistic voice that is calling for end to violence.
Refusing to be one of the cheerers who watch the war on TV and “drink tea in a beautiful café while the Lebanese receive Israel’s barbaric missiles,” Ibn_abdel_aziz pleaded with his readers: “this war is not a football match”.
“Sorry Arabs. Today I am not an Arab. I am a Lebanese. If I love Lebanon and the Lebanese I have to be Lebanese myself. I will not walk in pro Nasrallah demonstrations. But I will walk in protests against Israel and the Bush government who want to prolong this war without a care for the fallen innocent. I will defend Lebanon and not Hizbollah. I will expose Israel but not hate every Jew on this Earth.. Oh Arabs, you are so selfish. You want the Lebanese people to restore your dignity by proxy, even if the price is the death of a whole people”
Activism and dialogue
When it comes to media in Arabia, the Lebanese occupy a commanding position. As soon as the war started, well presented campaigns of information, solidarity and donation were springing up all over the web. A particularly moving appeal in video format was published by the Save Lebanon website (saveleb.org/Videos/frombeirut.html).
Other Arab web companies launched their own attempts at helping too. Jeeran.com, a Jordanian web company, decided to launch a donation site under the address BloggersForLebanon.org, which it got linked from several Arab blogging sites, with the aim of moving bloggers to make material donations.
And while online activism is definitely on the rise in the Arab world, it is the heated exchange of opinions that is the bigger phenomenon today.
In the context of the Arab media industry, Al Jazeera television pioneered the controversial practice of including the opinion of Israeli officials and journalist in their coverage. What’s happening online goes further. As in the Danish Cartoon war, the recent Lebanon war again proved that online media is fundamentally different than traditional media in its potential to make people-to-people dialogue possible.
Arabs, westerners and Israelis engage in exchanges that range from civilized dialogue to shouting matches and threats. But for many, these exchanges might be the first time they have ever ‘talked’ to a person from the other side of the conflict.
An example of such dialogue can be found on Toot, and Arab blog network, which published a special blog covering the crisis in Lebanon (itoot.net/crisis/). On July 14, an Israeli user published a post there declaring: “I am Jewish and a Zionist. I would like a dialog. I have been reading your website and I am impressed by the honesty of your views, although I don’t agree with them at all.”
The post went on to detail the man’s view of the conflict. After two weeks, on August 14, there were 118 comments, arguments and counter arguments with a total number of word exceeding 24,000 (filling 41 A4 pages).
A latecomer to the conversation, a user who goes by the female name of Rana wrote in comment number 118 “there is no other option but true lasting peace! if it weren’t like that, then why are we wasting out time talking? I think all of you must somehow have a small hope that peace is possible, otherwise you wouldn’t be here (what’s the point in just accusing each other? more hatred?).”
Comments
5 responses to “War and dialogue on the webs of Arabia”
great overview of the situation. thanks!
An excellent coverage on the blogging scene and the Lebanese matters, man!
this is very good, informative, and covers most point of views.
it seems that your always fascinated by opposing point of views!
omar
Your personal views are strongly present in this ‘summary’ – not at all objective
You live by the reference I describe you to people: jordanian blogger’s father, and now u’ve went regional with toot
“When I was an alien, cultures were opinions”