A Breath of Fresh Air from Al-Jazeera????

In a refreshing article, Faisal al-Qassem, of Qatar based Al-Jazeera, likes to challenge the typical Arab enforced views by asking questions like "Why is it that Arab regimes failed to condemn the pictures of abuse of Iraqi prisoners?" he began on a recent episode about the US prisoner abuse scandal. "Is the torture in Arab prisons not a hundred times worse than Abu Ghraib?"

Here's some of the article...

Viewers have been treated to such delights as Egyptian feminists out-shouting radical preachers and exiled Lebanese warlords incandescent over criticism of one-time Israeli ties.

"I could do a calm, sober program but I know the viewers wouldn't watch. No one would watch a dead programme," Qassem says with a certain pride.

"Five countries cut diplomatic links with Qatar because of the programme. Kuwait closed our office more than once and Egypt once evicted my brother," he says as if presenting a resume.

State media around the region have accused Qassem of everything in the Arab political lexicon. "There's no intelligence agency I haven't apparently worked for. One day I'm with (Israel's) Mossad, the next day I'm a CIA agent," he says.

"I go to Tunisia and they say, 'Why are you against Tunisia?', I go to Syria and hear the same, I go to Saudi Arabia and they say it too. I hear the same thing from everybody, which is good: It means we are not against anybody."

After hearing about this rebel of the airwaves, I hope more of his type start popping up all over the middle east...

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Quiet on this one.....I would think those that would cry foul and bash our soldiers for their mistreatment of prisoners would be very vocal about the claims that Arab torture in their own prisons is worse......

"I'm sure over 50 million people watched it. We're talking about torture in Arab prisons. Don't you think the Sudanese, Syrian, Iraqi, Mauritanian will watch � everyone will."

The programme, which goes out live every week, now offers viewers the chance to vote online to answer such questions. In this case, 86 per cent said yes � Arab torture is worse.

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The inhumanity being committed in the Arab prisons should be addressed...and kudos to this reporter for bringing it up in a public arena...

but to be quite honest, why would we take the abuses committed by one set of people and try to use it to minimize the abuses committed by another set of people?

These are two sets of issues. The prison abuse committed by rogue U.S. soldiers is unacceptable...period, irrespective of whether some one's getting worse at the hands of another group.

Originally posted by Valhall
The inhumanity being committed in the Arab prisons should be addressed...and kudos to this reporter for bringing it up in a public arena...

but to be quite honest, why would we take the abuses committed by one set of people and try to use it to minimize the abuses committed by another set of people?

These are two sets of issues. The prison abuse committed by rogue U.S. soldiers is unacceptable...period, irrespective of whether some one's getting worse at the hands of another group.

I agree with your assessment Valhall and was not trying to minmize the inhumane treatment perpetrated by the soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib abuse situation, I was merely trying to show the double standard that is in place, where it is ok to loudly bash the US on this situation but horrors commited by the Arab countries in their own prisons meets with an eerie silence.

Prison abuse by soldiers at Abu Ghraib = very bad
Prison abuse by Arab nations = very bad

The question here isnt whether or not the abuses at Abu Gharib were justified, thats a no brainier.

The issue here is of hypocrisy and double standard. Because there are morons out there using the Abu Gharib prison scandal to justify beheading Americans, Koreans, whoever.

The hypicrisy is where is there righteous indignation, these same people who curse us, when Saddam was doing things 100 times worse to people for lesser crimes? Where is thier righteous indignation over the many substandard abusive prison systems in the middle east? Why are they not crying foul over thier own corruption as well?

This is the first Arab person in thier media I have heard condemning the Arab prison systems and abusive legal systems.

The difference here, is that we already know we screwed up. Our media is constantly hammering the abuse scandal here at home, and people are very angry at those involved, and want to see them fry. We are already trying to police ourselves.

But the same isnt happening in the Arab world.

Its a matter of hypocrisy and double standards, not excuses.

Hey, if I had to choose between being piled up with a bunch of naked guys or having my fingernails ripped out or my teeth ground down with some power tool or being hung on the wall with hooks through my skin, I'd go for the stack of naked guys...at least that doesn't hurt...being temporarily embarrassed and being permanently maimed are two vastly different experiences IMHO.