Friday, February 09, 2007

Free Speech For Iraqis

Iraqis on TVKirk Parker sent us a link to this MEMRI video. It was originally shown on Al-Jazeera in Qatar on January 2nd, and MEMRI has provided the subtitles in English.

The program’s intent is to present a debate about Saddam Hussein between the owner of AI-Zawraa TV, Iraqi MP Mish’an AI-Jabouri, and Iraqi Journalist Sadeq Al-Musawi. But the discussion quickly gets out of hand, and makes “The O’Reilly Factor” look like a Sunday School discussion by comparison.

One of the two men is a Sunni supporter of Saddam, and the other is an Iraqi Shiite. They are unable to contain their rage even for a minute, and the program’s host seems completely unprepared for the free-for-all that develops.

Free speech in Iraq has been suppressed for centuries by despots. Now that it’s finally emerging, it’s not always a pretty sight.

And you can see why the rulers of Iraq wanted to suppress it in the first place: when it comes to the Sunnis and the Shiites, virtually all words are fighting words.

[Nothing follows]

2 comments:

Mikael said...

Saddam killed Al-Jabouri's brother and several of his relatives, and still Saddam is a hero?? What's wrong with these people?

Apparently al-Jabba runs a sunni propaganda tv-station operating out of Syria.

James Higham said...

One really wonders about the mentality of these Arabs. They're unbelievable.