Let me introduce you to something truly disturbing: a Washington Post / Newsweek blog, titled: "How the World Sees America"
... Aside from the fact that the WaPost and Newsweek (not Al Jazeera) is funding this, what makes this site truly disturbing isn't the content (you could argue that it's probably a good thing for Americans to realize there are people who hate us out there), but it's stated purpose, which is: "... to put a human face on hostile numbers through snapshots of individual lives ..."
Just to give you a sample of the anti-American themes, in one post, blogger Amar Bakshi (who, by the way, isn't a bad writer) gushes over a Pakistani director who (although he is putting on a Neil Simon play) says Americans are "ignorant of the world."
In another piece titled: "bin Laden Blues," he writes about a Pakistan rock band.
He also profiles a college professor who he says looks like Richard Pryor, once loved JFK, and, oh yeah, praises terrorism. To further humanize this radical professor, Bakshi recounts his conversion from normal to radical with the same zeal a Sunday school teacher might have when talking about a prodigal son who has returned to the fold:
"…My return to the faith was something very gradual. I can’t say why. It happened to me.” By Koya’s account, it took two years before he was visiting the mosque regularly. Soon after, he joined Jamaat-e-Islami as a student activist. His father was pleased.
Understanding America's enemies is one thing, but humanizing (and, I would argue, glamorizing) America-haters -- and painting them as sympathetic figures -- is quite another.
H/t: Amanda Carpenter
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