Thursday, June 15, 2006

Gizelle Khuri, again. Some of you know by now that Khuri, the TV presenter of AlArabiyya TV is my least favorite media person, assuming that what she does enters into the realm of media. She, this former writer in the magazine of the Lebanese Forces militia, epitomizes in her personality and style everything that I so detest, dislike, and abhor about Lebanonese culture. Yesterday, her Islamophobia was visible on the air. After enjoying a delicious meal at Marouche restaurant in London (or one of them anyway as there are as many Marouche restaurants in London as there are "senior aides" to Zarqawi), I watched her Bil Arabi program in my hotel room. She interviewed the first female judge in Bahrain, Muna Al-Kawwari. At one point, she asked her: How do those [Muslim] religious people deal with you when they don't even look at you? Kawwari said: I dont know what you are talking about. I never had to deal with that situation, and this was never a problem. Khuri then dared to speak about the need for democracy in Bahrain. Of course, I am for the overthrow of every Arab regime--two times over or three--but Bahrain 100 years ago was ahead of where Saudi Arabia is today. But Kawwari, who handled Khuri very well, and showed how lousy she can be in her questions--at one point she asked her about a "report on the internet"--she must have disocvered the internet like Walid Jumblat--was, I have to say, so apologetic about the royal family of Bahrain, just as Khuri is apologetic by her silence about the Saudi royal family. She mentioned women's rights in Bahrain and Kuwait, but not in UAE or Saudi Arabia where they lag so far behind.