A R A B I C A ارابيكا
SYRIA AND QATAR
Qatar has closed its embassy in Damascus after a protest there against the Qatari government-owned Al Jazeera news station, and its coverage of Syria. The diplomatic mission is being closed "mostly" for security reasons, news site Al Youm Al Sabaa reported. Young protesters threw stones, eggs and tomatoes at the embassy. Official sources told the site that Al Jazeera's coverage of the unrest in Syria is "unprofessional and not objective."
SYRIA AND ITS VICTIMS
The Syrian Revolution facebook group posted several videos, such as this one, of what it says are the bodies of protesters killed over the weekend during a shooting rampage in Homs and Deir a-Zor. Here, a funeral for one of the protesters killed over the weekend in Deir a-Zor.
SYRIA AND THE MEDIA
The Syrian media, meanwhile, continues to defy reality and monopolize the newspapers and airwaves inside the country with the military-as-savior narrative. (There is no opposition media permitted in Syria, just degrees of government support) A report in Al-Watn states that fearful residents of the town of Abu Kamal, near the Iraqi border, have pleaded with the Syrian military for a "quick intervention" to stop "unarmed groups." They are fleeing to Deir a-Zor to escape ransacking and acts of terror by armed gunmen, the paper said. Activists, meanwhile, said a man was shot dead on Saturday by security forces in the town. Abu Kamal has become a point of passage for "weapons and money smuggling," the paper stated.
ROYAL LANGUAGE
An article from one of the Arab world's most prestigious publications exemplifies what it means when Arabs take to the streets to ask for dignity. One example is the media, which offers little information about an Arab government's activities. This from Saudi-owned Al Hayat: "Saudi King Abdullah, the Custodian of the Two Holy Sites, who spoke with the Moroccan monarch, King Abdullah VI by phone, briefed the cabinet about talks, consultations and other communications that took place last week with several leaders of friendly countries and their envoys."
July 18, 2011
photo credit: illustir