Fridays of Rage: Al Jazeera, the Arab Spring, and Political Islam

by Sam Cherribi

Overview

Fridays of Rage reveals Al Jazeera's rise to that most respected of all Western media positions: the watchdog of democracy. Al Jazeera served as the nursery for the Arab world's democratic revolutions, promoting Friday as a "day of rage" and popular protest. This book provides a glimpse into how Al Jazeera strategically cast its journalists as martyrs in the struggle for Arab freedom while promoting itself as the mouthpiece and advocate of the Arab public.
In addition to heralding a new era of Arab democracy, Al Jazeera has become a major influence over Arab perceptions of American involvement in the Arab World, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the rise of global Islamic fundamentalism, and the expansion of the political far right. Al Jazeera's blueprint for "Muslim-democracy" was part of a vision announced by the network during its earliest broadcasts. The network embarked upon a mission to reconstruct the Arab mindset and psyche. Al Jazeera introduced exiled Islamist leaders to the larger Arab public while also providing Muslim feminists a platform.
The inclusion and consideration of Westerners, Israelis, Hamas, secularists and others earned the network a reputation for pluralism and inclusiveness. Al Jazeera presented a mirror to an Arab world afraid to examine itself and its democratic deficiencies. But rather than assuming that Al Jazeera is a monolithic force for positive transformation in Arab society, Fridays of Rage examines the potentially dark implications of Al Jazeera's radical re-conceptualization of media as a strategic tool or weapon.
As a powerful and rapidly evolving source of global influence, Al Jazeera embodies many paradoxes-the manifestations and effects of which we are likely only now becoming apparent. Fridays of Rage guides readers through this murky territory, where journalists are martyrs, words are weapons, and facts are bullets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199337385
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2017
Pages:	334
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Oussama (Sam) Cherribi is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Emory University where he also directs the Emory Development Initiative. Prior to moving to Emory in 2003, Cherribi was a Member of Parliament in The Netherlands from 1994-2002. His most recent book is In the House of War: Dutch Islam Observed (2010).

Table of Contents

List of Charts and Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part ONE: Al Jazeera Unites
Chapter I: Al Jazeera by the Numbers
Chapter II: The Symbolic World of Al Jazeera
Chapter III: A Tinderbox for the Revolution: Subjectivity and Resistance
Chapter IV: Gaza: A Perennial Arab Spring
Chapter V: Secret Mission: Shining a spotlight on Tahrir Square
Part TWO: Al Jazeera: Global Fissures and Ruptures to Come
Chapter VI: Exile on Paradise Square
Chapter VII: Bullets of Truth & Media Martyrdom
Chapter VIII: Islam Near and Far
Chapter IX: The Emancipation of Political Islam?
Postscript: Out of Order: Arab Media & Democracy in Distress
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, Fridays of Rage tells a compelling story about the role of Al Jazeera in political discourse in the Arab world using a very rich analysis of the network's broadcasts, and it is well worth reading for scholars of the Middle East and those interested in the sociology of media." — Zachary Wilmot, Brown University, Department of Sociology, Social Forces

"Fridays of Rage makes an original contribution to the already large literature on Al-Jazeera in its articulation of the channel with political Islamism, and with its distinctive foregrounding of the Maghreb as a political and media space, buttressed by new empirical evidence."-Marwan M. Kraidy, author of The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World

"Sometimes Al Jazeera's significance is blurred because of the controversies that surround the channel. But as Sam Cherribi's incisive narrative and analysis make clear, Al Jazeera remains an important cultural and political, as well as journalistic, phenomenon within the Arab world and beyond. Cherribi's book is of great value to all who study Middle East media and the region's politics."-Philip Seib, Professor of Journalism and Public Diplomacy and Professor of International Relations, University of Southern California

From the Publisher