Netflix has been forced to pull Episode 2 of comedian Hasan Minhaj’s “Patriot Act” for Saudi viewers because it criticizes the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, in which a bone saw was used to cut up the corpse.
Netflix points out that Saudi viewers can still see the episode on YouTube, which is true. (I have embedded two Minhaj programs on Saudi Arabia from YouTube below). But it is worrisome that Google has been under similar pressure from various governments to find a way to tailor YouTube programming and search results per country.
German philosopher and sociologist Jurgen Habermas put forward the principle that effective communication requires mutual intelligibility. That is the real reason that sociology is incommensurate with, say, theology as a discipline. Because a theological statement is culture-bound and can’t be understood or accepted by members of other religions. Good sociology, including sociology of religion, has to be intelligible to Japanese Buddhists, Saudi Arabian Muslims, and German Lutherans equally if it is to aspire to the status of science. Moreover, this mutual intelligibility and communicative rationality is, he argues, crucial for democracy. Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian states would like to balkanize knowledge if they could, in order to propagandize their own population without fear of contradiction– at the cost of destroying mutual intelligibility. All you have to do nowadays is just watch English-language news from North Korea or most Saudi media to see a topsy-turvy world of illogic and cover-up.
Back in the 1980s I had an acquaintance, Denis MacEoin, who did a Cambridge Ph.D. and was hired to fill a Saudi-funded position at a British University. MacEoin worked on Shiite Islam and its offshoots, and he maintained that when his Saudi donors discovered his specialties, they arranged to have him fired. He wrote some successful thrillers as ‘Daniel Easterman,’ but his academic career was over. He maintained that what happened to him was a harbinger of things to come if the Saudis were allowed to shape Western academia and media.
A real danger here is that Saudi Arabia could marshal its allies such as Egypt (with a population nearing 100 million) to pressure global media over their programming, in such a way as to affect production decisions even in the United States. Saudi Arabia is gunning for prominent American Muslims like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) because it wants Muslims worldwide to be hard line Wahhabi fundamentalists and implicitly loyal to the Saudi royal family.
Minhaj’s sin may have been to speak “as an American and a Muslim.”
Muslim-Americans, who are more liberal on most issues than are American Evangelicals, will end up having a massive impact on the global faith of Islam. Hidebound Saudi Arabia is itself in the midst of a rethinking of the Wahhabi heritage, to the point where it is even allowing rock concerts. But the Khashoggi issue is about accountability, and on that score Riyadh is still unwilling to renounce authoritarian practices and censorship, a censorship it would impose on all of us if it could.
مهرباني ڪري ZNet ۽ Z ميگزين جي مدد ڪريو
اسان جي پروگرامنگ سان مسئلن جي ڪري جيڪي اسان صرف هاڻي آخرڪار حل ڪرڻ جي قابل ٿي چڪا آهيون، اسان جي آخري فنڊ گڏ ڪرڻ کان هڪ سال کان مٿي ٿي چڪو آهي. نتيجي طور، اسان کي توھان جي مدد جي ضرورت آھي اڳي کان وڌيڪ توھان جي متبادل معلومات کي آڻڻ لاءِ جيڪو توھان 30 سالن کان ڳولي رھيا آھيو.
Z پيش ڪري ٿو سڀ کان وڌيڪ مفيد سماجي خبرون جيڪي اسان ڪري سگهون ٿا، پر فيصلو ڪرڻ ۾ ته ڇا مفيد آهي، ٻين ڪيترن ئي ذريعن جي برعڪس، اسان نظر، حڪمت عملي، ۽ ڪارڪردگي جي مطابقت تي زور ڏين ٿا. جڏهن اسان ٽرمپ کي خطاب ڪريون ٿا، مثال طور، اهو آهي ٽرمپ کان ٻاهر جا طريقا ڳولڻ، نه رڳو ورجائڻ، بار بار، هو ڪيترو خوفناڪ آهي. ۽ ساڳيو ئي اسان جي گلوبل وارمنگ، غربت، عدم مساوات، نسل پرستي، جنس پرستي، ۽ جنگ سازي کي خطاب ڪرڻ لاء صحيح آهي. اسان جي ترجيح هميشه اها آهي ته جيڪو اسان مهيا ڪريون ٿا اهو طئي ڪرڻ ۾ مدد ڪرڻ جي صلاحيت آهي ته ڇا ڪجي، ۽ اهو ڪيئن ڪجي.
اسان جي پروگرامنگ جي مسئلن کي حل ڪرڻ ۾، اسان پنهنجي سسٽم کي اپڊيٽ ڪيو آهي ته جيئن هڪ برقرار رکڻ ۽ عطيا ڏيڻ آسان بڻائي. اهو هڪ ڊگهو عمل ٿي چڪو آهي پر اسان کي اميد آهي ته اهو هر ڪنهن لاءِ اسان جي ترقي ۾ مدد ڪرڻ لاءِ وڌيڪ آسان بڻائيندو. جيڪڏھن توھان کي ڪا تڪليف آھي، مھرباني ڪري اسان کي فوري طور تي ڄاڻ ڏيو. اسان کي ڪنهن به مسئلي تي ان پٽ جي ضرورت آهي انهي کي يقيني بڻائڻ لاءِ ته سسٽم جاري رهي سگهي ٿو هر ڪنهن لاءِ استعمال ڪرڻ آسان.
جڏهن ته، مدد ڪرڻ جو بهترين طريقو آهي، هڪ مهيني يا سالياني سنڀاليندڙ بنجڻ. روزيدار تبصرو ڪري سگھن ٿا، بلاگ پوسٽ ڪري، ۽ سڌو اي ميل ذريعي رات جو تبصرو حاصل ڪري سگھن ٿا.
توھان پڻ ڪري سگھو ٿا يا متبادل طور تي ھڪڙي وقت جو عطيو ڏئي سگھو ٿا يا Z ميگزين لاءِ پرنٽ سبسڪرپشن حاصل ڪريو.
رڪنيت حاصل ڪريو Z ميگزين هتي.
ڪا به مدد وڏي مدد ڪندي. ۽ مهرباني ڪري ڪنهن به تجويز، تبصرو، يا مسئلن لاء فوري طور تي اي ميل ڪريو.
ZNetwork صرف پنهنجي پڙهندڙن جي سخاوت جي ذريعي فنڊ آهي.
موڪليندڙ