Most people by now have heard of the news phenomenon that is Al-Jazeera. In the US, many still view it with deep suspicion (due to a misguided perception that it is, somehow, anti-American), but generally it has developed a reputation as one of the better international news programs in the world. Fewer know that it is based in Doha, Qatar and even fewer know what its name means. In Arabic, “al-jazeera” translates as the “the island” or, more aptly in this case, “the peninsula”. Qatar is a spit of a peninsula jutting off the enormous peninsula of Arabia. You get the picture. Although I was only in Qatar for a short weekend, and in no real position to make any sweeping analytical assertions about Qatari society, I was struck by the differences I noticed between it
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