Ramzy Baroud [Palestinian-American journalist], Al-Ahram Weekly, February 16-22:
It’s tempting to declare that the Prophet Mohamed cartoon travesty “exposed” the bias of the mainstream Western media, but I will refrain, for only a naïve would doubt such a fact in the first place. Late intellectual Edward Said’s Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How we See the Rest of the World, is a sufficient testimony to that claim. However, what the cartoons truly exposed – among many other realisations – is the frightening extent of vulnerability among Arab and Muslim nations and the lack of any meaningful and effective Muslim and Arab media strategy that forcefully attempts to alter the misconstrued Western discourse that endlessly denigrates their culture, disparages their religion and positively questions their humanity.