“America is getting the Middle East wrong.” – Steven Clemons of the New American Foundation

Discussions ranging from how American politics shape the Middle East to the West’s ideas of Arab media were featured at the Institute of World Affairs panel discussion on American perceptions of the Middle East on Sept. 12 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee held.

Dubbed “The Middle East-Dispelling Myths and Misperceptions,” the discussion was the first in a series aimed at raising awareness of the tumultuous region.

Professor Marwan Kraidy, a Middle East scholar from American University, discussed how there is an extreme variety of media in the region, from fundamentalist to liberal and western. While many Americans may think of media in the Arab world as exclusively a propaganda tool, Kraidy said that Arab media is as diverse as mass communication is in the western world.

“There is more than Al-Jazeera,” Kraidy said. “Any media that speaks a dialect of Arabic is considered Arab media.”

Steven Clemons of the New American Foundation, a non-profit public policy institute, was more critical of American policy in the region.

“America was arrogant in its critique of its power and position in the world,” Clemons said.

Specifically, Clemons spoke about how the war in Iraq is affecting the rest of the region. He said that American intervention has inadvertently strengthened Iran, referring to how Iraq was previously the most aggressive regional antagonist against Iran. Clemons believe that this allows Iran to be aggressive towards other nations without fear of retaliation.

“America is getting the Middle East wrong,” Clemons said.

The last speaker was Mordecai Lee, a professor of governmental affairs at UWM. Lee recommended tips for everyone to keep in mind when watching coverage of the Middle East on the news. Among them are the difference between religion and ethnicity, and what he called the “artificiality of states” in the region.

“The states are nothing more than lines drawn on a map,” Lee said.

The next discussion in the series is Sept. 26 in Union Ballroom East. The focus is “The Iraqi Dilemma: What Should We as Americans Do?”

Tickets are $8 for general admission and free for students. The event begins at 7 p.m.

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