Sunday, February 20, 2011

Foreign Correspondent Discovers Martyrdom Gene

You get your laughs where you can in this game.

Under the heading Bahrain protests continue, tonight's SBS' 6.30 pm World News Australia screened a BBC clip on the reoccupation of Manama's Pearl Square by protesters, following the withdrawal of the police:

As a crowd of protesters streamed back towards the square they'd earlier been violently evicted from, chanting the now almost universal Ash-sha'b yureed isqaat an-nizaam (The people want the regime overthrown), reporter Ian Pannel was solemnly telling viewers: "What they're calling for is a free and fair government."

But that stab in the dark was quickly topped by this absolute gem, in which he managed to combine classic Western orientalism with blatant genetic determinism: "The protest movement is rooted in the Shia community. Sacrifice and martyrdom courses through their veins."

Hilarious!

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