Arabs and Muslims Won't Work Together

Arabs and Muslims Won't Even Work Together To Save Themselves

By The Daily Star
Saturday, October 25, 2008
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One of the most laughable stereotypes propagated by Islamophobes is the spurious notion of a monolithic Islam bent on destroying something called "Western values." In fact, the Islamic world (especially its Arab minority) has a long and dismal record of failing to act in concert, even when faced with truly existential challenges. From the smallest issues to the largest, Arabs and Muslims continue that practice to this day.

The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council are scheduled to meet this weekend, for instance, in order to coordinate their responses to the continuing global financial crisis. Each has taken what many experts regard to be prudent steps in terms of boosting liquidity and restoring the confidence of depositors and investors. But the differences between their respective approaches - minor on some fronts, larger on others - open unnecessary gaps that might cause punters to move their assets from one country to another because of some perceived advantage.

This can only add to the volatility that has already unsettled the markets - and this in a region that is especially vulnerable to the wild swings in oil prices experienced in recent months.

At least the GCC governments are trying. The same cannot be said on either broader levels like the Arab League or narrower ones like individual industries. Take the media sector right here in Lebanon: Despite years of anemic advertising revenues that threaten all concerned, information providers, advertising agencies and the latter's large corporate clients have failed utterly to cooperate on a plan of action to revive what is supposed to be one of this country's strong suits.

None seems to recognize that the short-term advantages conferred by desperate providers' willingness to offer fire-sale prices cannot but come at a debilitating cost to the entire food chain in the coming years. The commercial media model cannot work without viable outlets that provide both information to their readers/listeners/viewers and popular platforms for the brand-building efforts of advertisers.

Nowhere in the Arab and Islamic worlds would a collapse of the media sector be more tragic than in Lebanon, whose traditions of greater openness and independence are already being eroded by the corrosive effects of poisonous political debates. And where are those who stand collectively to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years? Counting pennies.