Perusing al-Jazeera’s Arabic-language website the other day, I saw an article from mid-June about the presidential contest between John McCain and Barack Obama, specifically over statements they had made about their views on terrorism.

I thought it might be interesting to translate it and post it here (along with a few comments left by readers) to give you all a bit of an idea of how the campaign is being followed in the Middle East:

(In case you were wondering, no, al-Jazeera English is not simply the same content from al-Jazeera translated into a different language. Al-Jazeera English is mainly staffed by ex-BBC journalists. Not only does the Arabic version of al-Jazeera cover different stories, but even the same subject can receive very different treatment from the two sources.)

The campaign of American Republican presidential candidate John McCain accused his Democratic rival Barack Obama of having a weak stance in regards to terrorism, specifically concerning sensitive lawsuits concerning the treatment of captured Islamic extremists.

McCain’s attacks on Obama comes as it was announced that suspected terrorists can challenge their detention in the framework of constitutional limitations, and [McCain] said that [Obama’s] declaration reflected a dangerous failure to understand the threat posed by terrorism.

The Illinois senator who aspires to become the first black president of the United States, attacked Republicans for their position, and would not allow them to criticize him in this case.

On his plane, Obama said he will use [the issue] in his campaign, as “this is the same group that was concerned with the distraction of the war in Iraq at the time that we could have targeted the people who actually perpetrated the September 11 attacks.”

In addition, “What they will try to do is what they have done in every election cycle, which is use terrorism to scare the American people.”

Obama compared the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo to the previous response to the World Trade Center in 1993, which was more just, saying, “Let us take the example of Guantanamo. What we know is that in the previous terrorist attacks, such as the first attack on the World Trade Center, we succeeded by arresting those responsible and holding them accountable in a court of law, and they are now in American prisons.”

He followed with: “And the truth is that the administration didn’t try to do that and has created the situation where we did not use the courts and never actually put these people (prisoners at Guantanamo) on trial, and we have destroyed our credibility concerning the rule of law in the rest of the world.”

Following the comment by Obama during the interview, former New York Republican mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who occupied that position during the September 11 attacks of 2001, said that “declarations by the Democratic candidate return to the idea that terrorists can be treated like criminals, and that is a belief that results in poor decisions with regard to our national security.”

[The quotations by Obama and Giuliani above were, of course, translated into Arabic on the site — the reason the above quotes might not seem exactly accurate or somewhat paraphrased is because I translated the al-Jazeera versions back into English rather than inserting the exact word-for-word originals from English sources.]

During my time in Jordan while the Democratic primary was being contested, the Arabic press was pretty favorable in its coverage of Obama – though I’m not sure whether or not that was due to widespread (false) rumors that he’s a Muslim (and let’s just say those rumors are far, far more widespread over there than here in America).

Most people I talked to on the street enthusiastically supported Hillary Clinton because of, well, her last name — Bill Clinton is hugely popular in the Arab world for, among other things, his efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

I found the comments section rather interesting as well. Here are a few selections (misspellings, poor grammar, and colloquial terms made the translations somewhat awkward, but you get the idea):

Abu Faruq (American student)
I recommend the book by Rick Shenkman which was published this week on the American society titled “How Stupid We Are” — how we are ignorant. [Me: He’s referring to Rick Shenkman’s recently-published “Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter”].The American people are ignorant people who don’t understand the significance of words. Bush doesn’t know if Spain is a monarchy or a republic, and McCain confuses the al-Qaeda organization with Iran, and there are more examples in this new and insightful book. The words of these ignorant people are deliberate attacks because they want to capitalize on additional Gulf oil. The American people just accept the “truth” which is offered to them. The advantage is that the cost [of it] and criticism the first time will prevent ignorance among them again (a second time). Peace from a follower of the right path.

zaf789@hotamail.fr
The biggest terrorist is all you American people. But we Muslims know our geneology and our ancestors and our kinship. Wake up you people of Mohammad — the terrorism they have…Muslims whether they were Shi’i or Sunni or Kurdish or Druze….

al-’Amoury
All those who oppose their policy are terrorists and this is known by every Muslim.

Milahudz
And what about radical/extremist hawk in the White House who sets fire to the land without justice? And what about the Zionists who don’t want the Middle East to live in peace?

God will triumph over those who overstep/transgress, in truth the weak people of the religions of the Book. The only thing which will stop terrorism is when you realize what does not pertain to you in the affairs of other people and let them decide their destiny with total freedom. That will stop what you consider terrorism… Create intellectuals and listen to the voice of the region and its governments, and let go of arrogance because it does not earn anything but misfortune.