Excellent "This American Life" Episode on Anti-Arabism

One of the best things to come out of WBEZ, Chicago's NPR station, is the documentary series "This Ameircan Life," which had made celebrities out of David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell. The host Ira Glass is a bit of a lesser-known commodity, but that might all chance when the show introduces a new television edition which premieres on Showtimes on March 22.
I found an excellent show, which originally aired on Dec. 15, 2006. The name of the show is 'Shouting Across the Great Divide.' It focuses on a subject dear to my heart, the growing tensions between the Muslim world and the West. French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, a (yikes!) Maoist, once dubbed the Cold War to be a conflict between "Karl Marx and Coca Cola." It seems something similar is happening now, and indeed many people on both sides have been effected by that. And, those of us who really do have two fig trees in both gardens are all the more caught up in this 'Ayatollah vs. Dick Cheney' fill-in-blank mess.
The episode looked at a Muslim couple with young children living in post-Sept. 11th America as well as a New York ad executive who was commisioned to sell America in the Arab World. He had about as much success as I would if I put together a Yousef Chahine (Egypt's best-known film director) festival at the North Theatre in Danville, Va.
The piece about the couple was extremely moving. In 33 minutes, the documentary segment illustrates just why many Muslims living in America are opting to go back home_ even if home is the West Bank (without the help of racist, anti-Islamic Cong. Virgil Goode of Virginia).
The piece tells the story of Serry, an American Muslim, and her Palestinian husband. Serry convinced her husband to come to America, before Sept. 11th. She informed him that 'our children will never encounter prejudice or hatred' here.
Sadly, the children got just that when their teacher told them they would burn in hell because they did not worship Jesus Christ. Other children also began taunting them, and calling them terrorists. As a result, the couple eventually split up when Serry's husband decided to go back to Palestine though they did recently settle a lawsuit with the school system.
I must profess I almost cried when I heard this piece. It was a sad reminder of my childhood when I came to the realization (after living in Poland, Turkey and Salem, Va-my hometown between 1975-79) that children everywhere were basically awful. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why Ifound Todd Solodnz's dark, independent film "Welcome to the Dollhouse" so endearing. I do think there might be good children, like my cousin Mike Dawkins' infant son but they are probably greatly outnumbered.
 And, that is also why I could identify identify with this piece at every level. Kudos to Glass. I hope his tv-show is as much of a success as the radio version of "This American Life" has proven to be. Perhaps, he can convince Condi Rice to listen to the podcast.

Related Links:
http://www.thislife.org