All The Baffling Ways America Misunderstands The Middle East
Here's a mental experiment: think about "The Middle East". What just popped into your head? It's probably one or two kinds of places, tops. It might be a dangerous war zone, or a community that's somehow hundreds of years behind modern life. And it definitely didn't include skiers, on an indoor hill, in one of the world's largest malls.
No judgments here, friend: we all have misconceptions about the world. And some of your Middle Eastern mental picture may be accurate. But what if we told you there's an entire world of big box stores, Lionel Richie fandom, and intricate cultural diversity out there just waiting for you to discover it?
On this week's episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt joins Anna Hossnieh & Shereen Younes for a revealing trip through the modern Middle East. They'll dig into how how two rival Muslim-majority nations manipulate the entire region, why there's all kinds of Middle Eastern modernity the American media misses, how a World Cup bid caused an international blockade, and so much more.
Footnotes:
Ethnically Ambiguous on Twitter
Ethnically Ambiguous on Instagram
What the latest strike on Syria succeeded at, and what it didn't (Ars Technica)
What's the difference between a hijab, niqab and burka? (BBC)
VIDEO: "Ski Dubai" at the Mall of the Emirates
Young Saudis, Bound by Conservative Strictures, Find Freedom on Their Phones (New York Times)
Rise of Saudi Prince Shatters Decades of Royal Tradition (New York Times)
Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. 'Handed the Country Over' (New York Times)
Syrian refugees: more than 5m in neighbouring countries now, says UN (The Guardian)
Lebanon: About to Blow? (The New York Review Of Books)
How far does Saudi Arabia's influence go? Look at Nigeria. (The Washington Post)
Saudi Arabia and Iran fight for Africa's loyalty (BBC)
MBC stops all Turkish TV drama (Al Jazeera)
Democracy's faint pulse in the Middle East (Financial Times)
Why is Saudi Arabia thinking of moving its weekend? (The Economist)
The 4 Most Unexpected Fan Bases in Pop Culture (Cracked)
6 Deadly Realities Of Being Muslim And Gay Around The World (Cracked)
7 Things I Learned Reading Every Issue Of ISIS's Magazine (Cracked)
MAPPED: 38 U.S. AMBASSADORSHIPS REMAIN EMPTY (Foreign Policy)
