Summary

The first chapter of Al-Jazeera, “We Are What We Watch,” begins with the reconstruction of a domestic scene in the life of Sherif Helal, a Muslim Canadian of Palestinian descent. Like every morning since the terror attacks on September 11th, 2001, Sherif joins his father in the living room to watch Al-Jazeera, an Arabic satellite TV news network broadcasted from Qatar. They discuss the network’s content, from the Americans’ chase for Osama bin Laden to the second Palestinian Intifada, concluding that Al-Jazeera’s content significantly differs from that of American news networks such as CNN. “You only see something on CNN,” says Sherif, “when Israelis are killed but not when Palestinians are killed” (2).

Next, the authors, Mohammed el-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar, introduce Sherif’s classmate, an Egyptian Copt named Samy Mounir. The authors briefly describe the duo’s school life...