Not Bad, as Propaganda Go
I’ve received my latest copy of Saudi Aramco World, a free bimonthly magazine on the Islamic world, published by Saudi Aramco, the Saudi oil monopoly. It’s always got a bit of a corporate-citizen feel, but it’s always enjoyably far from politics.
Last month, for instance, they published a lengthy profile of a chocolate-maker in Syria; previously a guide to the many forms of Turkish yogurt.
They also sent me a Gregorian/Islamic monthly calendar with images of fabrics from across the Muslim world.
This month gives us a photo essay of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It’s pretty. They promise us a "virtual walking tour," which is "Coming Soon."
And, what is the point?
The point, my anonymous interlocutor, is one of curiosity. In this issue, for instance, you can get a politics-lite visual of the inside of the Dome of the Rock. If there is any place on earth more likely to be at the center of a major world war, I'd like to know about it. I can talk a bit about the geo-political issues surrounding that piece of land, but I've never before seen so much as a photograph of the inside.
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