Seyed Mohammad Marandi on Schatz and Shorbagy

This essay draws on Chomsky, and notes that for many people the term “anti-Americanism” works like a tool preventing criticism of the U.S. It argues that the term frames the narrative and helps depict sharp criticism of the U.S. as irrational and excessive. Hence, this essay appreciates Shorbagy’s statement that anti-Americanism has played a huge role in fusing the forces that became “Kefaya,” and that this Egyptian movement represents an alternative form of resistance to American empire, and yet he argues that these statements could be interpreted quite differently by different people. Marandi argues that Schatz, on the other hand, seems to believe that anti-Americanism is indeed irrational and that those who are anti-American actually blame the U.S. for problems that have little to do with America. Marandi argues that there is a big difference between the two essays, that Schatz stresses image construction while Shorbagy insists that it is U.S. policies toward the region that constitute the fundamental problem. Marandi also sees Shorbagy’s essay as stating that anti-Americanism is widespread in the region and, thereby, contradicting Schatz.