A Harvard study of Arabic language blogs confirms that Arabs are more concerned about Palestine than terrorism, which is not surprising.
"The one political issue that clearly concerns bloggers across the Arab world is Palestine, and in particular the situation in Gaza (Israel’s December 2008/January 2009 military action occurred during the study). Other popular topics include religion (more in personal than political terms) and human rights (more common than criticism of western culture and values). Terrorism and the US are not major topics. When discussing terrorism, Arab bloggers are overwhelmingly critical of terrorists. When the US is discussed, it is nearly always critically."
Arab American bloggers also pay much more attention to Palestine than to the terrorism that has killed many more people in Iraq. If you've read Angry Arab or KABOBfest, you know what I'm talking about.
Many of my own posts have been about Palestine, but the continued terrorism that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis angers me much more, maybe because I am Iraqi and they are not. According to the study, "Most bloggers write mainly personal, diary-style observations. But when writing about politics, bloggers tend to focus on issues within their own country, and are more often than not critical of domestic political leaders."
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