I thought this was incredibly timely given that Kirk had just posted a piece on Jordanian civil society. Natasha Tynes is reporting on an unreported story in the mainstream press that I’m finding particularly interesting. You may all remember a few thousand Iraqis protesting against the insurgents when a car bomber blew up a couple hundred Iraqis. Natasha brings to our attention an article written inside a Jordanian paper that bends, distorts, and outright lies about the entire event. If also portrays the bomber as a martyr.

Well, she wasn’t going to have any of that. First, she translated the article into English, and is now following the interesting developments that are occurring because of the article’s inflammatory language. People are now protesting against Jordan to the point where King Abdallah himself has visited the paper and urged them to “denounce violence.”

And now, the story has exploded.

Thousands of Iraqi Shi’ ites protested Monday after hearing reports that relatives of a Jordanian suicide bomber suspected of killing 125 people in the town of Hilla celebrated him as a martyr. After breaking into the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and tearing down the flag, protesters called on all foreign Arabs to leave the country and denounced Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Natasha adds:

This all developed because of one tiny inflammatory article published in a new daily that is trying desperately to be ???????controversial.” Amazing no? This likely would not have happened several years ago when the Arabic media published inciting articles regularly but got away with it. Things are no longer the same due to modern technology. If this didn????????t teach al-Ghad a lesson, I don????????t know what will. It really is a scandal and a major embarrassment to each and every Jordanian. We say in Arabic “Fada7oona alla yefda7hom,” or “they scandalized us, May God scandalize them. And this is excatly what the suicide bomber, his family and al-Ghad did to us! They tarnished our reputation. And here is one personal experience: today, an Iraqi Shia acquaintance approached me saying: “What, you guys are celebrating? Natasha, I’m going to kill you!” He was joking, fortunately.

No kidding. Make sure to check out all of her posts as she treks through this one.

UPDATE: The paper has issued an apology and the family has denied all involvement in what happened.

AND: A.M. Mora y Leon has let me know that the story is being picked up in the press today. Front page, even!