The Opposite Direction () is a qatari political

debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for opposing viewpoints. Historica ...

TV show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platfo ...

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

hosted by TV presenter

Faisal al-Qassem Faisal Al-Qasim (; born June 3, 1961), also written as Faisal Al-Kasim is a British-Syrian television personality based in Qatar, who is known for hosting the controversial live debate show '' The Opposite Direction'' () on Al Jazeera, where two ...

. It streams weekly and addresses current events in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and the

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

. The first episode was released in 1996, and today the show is still active. The TV show is hosted by

's TV presenter Faisal al-Qassem. Two guests representing opinions of each side of a given topic being debated are invited to participate in the show. The show has been called Al Jazeera's "most polemical" program. In 2001, Al-Qassem was quoted as saying the following about the show's intensions:

"Dialogue is something missing among the Arabs. It is missing in schools, as much as it is missing everywhere else in life of the Arabs. . . . Through programmes such as mine, we hope to implement new rules, those that educate the Arab human being to listen, not only to his own opinion, but to that of the other side as well. The debate-based media must enter in force and strongly in the political life of the Arabs, whether the Arab regimes like it or not."

List of episodes

1996

* The 17th Summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: القمة السابعة عشر لمجلس التعاون الخليجي).

1997

1998

1999

* 09/11/1999 - The secret relationship between Mauritania and Israel (

: العلاقة السرية بين موريتانيا وإسرائيل).

2000

2022

* 2022/1/18 - Arab regimes and people's revolutions.. who won? (

: الأنظمة العربية وثورات الشعوب.. من انتصر؟)

References

×Official Website
(ar) Al Jazeera Debate television series Al Jazeera shows Political debates Arabic-language television shows Live television shows 1990s in Qatari television 1996 in Qatari television {{nonfiction-tv-prog-stub