Tag Archives: Trump

Arab Media, censorship, Donald Trump, Free Speech, Media

Trump and Media Freedom: Is He Going Arab and Muslim?………

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“We get reaction from media scholar Robert McChesney to news that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is reportedly considering suing The New York Times after it ran a major report on his past treatment of women, and has vowed to make it easier to sue news organizations. Lawsuits are not the solution, McChesney says. “Instead, it is to broaden it, enrich it, create new voices and fund new voices so we actually have the diverse marketplace of ideas.………”

Democracy Now! headlines this as: Trump Vows to Sue New York Times in Latest Show of Disregard for Freedom of Press.

What is the fuss? This happens all the time in the Middle East, and not just in the Arab states or in the Gulf states. Governments, prosecutors, even foreign embassies now sue any journalist, politician, or just plain citizen for insulting some king, prince, or dictator.
Often on the Gulf, foreign Arab embassies pressure host governments to sue and prosecute their local critics. They mostly like to sue and arrest anyone who posts on social media, since they can’t completely own and control this type of media.

Just recently, Turkey‘s dour Islamist strongman Erdogan even managed to intimidate Germany to prosecute a German cartoonist who mocked him. In Germany! Instead of Turkey adapting to European standards of freedom of expression, the Germans were forced to adopt the Turkish standards.

Donald Trump is just being Arab-ized and Islam-ized.

Cheers
M Haider Ghuloum

Donald Trump, Elections, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics, USA

A Fatwa and Prediction on the U.S. Elections…….

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KuwaitCox2 Me1 (2)

The way things stand now, I know what will happen next November, the day after the next General Election. Whatever the outcome.
Many people in the United States and most people all around the world will wake up the next morning, November 9, sigh, and say:


“Thank God. It could have been even worse…….”

Maybe they will be right. Speaking of the presidential election only. As for the congressional and governorship part, it still looks hopeless. People, voters, often tend to double down on heir past mistakes. That is why so many senators and congressmen and others of both parties stay in office so long.
Even governors. For example: take the last Wisconsin and Florida governorship races, among others. Floridians are forgiven, they are notorious for screwing up elections anyway.

Cheers
M H Ghuloum

Humor, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

U.S. Elections: a Berliner, ein Wiener, un Escargot de Jardin, an English Muffin, and a Tart……

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KuwaitCox2        Me1 (2)

Decades ago President Kennedy (JFK) went to a defeated and divided Berlin and famously announced:
Ich bin ein Berliner.

Imagine a President Trump going to Vienna in 2017 and announcing:
Ich bin ein Wiener.

Imagine a President Ted Cruz going to Paris and announcing:
Je suis un escargot (de jardin).

Imagine a President Hillary Clinton going to London and announcing:
I am an English Muffin.

Or even:
Imagine a President Sarah Palin in, say, Birmingham, announcing that:
Yes, I am a raspberry Tart……….

Imagine if you can….
Yes, I almost can……….

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Arab Politics, Humor, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia

Humor in Politics: Donald Trump of the Middle East?………

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KuwaitCox2

“Saudi Arabia’s moves against Lebanon seem amateurish. Even if the Lebanese parties wanted to, they could do little to diminish the role of Hizbullah, which acts as a state within the state and also dominates the government. “Saudi Arabia sometimes acts with bombast and violence that makes it look like the Donald Trump of the Arab world,” says Rami Khouri of the American University of Beirut. The result is likely to be that the Saudis lose influence in Lebanon, possibly to Iran………”

The Economist is often wrong about the Middle East, especially if it holds a view different from mine. This time it is quite wrong. Saudi Arabia is not quite a Trump of the Arab world: it is causing much more harm. Trump is not an extremist Wahhabi. Trump is not involved in bombing towns and cities in poor Yemen. Trump is not engaged in unleashing Jihadis terrorists in Iraq, Syria, and other places. Besides, Trump is a humorous person, highly entertaining, unlike Saudi Arabia and its potentates. No sir, it is a rather humorless place, and not only because of their current unsmiling foreign minister, the grim Mr. Al-Jubeir.

Besides, Saudi Arabia is not as much fun to watch as Trump is on the campaign trail. No Arab regime is. No Middle East regime is. In fact most Middle East comedians, not just princes and potentates and leaders, are not as much fun to watch and listen to. Even ex-president Hadi of Yemen issuing meaningless daily executive orders from a Riyadh hotel is not as funny.

Unfortunately, and in fairness, humor is fading away in most of the Middle East (and North Africa), from Iran through Turkey (especially Turkey) and into Egypt all the way to Morocco.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Islamophobia, MENA, Racism, U.S. Politics, Uncategorized

Fatwa on Donald Trump and the Republican Dilemma of Arab Princes………

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It is no secret that most Arab princes and potentates would prefer a Republican administration in Washington. That is based on long-standing oil and other mutual business relations as well as on the warlike statements of Republican politicians toward Iran, Lebanon, and others. Most of them believe a Republican would have attacked Iran years ago, something the Saudis openly urged as the Wikileaks cables exposed, although George W Bush declined to do so. On several Middle East issues, they take the same stand as the Israeli Likud rather than the Obama administration.

Yet Mr. Trump presents them with a dilemma in the aftermath of the recent Wahhabi terrorist attack in San Bernardino. Actually even before that attack. You see, they don’t realize that he is unlikely to win the GOP nomination, and if he did he will not win the presidency. Americans have never elected to the presidency a gambling boss with a big mouth who is openly bigoted. Not in the past hundred fifty years anyway. And they are not about to do so now. So the princes worry about his Muslim-baiting and Nazi-like proposals on how to treat Muslims in the United States.

The potentates have not heard of my tweeted Fatwa that by March or April Mr. Trump will be back in the trash-bin of history or on reality TV (both, since he needs the money).  They actually believe he has a chance of winning, and therefore they can’t afford to antagonize him. Hence their official silence from Riyadh to Doha and Abu Dhabi toward his outrageous, politically-motivated, public uttering against their faith.

Of course no U.S. president would do what Trump is proposing, nor would he in the prohibitively unlikely event that he is elected. But going public with such proposals eggs on many people into more violent Islamophobia, especially many Republican voters of the historic know-nothing inclination. In other words the Trump bullhorn makes those so inclined ever more hateful.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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